Chapter 5 - Governess
“I learned to know the human race a little better by being there. I learned that the characters described in novels really do exist, and that one must not enter into contact with people who have been demoralized by wealth”
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Venturing out into the world, Manya came to recognize the immense value of her education, and was surprised to see how lightly some women regarded it. While she cherished her life in Warsaw, being near her father, the Floating University, and her friends, her sister Bronya was enduring poverty in Paris' Latin Quarter while studying at the Sorbonne's medical school. Her situation wouldn’t change soon because their father was retiring meaning less money coming in. Manya found herself not saving as much as she had anticipated. Faced with these harsh realities, she made the difficult decision to leave the bustling city of Warsaw and relocate to the countryside.
Her journey would involve a three-hour train ride followed by a four-hour sleigh ride across the frozen roads of northern Poland, leading her to the estate of M. and Mme. Żorawski.
“In this part of the country nobody works; people think only of amusing themselves...I was not sorry, for M. and Mme Z. came back from that ball at one o’clock the next afternoon. I was glad to have escaped such a test of endurance, especially as I am not feeling at all strong just now. ”
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Manya’s position as governess requires at least seven hours each day with her two students, the young Andzia at 10 and Bronka at 18 is not that much younger than Manya herself, but years behind her in education.
The family had three other sons all in school in Warsaw, one at the university, two in boarding school. There were two more youngsters in the house, Stas a three year old and Maryshnia a little girl of just six months.
Monsieur Z, the head of the household, was an agriculturist familiar with all the latest farming techniques applied to the 200 ac beet root farm which he owned along with a great many shares of the local sugar factory. At least the factory brought interesting people from Warsaw, engineers and directors. She can borrow books from the factory library.
Madame Z, once a governess herself, was not a bad woman, but she had a temper. She could be rather difficult to live with if you didn’t know how to take her.
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“There was not a field or a coppice for miles around: nothing but sugar beet and again sugar beet, filling the great monotonous plain. In the autum these pale earthy beet roots, piled up in bullock carts, slowly converged on the factory to be made into sugar. The peasants sowed, hoed and reaped for the factory. The huts of the little village of Krasiniec were crowded near these dreary red brick buildings. And the river itself was the slave of the factory, entering limpid and departing soiled, its usrface charged with a dark sticky scum”
Marie Curie’s description of her new home as governess in the beginning of 1886.
The rise of sugar beet farming in Europe, including regions like Poland, was largely influenced by the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century. When the British blockaded sugar imports to France, Napoleon pushed for the cultivation of sugar beets, a crop suitable for temperate climates.
By mid-19th century, advances in technology improved the extraction of sugar from beets, making them a feasible substitute for cane sugar. The Industrial Revolution further propelled the sugar beet industry with the advent of more efficient farming equipment and new refining processes, alongside improved transportation infrastructure.
This made sugar beet farming and processing more profitable, leading to widespread adoption throughout Europe. By the time Marie Curie served as a governess for a family overseeing a sugar beet farm in the late 19th century, the industry was well-entrenched in Poland.
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“The only subjects of discussion are the neighbors, dances and parties. So far as dancing is concerned, you could look far before you would find better dancer than the young girls of this region…They are not bad creatures, but their education had done nothing to develop their minds, and the stupid, incessant parties here have ended by frittering their wits away. As for the young men, there are a few nice ones whoare even a bit intelligent…”
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The majority of the children in the village were essentially uneducated, their knowledge extending only to the Russian alphabet, if that.
Manya, recognizing this lack of education, presented a proposal to Mme. Z. She suggested establishing a small school to teach the children the Polish language and history. Mme. Z expressed support for the idea but advised caution, fully aware that such endeavors, if misinterpreted, could lead to exile in Siberia.
By the year's end, Manya was tutoring up to eighteen students daily for two hours. She dug into her savings to provide books and pens for these students, who gathered in a makeshift classroom on the first floor. Often, their parents—servants, farmers, and factory workers—would observe the lessons, absorbing the education as well.
It was her own branch of the Floating University.
A defining characteristic of Marie Curie was her fervor for disseminating knowledge. She held the conviction that being educated came with the responsibility to share that knowledge with others. To her, the notion of hoarding knowledge or information was not just absurd, but also offensive.
