Klassnaia Dama

in prerevolutionary Russia, a female supervisor appointed to assist the head of a girl’s Gymnasium (academic secondary school) or Progymnasium (general secondary school).

The post of klassnaia dama was introduced by the Statute of 1870 to correspond to the post of klassnyi nastavnik (class preceptor). A klassnaia dama accreditated as a home tutor or home instructor was licensed to teach one subject in a girls’ Progymnasium or the three lower classes of a girls’ Gymnasium.