Ems Decree

Ems Decree

Source: Miller A.I. “The Ukrainian Question” in the Policy of the Authorities and Russian Public Opinion (Second Half of the 19th Century). St. Petersburg, Aleteya, 2000. Appendix 2; mion.sgu.ru

Ems Decree

Conclusions of the Special Conference for the Suppression of Ukrainophile Propaganda after corrections in accordance with the comments made by Alexander II on May 18 in Ems.

In order to suppress the dangerous, in terms of the state, activity of Ukrainophiles, it would be appropriate to take the following measures pending further consideration:

a) According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

1. Not to allow the import into the empire, without special permission from the Main Administration for Printing Affairs, of any books published abroad in the Little Russian dialect.

2. To prohibit in the empire the printing, in the same dialect, of any original works or translations, with the exception of historical monuments, but with the condition that the latter, if they belong to oral folk literature (such as songs, fairy tales, proverbs), be published without deviation from the general Russian spelling (i.e., not be printed in the so-called “kulishovka”).

Note I. This measure would be nothing more than an expansion of the Supreme Command of July 3, 1863, which permitted the publication in the Little Russian dialect of only works belonging to the realm of fine literature, while the omission of books in the same dialect, both of spiritual content and educational and generally intended for initial reading, was ordered to be suspended.

Note II. While maintaining the force of the aforementioned Highest Command, it would be possible to permit the printing in the Little Russian dialect, in addition to historical monuments, of works of fine literature, but on the condition that they adhere to the all-Russian orthography, and that permission be given only after the manuscripts have been reviewed by the Main Administration for Printing Affairs.

3. To equally prohibit all stage performances in the same dialect, texts for notes and public readings (as they currently have the character of Ukrainophile manifestations).

4. Support the newspaper “Slovo”, which is published in Galicia in a direction hostile to the Ukrainophile, by assigning it at least a small but permanent subsidy, ^{[ 1 ]} without which it cannot continue to exist and will have to cease (the Ukrainophile organ in Galicia, the newspaper “Pravda”, which is generally hostile to Russian interests, is published with significant assistance from the Poles).

5. Ban the newspaper “Kiev Telegraph” ^{[ 2 ]} on the grounds that its nominal editor Snezhko-Blotsky is blind in both eyes and cannot take any part in the editorial board, which is constantly and arbitrarily managed by people invited to it by the publisher Gogotskaya from a circle of people belonging to the most ill-intentioned trend.

b) By the Ministry of Public Education.

6. Strengthen supervision by local educational authorities to prevent the teaching of any subjects in the Little Russian dialect in primary schools. ^{[ 3 ]}

7. Clear the libraries of all lower and secondary schools in the Little Russian provinces of books and booklets prohibited by paragraph 2 of this project.

8. Pay serious attention to the personnel of teachers in the Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa educational districts, demanding from the trustees of these districts a list of teachers with a note on the reliability of each in relation to Ukrainophile tendencies, and transfer those marked as unreliable or questionable to the Great Russian provinces, replacing them with natives of the latter.

9. In the future, the selection of persons for teaching positions in the said districts shall be made, in relation to the reliability of these persons, subject to strict responsibility on the part of those submitting their appointment, so that the responsibility referred to exists not only on paper, but also in fact.

Note I. There are two Highest orders of the late Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, not cancelled by the Supreme Authority, and therefore retaining the force of law to this day, which imposed the strictest responsibility on the Trustees of the Districts and the educational authorities in general, not to tolerate in educational institutions persons with an unreliable way of thinking, not only among teachers, but also among students. It would be useful to recall them.

Note II. It would be considered useful to adopt as a general rule that teachers from Great Russian backgrounds be assigned to educational institutions in the Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa districts, and that Little Russians be distributed among educational institutions in the St. Petersburg, Kazan and Orenburg districts.

10. Close the Kiev Department of the Imperial Geographical Society for an indefinite period (similar to how the Political and Economic Committee, which arose in the environment of the Statistical Department, was closed in the latter in the 1860s) and then allow its reopening, with the local Governor-General being granted the right to petition for its opening, but with the permanent elimination of those persons who are in any way questionable in their purely Russian direction. ^{[ 4 ]}

c) According to the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Chancellery.

11. Immediately expel Dragomanov and Chubinsky from the region as incorrigible and positively dangerous agitators in the region. ^{[ 5 ]}

Notes

1. In the margins it was probably written by Potapov: “1000 rubles from the III Gend. funds, do not enter into the text of the conclusion, but only keep in mind.”
2. In the margins it is written: “in consideration of the harmful influence of the newspaper.”
3. In the margin it is written: "this is not essential."
4. In the margins it is written: “to allow M. V. D. to enter into appropriate relations with whomever is necessary regarding the search for measures to further the direction of this matter.”
5. In the margins it is written: “expel from the region with prohibition of entry into the southern provinces and the capital, under secret surveillance.”

Sources

• Miller A. I. "The Ukrainian Question" in the Policy of the Authorities and Russian Public Opinion (second half of the 19th century)

To the top