Ems Decree

On August 27, 1875, the head of the III Division, adjutant general A. L. Potapov signed and sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, MNP and the Synod the following letter: “Sovereign, Emperor, in view of the manifestations of Ukrainian-philological activity, and especially the translation and printing of textbooks and prayer books in the Little Russian language, He deigned to establish, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Internal Affairs, a Conference of the Minister of Public Education, the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, the Chief of the Third Division of his Imperial Highness the Chancellery, and Chairman of the Kiev Archaeological Commission of Privy Advisor Yuzefovich for a comprehensive discussion of this issue ” ^[1] .

Two expert notes were prepared for the meeting - from the Main Directorate for Press and from Yuzefovich himself, who initiated the above letter of Potapov. Privy Advisor Yuzefovich emphasized the Ukrainian-philological activity of Drahomanov and Chubinsky . According to A. I. Miller , the meeting was particularly impressed by the fact of the translation of “Taras Bulba” into the Ukrainian language indicated in the note, where the words “Russian land, Russian are eliminated and replaced by the words Ukraine, Ukrainian land, Ukrainian, and in the end it was even prophetically proclaimed his future Ukrainian Tsar ” ^[1] . This translation was confiscated from a certain Lobodovsky, the clerk of the Raikov volost, who distributed this and other books to the peasants for free. It was also noteworthy that Lobodovsky recommended the position of the head of the local congress of justices of the peace P. A. Kosach, married to Drahomanov’s sister ^[1] .

The following were forbidden by the Emsky decree:

• to import into the territory of the Russian Empire from abroad books written in Ukrainian without special permission;
• publish original works and translations from foreign languages. An exception was made for “historical documents and monuments” and “works of exquisite literature”, with a number of reservations (for example, Ukrainian spelling Kulishovka was forbidden and only “all-Russian spelling” was allowed ) - subject to prior censorship ;
• stage Ukrainian theater performances (the ban was lifted in 1881), print notes with Ukrainian texts;
• arrange concerts with Ukrainian songs;
• Teach in Ukrainian in elementary schools (“primary schools”).

The local administration was ordered to strengthen supervision to ensure that elementary schools were not taught in the Ukrainian language, and to remove books in the Ukrainian language from school libraries. On the basis of the Emsky decree, the South-West Department of the Russian Geographical Society in Kiev was closed, the publication of the Kiev Telegraph newspaper was stopped, a number of Ukrainian professors from Kiev University were dismissed ( M.P. Drahomanov , F. Vovk, M. Ziber, S. Podolinsky and etc.).

In addition, the decree prescribed that the trustees of the Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa educational districts require a personal list of teachers with a note on everyone's reliability in relation to “ Ukrainian-Philosophical tendencies,” while those noted as unreliable or doubtful were required to be transferred to work in Great Russian provinces. It was also prescribed to use mainly Great Russians as teachers in the educational institutions of these districts.

At the Paris Literary Congress in 1878, M.P. Drahomanov defended the Ukrainian language and culture, sharply condemning the Ems Decree. According to Ukrainian scholars I. Pidkova and R. Shust, who published the Handbook on the History of Ukraine in 1995 , becoming one of the manifestations of the “colonial” policy in relation to Ukraine, the Ems Decree hindered the development of Ukrainian culture and the national liberation movement, although completely he could not stop ^[2] .

With the addition of 1881, the possibilities for publishing fiction were expanded - while, however, the ban on educational and scientific literature remained. During the period of the Ems Decree, many works of Taras Shevchenko , Ivan Nechuy-Levitsky , Panas Mirny , Lesya Ukrainka and other Ukrainian writers were printed.

On February 18, 1905, the general meeting of the Academy of Sciences approved a note of the commission composed of academicians A. Shakhmatov, F. Korsh, A. Famintsin. Fortunatov, A. Lappo-Danilevsky and S. Oldenburg “On the abolition of the constraints of the Little Russian printed word”, which served as the lifting of bans on publishing books in the Ukrainian language ^[3] .

The Ems decree, not being officially canceled, actually lost force after the publication of the Manifesto on October 17, 1905 .

The author of the term “ linguocide ” Yaroslav-Bogdan Rudnitsky considered the Ems decree along with the Valuev circular and other restrictive measures of the authorities of the Russian Empire in relation to different languages ​​“linguocidal acts of Tsarist Russia” ^[4] .

According to historian Georgy Vernadsky , “Under the influence of the reckless orders of the Russian government, which constrained the development of the Ukrainian language and culture within Russia, the center of the Ukrainian movement after 1876 moved to Western Ukraine, which was then part of Austria-Hungary ... If there hadn’t been an Ems decree of 1876 years, then there would be no need for Ukrainians to create an Austrian “irrident” and the focus of the Ukrainian cultural movement would be Kiev, not Lviv ” ^[5] .

• Drahomanov, Mykhailo. La littérature oukrainienne, proscrite par le gouvernement russe: rapport présenté au Congrès littéraire de Paris . - Geneva, 1878. (fr.) (Ukrainian)
• Miller A. I. “The Ukrainian Question” in the politics of the authorities and Russian public opinion (second half of the 19th century) . - SPb. : Aletheia, 2000 .-- 260 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-89329-246-4 . Archived February 14, 2010 on Wayback Machine