Drochki
Also known as: Drochki
Overview
A drochki (also droshky, дрожки) is a light, low, open Russian carriage on four wheels, originally little more than a bench mounted on a plank between two axles. Marie spells it "drochki" in the French manner. The vehicle is distinctively Russian and appears in the diary only during Marie's visits to Russia.
Description
Marie describes two variants:
- Drochki de course — a racing drochki: "une planche placée sur quatre roues" (a plank placed on four wheels), with a small coachman and a rustic lantern
- Drochki à capote — a drochki with a folding top, "attelé d'une troïka insensée" (hitched to a wild troika of three horses)
Social Significance
The drochki marks a shift in the diary's transportation vocabulary from the French/Western European world (calèche, landau, fiacre) to the Russian countryside. Marie describes the departure from the family estate as a procession: "un carrosse à quatre chevaux, une calèche, et un drochki à capote" — a full display of the family's Russian equipage.
References in Diary
- 1876-08-04, St Petersburg (064.0414): her first sight of the city is of drochkis, «une voiture à une place, à huit ressorts ... et à un cheval»
- 1876-08-09, St Petersburg (064.0477): one of the four Guards officers drives past «en drochki attelé d'un ravissant cheval noir»
- 1876-08-20 (065.0029): on the road to Gavronzi, Michel Hamsley rides ahead «sur un drochki de course» with a lantern
- 1876-08-20 (065.0070, 065.0073): the family procession with «un drochki à capote, attelé d'une troïka»; Marie rides half the way in it
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