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{{Short description|1876 decree by Alexander II of Russia}}
{{refimprove|date=April 2019}}
{{Infobox document
|document_name = Ems Ukaz
|image =
|image_size =
|image_alt =
|caption =
|date_created = 1876
|date_ratified =
|date_effective =
|date_repeal=
|location_of_document =
|writer = [[Emperor of Russia]] [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]
|signers =
|purpose = to prohibit the use of [[Ukrainian language]]
}}
[[Image:Ems Ukaz plaque in Bad Ems.JPG|thumb|right|157px|Plaque dedicated to Ems Ukaz in [[Bad Ems]].]]
The '''Ems Ukaz''' or '''Ems Ukase''' ({{langx|ru|Эмсский указ|Emsskiy ukaz}}; {{langx|uk|Емський указ|Ems'kyy ukaz}}), was an internal decree (''[[ukaz]]'') of [[Emperor]] [[Alexander II of Russia]] issued on  {{OldStyleDate|30 May|1876|18 May}} banning the use of the [[Ukrainian language]] in print except for reprinting old documents.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ems Ukase |url=https://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CE%5CM%5CEmsUkase.htm |website=encyclopediaofukraine.com |access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref>  The ukaz also forbade the import of Ukrainian publications and the staging of plays or lectures in Ukrainian. It was named after the city of [[Bad Ems]], [[Germany]], where it was promulgated.
== Background ==
In the 1860s, a decade and a half after the Imperial Russian government had broken up the [[Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius|Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius]] in [[Kiev]] (March 1847) and exiled or arrested its founder [[Mykola Kostomarov]] and other prominent figures, Ukrainian intellectuals gained further awareness of their cultural background. ''[[Hromada]]'' cultural associations, named after the traditional village assembly, started in a number of cities, and Sunday schools started in the cities and towns since the Russian Imperial administration had neglected education. The new cultural movement was partly driven by publications in both Russian and Ukrainian, including journals (such as Kostomarov's ''Osnova'', 1861–62, and [[Leonid Hlibov|Hlibov]]'s ''Chernyhosvs'kyy Lystok'', 1861–63), historical and folkloristic monographs (Kostomarov's biography of the Cossack [[hetman]] [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]], [[Panteleimon Kulish|Kulish]]'s two-volume folklore collection ''Zapiski o Yuzhnoy Rusi'', ''Notes on Southern Rus''', 1856–57), and elementary primers (Kulish's ''Hramatka'', 1857, 1861, [[Taras Shevchenko|Shevchenko]]'s ''Bukvar Yuzhnoruskiy'', 1861<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Shevchenko
| first1 = Taras
| author-link1 = Taras Shevchenko
| year = 1861
| script-title=uk:Букварь южнорусский // Шевченківський словник
| language = Ukrainian
| location = Kyiv
| publication-date = 1976
}}
</ref>). In ''[[Osnova]]'', Kostomarov published his influential article "Dve russkiye narodnosti" ("Two Russian Nationalities").
Although Ukrainianism had been considered popular and somewhat chic in Russian cultural circles, a debate began at the time over its relation to the ideology of Russian [[Pan-Slavism]], epitomised by a quotation of [[Pushkin]] ("will not all the Slavic streams merge into the Russian sea?"), and a rhetoric of criticism emerged. Conservative Russians called the Ukrainian movement a "Polish intrigue", and Polish commentators had been complaining that Ukrainianism had been used as a weapon against [[Polish culture]] in [[Right-Bank Ukraine]].
After the 1861 [[emancipation reform of 1861|emancipation of the serfs]] in the [[Russian Empire]], many landowners were unhappy with the loss of their serfs, and peasants were generally displeased with the terms of the emancipation. In the atmosphere of discontent, increasing reports reached the imperial government that Ukrainian leaders were plotting to separate from Russia. The 1863 [[January Uprising]] in Poland raised tensions around the issue of ethnic separatism in general even further. Several Ukrainian activists were arrested, Sunday schools and hromadas were closed, and their publication activities were suspended.
A new Ukrainian translation by [[Pylyp Morachevskyi]] of parts of the [[New Testament]] was vetted and passed by the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Imperial Academy of Sciences]] but rejected by the [[Most Holy Synod|Holy Synod]] of the [[Russian Orthodox]] Church because it was considered politically suspect.<ref name=Zerk_morachev>{{in lang|ru|uk}} Volodymyr Kozyrsky, Vasyl Shenderovsky, "The spiritual valour of Pylyp Morachevsky (to the bicentenary anniversary of his birth)", ''[[Zerkalo Nedeli]] (the Mirror Weekly)'', 5–19 August 2006, [http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/ie/show/609/54147/ in Russian]{{dead link|date=January 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, [http://www.zn.kiev.ua/ie/show/609/54147/ in Ukrainian] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311010339/http://www.zn.kiev.ua/ie/show/609/54147 |date=2007-03-11}}.</ref> In response, Interior Minister Count [[Pyotr Valuyev]] issued a decree through an internal document circulated to the censors on 18 July 1863, known as [[Valuyev's Circular]], which implemented a policy based on the opinion of the Kyiv Censorship Committee, cited in the circular, that "the Ukrainian language never existed, does not exist, and shall never exist". The circular banned the publication of secular and religious books, apart from ''[[belles-lettres]]'', on the premise that the distribution of such publications was a tool to foster separatist tendencies, coming primarily from Poland.
== Ems Ukaz ==
In the 1870s, the Kyiv [[Hromada]] and the South-Western Branch of the Imperial [[Russian Geographic Society]] began to publish important works in Kyiv in the Russian language on Ukrainian ethnography. Authors included [[Mykhailo Drahomanov]], [[Volodymyr Antonovych]], Ivan Yakovych Rudchenko, and [[Pavlo Chubynsky]]. They held an Archaeological Congress in 1874, and published in the Russian-language paper ''Kyiv telegraf''.
A member of the Geographic Society, [[Mikhail Yuzefovich]], sent two letters to [[Saint Petersburg]] warning of separatist activity. [[Tsar Alexander II]] appointed an Imperial Commission on Ukrainophile Propaganda in the Southern Provinces of Russia, which found evidence of a danger to the state and recommended extending the scope of the [[Valuev Circular]] of 1863. While enjoying a spa in [[Bad Ems]], [[Germany]], on May 18, 1876, Alexander signed what would come to be called the Ems Ukaz, which extended the [[publication ban]] to all books and song [[lyrics]] in the "Little Russian dialect" and prohibited the [[import]] of such materials. Also, public lectures, plays, and song performances in Ukrainian were forbidden, as well as teaching of any discipline in Ukrainian. Prohibited was also preservation or circulation of any Ukrainian book in school libraries. Teachers suspected of Ukrainophilism were removed from teaching.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=5-6}}
The ukaz coincided with other actions against the [[Ukrainian culture]]. Drahomanov and the fellow activist [[Mykola Ziber]] were removed from their posts at Kyiv's [[National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv|University of St Vladimir]] and emigrated, along with other cultural leaders such as [[Fedir Vovk]] and [[Serhiy Podolynsky]]. The situation was exposed by professor Mykhailo Drahomanov at the 1878 Paris International Literary Congress.
=== ''Yaryzhka'' ===
{{See also|Yaryzhka}}
In 1881, the new [[Emperor Alexander III]] amended the ukaz. Ukrainian lyrics and dictionaries were now allowed, but the ''Kulishivka'' [[Ukrainian alphabet]] was still prohibited, and such publications had to write Ukrainian with [[Russian orthography]].{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=6}} That usage was disparagingly called the ''Yaryzhka'' ({{langx|uk|[[:uk:Ярижка|Ярижка]]}}, {{IPA|uk|jɐˈrɪʒkɐ|IPA}}) by some Ukrainians in reference to the Russian letter ''[[yery]]'' {{angle bracket|{{lang|ru|ы}}}}. Performance of Ukrainian plays and humorous songs could be approved by governors or governors-general, but Ukrainian-only [[theatres]] and troupes could not be established.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=6}} Earlier, in 1879, Russian Interior Minister [[Mikhail Loris-Melikov]] allowed the organization of theatrical performances and concerts in the Ukrainian language, but only on rural themes and outside Kiev.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=6}}
Many illegal performances and publications were delivered by ingenuity and [[bribery]], but Ukrainian cultural development practically ceased.
== Effectiveness of the ban ==
The Ems Ukaz significantly limited the development of Ukrainian culture in Russia. The [[Hromada (secret society)|Hromada]] association, which had about 100 members before the ukaz, had only 14 after it, and in 1900 it was still only 25.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=8}} The Ukrainian language was excluded from education at every level. No press, scientific papers or modern, ambitious literature were published in the Ukrainian language.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=8}} The Ukrainian language was slowly becoming the language of the lower, uneducated masses.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=8}}
Nonetheless according to Ukrainian historian George Shevelov a plan to silence and annihilate Ukrainian literature failed completely.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=7}} Books in Ukrainian were still published in the [[Russian Empire]], albeit in the Russian alphabet and often after many years of effort. The ''[[Kievskaia starina|Kievskaia Starina]]'' editors owned a bookstore with Ukrainian books in Kyiv.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=7}} In 1898, the Moscow-based {{Ill|Charitable Society for the Publication of Inexpensive Books for General Use|uk|Благодійне товариство видання загальнокорисних і дешевих книг}} began printing Ukrainian books for the Ukrainian peasantry.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=7}} In 1903, [[Southwestern Krai|Kiev Governor-General]] [[Mikhail Dragomirov]] allowed ''Kievskaia Starina'' to publish fiction in Ukrainian.{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=7-8}}
The ban on the import of Ukrainian newspapers and books into Russia has been similarly ineffective. Ukrainian newspapers published in Galicia had numerous subscribers in Russian Ukraine ({{Ill|Zorja (magazine)|lt=Zorja|uk|Зоря (часопис)}}, for example, had 400 subscribers in 1890-1896).{{Sfn|Shevelov|1989|p=8}}
== Aftermath ==
After the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]], the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Imperial Academy of Sciences]] recommended the lifting of the ukaz's restrictions. Ukrainian-language [[newspapers]] began publication; ''[[Prosvita]]'' (‘Enlightenment’) educational societies were formed; some university professors lectured in Ukrainian; and the Orthodox bishop of the [[Podolia]] vicariate, Parfeniy Levytsky, allowed the language to be used in services and church schools there.<ref>''Дзюба І. М.'' [http://www.history.org.ua/?termin=Rusyfikatsiia Русифікація в українському контексті] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409232151/http://www.history.org.ua/?termin=Rusyfikatsiia|date=9 квітня 2016}} // {{ill|Енциклопедія історії України|uk}}&nbsp;: у&nbsp;10&nbsp;т.&nbsp;/ редкол.: {{ill|Смолій Валерій Андрійович|uk|lt=В.&nbsp;А.&nbsp;Смолій}} (голова) та ін.&nbsp;; {{ill|Інститут історії України НАН України|uk}}.&nbsp;— Київ.&nbsp;: {{ill|Наукова думка|uk}}, 2003—2019.&nbsp;— {{ISBN|966-00-0632-2}}.</ref>
In 1910, concerned about potential revolutionary activity, Interior Minister [[Pyotr Stolypin]] restored the ukaz's restrictions and shut down the Prosvita societies and Ukrainian-language publications. The Russian-language press and intellectuals launched a campaign against the idea of Ukrainian autonomy or separatism.
Thus, self-aware Ukrainians remained a small intelligentsia in [[Dnieper Ukraine]] that was out of touch with a much larger rural population, which lacked the opportunity for a cultural education. The Russian imperial ideology dominated the schools and the army, and the [[Russian language]] was the only one used for official business in the urban workplace, government offices, and public services. In the meantime, Ukrainian self-identity would grow in Austro-Hungarian [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], which was out of reach of Russian imperial authorities.
The ukaz was never cancelled but became void, along with all other Imperial Russian laws, in the [[February Revolution]] of 1917–18. [[Ukraine after the Russian Revolution|After the Revolution]], Ukrainian language, education and culture was allowed to flower in the [[Ukrainian National Republic]] and the [[Ukrainian State|Hetmanate]], and briefly, under the [[Ukrainization#1923–1931: early years of Soviet Ukraine|Ukrainization]] policies of [[Soviet Ukraine]] before 1931.
== Excerpt ==
{{quote|The importation into the Russian Empire, without special permission of the Central Censorship over Printing, of all books and pamphlets in the [[Little Russia|Little Russian]] dialect, published abroad, is forbidden,
The printing and publishing in the Empire of original works and translations in this dialect is forbidden with the exception of (a) historical documents and monuments; (b) works of [[belles-lettres]] but with the provision that in the documents the orthography of the originals be retained; in works of belles-lettres no deviations from the accepted [[Russian orthography]] are permitted and permission for their printing may be given only by the Central Censorship over Printing.
All theatrical performances and lectures in the Little Russian dialect, as well as printing of text to musical notes, are forbidden.|<ref>''Radians’kyi knyhar'' 1930, quoted in Luckyj 1990, pp 24–25. A full version, with five points addressed "for the Ministry of the Interior", five "for the Ministry of Education", and one "for the Third Section [secret police] of His Majesty's Supreme Chancellory" is published in Magocsi 1996, pp 372–3, translated from Savchenko 1970, p 381.</ref>}}
== See also ==
* [[Valuev Circular]]
* [[wikisource:ru:Эмсский указ|Эмсский указ]], full text of the Ems Ukaz {{in lang|ru}}
== References ==
<references/>
== Sources ==
* [[Mykhailo Drahomanov|Drahomanov, Mykhailo]], ''La littérature oukrainienne, proscrite par le gouvernement russe: rapport présenté au Congrès littéraire de Paris'' (''Ukrainian Literature Banned by the Russian Government: Report Presented at the Literary Congress in Paris''), Geneva, 1878.
* [[George S. N. Luckyj|Luckyj, George S.N.]] ([1956] 1990). ''Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917–1934'', revised and updated edition, Durham and London: Duke University Press. {{ISBN|0-8223-1099-6}}.
* [[Magocsi, Paul Robert]] (1996). ''A History of Ukraine''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. {{ISBN|0-8020-0830-5}}.
* I.R., "Ne dozvoliaiu," ''Radians’kyi knyhar,'' 8 (April 1930):8
* Savchenko, Fedir (1970). ''Zaborona ukrayinstva 1876 r.'', 2nd ed. Munich.
* {{Cite book |last=Shevelov |first=George |title=The Ukrainian Language in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1900-1941). Its State and Status |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1989}}
{{Russification}}
[[Category:1876 in the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:1876 in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Politics of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Cultural history of Ukraine]]
[[Category:Ukrainian language]]
[[Category:Language policy in Russia]]
[[Category:Anti-Ukrainian sentiment]]
[[Category:Russification]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses in Russia]]
[[Category:Decrees of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Language policy in Ukraine]]