The Ems Ukase

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The Ems Ukase

During the 1800s, Ukraine was under the powerful rule of Russian tsars who dictated over the entire Russian empire. The Ukrainians were used to being held under a heavy hand though, and at this point in time, groups of men call Cossacks were gathering in numbers to fight against the outside authority over their homeland and to once and for all bring freedom to Ukraine. Nostalgia of the original Cossacks and “national revival among the Ukrainians since around 1840” became fused with “ideas of Enlightenment in the works of people like Taras Shevchenko (1814-61) and Myhailo Drahomanov (1841-95) among others” (Pavlychko Page 6).

In 1863, Petr Valeuv, the Russian minister of internal affairs created a “repressive anti-Ukrainian policy” to downgrade nationalism in Ukraine and even being to punish and arrest those participating in honoring their area of the Russian empire (Encylopedia of Ukraine 2001). By 1875, a commission was organized to investigate “Ukrainophile propaganda in the southern areas of Russia” (Encylopedia of Ukraine 2001). As a result of this investigation, a “secret decree written on May 30, 1876 by Russian tsar Alexander II” was written called the Ems Ukase (Encylopedia of Ukraine 2001). “The Ems Ukase was issued in response to the growing Ukrainian nationalism movement and the unrest of Ukrainian Cossacks” (Nationamaster 2003).

Issued in the town of Ems, Germany (hence the name), the decree was also known as the “Yuzefovich Ukase” after its author, Mikhail Yuzefovich, who was the deputy curator of the Kiev school district (Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001). The policy itself “banned publication of all Ukrainian- published texts except for belles-lettres and h...

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Ems Ukase 2001. Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/E/M/EmsUkase.htm

Ems Ukase 2003. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ems-Ukase

Hrycak, A. 2004. Schooling, language and the policy-making power of state bureaucrats in Ukraine. Reeds College. Novamova.com.ua/htm/04/45.htm

Pavlychko, S. Modernism vs. Populism in Fin de Siecle Ukrainian Literature. Page 6. http://www.utoronto.ca/elul/English/Pavlychko-ModvsPop.pdf

Rancour-Laferriere, D. 2000. Nationalism, Extremism and Xenophobia : Imagining Russia: ethnic identity and the nationalist mind. University of California.

Short History of Ukraine. http://www.hf.uib.no/Andre/vesti/ukrainehistory.htm - kap2

Ukrainians 2005. Centre for Russian Studies. http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Ukrainian

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