Glafira Alymova

[1] Glafira Alymova was the daughter of Colonel Ivan Akinfievich Alymov, who died very shortly before her birth, as she discussed in her autobiography.

[2] She lived a difficult childhood without much parental affection or care; she was the nineteenth child born to her mother, who did not bond with the young Glafira.

While she was a student there, one of the trustees of the school, the powerful Ivan Betskoi (a man 55 years older than Glafira), became infatuated with her, and in her autobiography she describes his pursuit and continual harassment of her.

Though Betskoi greeted the proposal with rage, he grudgingly permitted it, if only to frustrate other suitors who had begun to pursue Glafira.

This second marriage, to a man twenty years younger than her and of lower social status, was regarded a scandal.