Sitting

[Sanochka]

In a letter to her father at Stavka during the war, one of the Grand Duchesses writes about the girls having gone to the Grand Palace that day for "a sitting."  She also mentions, in the same breath, how dull it was.  I assume that "a sitting" has something to do with being photographed, but I'm not at all sure.  Does anybody know what the Grand Duchess meant by "sitting?"

[wakas]

I think she was talking about her Committee meeting, and not about being photographed.

[Inok Nikolai]

Yes, one of the official sessions of one of their committees.

She is just copying her mother, the Empress' usage. It's Her Majesty's own literal English translation of the Russian word "zasedanie". And it means "session", which, etymologically, is the same thing, a "sitting" of a parliament, committee, etc.

[Sanochka]

Thank you, wakas and Inok Nikolai!  Your helpful explanations clear up a long-standing mystery, and cast an entirely new light on the Grand Duchess's letter.