Russian nobility spoke French better than Russian

Not entirely true... but not false either.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, speaking French was mandatory to belong to Russian high society. Novels, balls, education — everything was done "à la française".

We know the anecdote: some aristocratic families spoke so little Russian that their children learned it from the servants.

Did they speak "better" than the French? Probably not. But they spoke a literary, controlled, almost academic French. A French sometimes purer than that of Parisians.

Imagine a TikTok where a Russian corrects a French person's grammar: that cliché comes from there.