>>18106246
What was thier opinion of the French language?

>>18106268
That it was a bad language for Anglican liturgy.

>>18106268
It was a tongue of the upper class, Russian and its related languages were seen as barbaric.

>>18106246
Yes. Not immediately, it was a gradual process, but the napoleonic wars kneecapped the popularity of french as a language, and it declined and declined.
Not that people stopped learning it and speaking it entirely. After the wars, a lot of french soldiers remained in Russia. A lot of noble families thusly had a dedicated frenchie in employ, one of whose jobs was to teach the language.
Imagine being a spoiled 8 year old noble, and learning french from private Pierre Kilruskies.

Also, while the popularity of the french as a language declined, french ideals of liberalism skyrocketed in popularity. Thus the decembrist revolt.