Yes, exactly. And there is yet another remarkable line in one of his novel: emphasizing the character’s especially pleasant manner to speak, Gogol compared listening to it with the sensation of having a fingertip drawing slowly along one’s foot – quite an unusual metaphor. So back in the past they knew a good deal of sensual pleasures.
But the squad of full-time female feet-ticklers recruited at the royal palace... there is quite a serious doubt. The empress Anna Ivanovna had, for instance, a strange habit of shooting birds out of the palace’s windows like a real marksman, and, as historians said, she almost emptied the treasury by employing a huge number of jesters, - but not ticklers. It seems more like rumors, to depict the dissolute ways of unlimited power – and in the 18-th century, the Russian court was staffed greatly by foreign noblemen from all over the Europe and was supposed to keep mostly to their traditions.
More recently, Bernard Shaw mention some F/M tickling in his play ‘Great Catherine’, when the German born tsarina deliberately poked ribs of a British officer in her Russian palace. The scene just shows the bossy woman’s dominance over obstinate but ticklish man, and not particular any sexual lust – but it’s merely a historical fiction.
It should perhaps be seen as a variant of certain oriental traditions, where the soles of the lord's feet are the subject of several rituals.
For example in this book : Voyages autour du monde et naufragés célèbres / by the capitaine G. Lafond, vol. 6, tome Ier, 1844 : "Naufrage de l'arabe et aventures d'un Parisien", p. 399
https://books.google.fr/books?id=ZI...isien"&hl=fr&pg=RA1-PA399#v=onepage&q&f=false
About arabic traditions : « Pour rendre leur sommeil plus prompt et plus agréable, les riches se font faire, par leurs esclaves et ou par leurs femmes, des frottements sur les jambes et sur les pieds, qui exercent sur eux une action presque magnétique. (…) Pour l’heure du réveil arrivée, l’esclave s’approche de son maître avec précaution et lui caresse la plante des pieds avec la main, jusqu’à ce que ce chatouillement l’ait amené insensiblement du repos à la veille. »
"To make their sleep more rapid and more pleasant, the rich ask their slaves and or/and wives, to rub on the legs and feet, which cause to them an almost magnetic action. (…) When it's time to get up, the slave approaches his master carefully and strokes the soles of his feet with his hand, until this tickling has brought him imperceptibly from rest to waking . "
Other sample : Description de l'Egypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches... : tome 18, Etat moderne, essai sur les moeurs / by CLF Panckoucke, 1826, p. 33
https://books.google.fr/books?id=mV..., dans des"&hl=fr&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false
"Les sensations de ce peuple sont accommodées à ses autres habitudes ; elles consistent, en outre des bains, dans des jouissances bizarres ; il faut que des serviteurs leurs frottent souvent les pieds, soit avec la main, soit avec une scorie de brique lisse (…) On ne chatouille de la main la plante des pieds que dans la société intime de quelques parens ou amis ; les bienséances ne permettent pas cet acte étrange de volupté en public."
"The feelings of these people are adapted to their other habits; it consists, moreover of baths, in bizarre pleasures; servants must often rub their feet, either with the hand, or with a smooth brick slag ( ...) They only tickle the soles of the feet in the intimate society of a few relatives or friends; propriety does not allow this strange act of pleasure in public. "
And in the second tome second of the same volume : p. 422 :
Essai sur les mœurs des habitans modernes de l’Egypte / par M. de Chabrol
https://books.google.fr/books?id=iv... du globe"&hl=fr&pg=PA422#v=onepage&q&f=false
« On use d’un singulier procédé pour éveiller un homme endormi : (…) une esclave s’approche à petit bruit et lui caresse la plante des pieds avec la main, jusqu’à ce que le chatouillement l’ait arraché doucement au sommeil. »
“They use a singular procedure to awaken a sleeping man: (…) a slave comes quietly and strokes the soles of his feet with his hand, until the tickling has gently snatched him from sleep . "
And I’ve already read many other examples like this.