The Ems Ukase was signed 125 years ago

Alexander II, the most liberal of the Russian autocrats of the nineteenth century, traditionally spent the spring of 1876 at German spas. It was at the German town of Ems that he signed the ill-famed ukase on May 18. The document became one of the most scandalous pages in the history of the Romanov dynasty’s chauvinistic policy. It was an attempt on the most precious asset in the cultural treasure of every nation, its language. That rudely chauvinistic act (one of many) was aimed against Ukraine.

The formal reason for signing the ukase (note that it was strictly confidential, never made public at the time but strictly implemented) was a secret report filed by Mikhail Yuzefovich, assistant superintendent of Kyiv’s school district. Addressing the tsar, Yuzefovich described the alarming scope of the Ukrainian movement in both the “Little Russian guberniyas” of the empire and beyond its borders. He saw in the process “masked socialism” and a “concealed encroachment on the state unity of Russia.” After reading it, Alexander II ordered an appropriate ukase prepared. The latter was a natural link in the chain of a carefully planned imperial offensive on the political and cultural freedom of the Ukrainian people. Let us remind ourselves of the main landmarks on that great road: subordination of the Ukrainian Church to the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1680s); Peter I’s ban on religious literature in Ukrainian (1772); closing of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Valuyev’s notorious circular (July 1863) with the cannibalistic phrase, “There is no separate Ukrainian language; there has never been, and nor could there have ever be” (with references to the Ukrainian public opinion; even with petitions signed by faithful Little Russian subjects; as had always been the case, charging ahead of the chauvinists were those meant as their prey).

Even against this grim background, the Ems Ukase was inhuman. It boiled down to an unconditional ban on the publication, distribution, or any other dissemination of books in Ukrainian throughout the territory of the Russian Empire. The same applied to literature published abroad, “using the Little Russian vernacular” and domestic publications of “original works and translations thereof in the vernacular.” All publications and papers relating to Ukraine were to use standard Russian orthography. The ban extended to “various theatrical performances and recital in the Little Russian vernacular, as well as musical accompanying texts.”

Certain people were subjected to repressive measures. Professors Mykhailo Drahomanov (he would soon immigrate), Fedir Vovk, and Mykola Ziber were relieved of their posts. The southwestern branch of the Russian Geographical Society was closed (Yuzefovich stressed that it was a hotbed of separatism) and various communities that had started emerging all over Ukraine were disbanded en masse. The newspaper Kievsky Telegraf was closed because of its sympathy with the Ukrainian national movement.

The main provisos of the Ems Ukase remained effective until the Russian Revolution of 1905. Considering the 1906-07 imperial reaction, they remained de facto in force until February 1917.