Valuev Circular

Valuev Circular

"Pyotr Valuyev" and his "Circular" near the Administration of the President of Ukraine. Performance against Russification and with the demand of legislative protection for the Ukrainian language. Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language, 2015.

Imitation of the Valuev Circular. Performance against Russification

The Valuev Circular (Russian: Валуевский циркуляр, romanized: Valuyevsky tsirkulyar; Ukrainian: Валуєвський циркуляр, romanized: Valuievskyi tsyrkuliar) of 18 (30) July 1863 was a decree (ukaz) issued by Pyotr Valuev (Valuyev), Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire, by which many publications (religious and educational literature recommended for the use in primary literacy training) in the "Little Russian" (Ukrainian) language were forbidden, except for belles-lettres works.

History

The circular put the reason for the growing number of textbooks in Ukrainian and beginner-level books in Ukrainian as "the Poles' political interests" and the "separatist intentions of some of the Little Russians". The circular quoted the opinion of the Kiev Censorship Committee that "a separate Little Russian language never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist, and the tongue used by commoners (i.e. Ukrainian) is nothing but Russian corrupted by the influence of Poland."

The circular ordered the Censorship Committees to ban the publication of religious texts, educational texts, and beginner-level books in Ukrainian; but permitted publication of belles-lettres works in the language.

Further restrictions were placed on Ukrainian by the Ems Ukaz in 1876, which completely prohibited the usage of the language in open print.

See also

• Lithuanian press ban

Further reading

• Andrii Danylenko The Ukrainian Bible and the Valuev Circular ofJuly 18, 1863, Acta Slavica Iaponica, Tomus 28 (2010), pp. 1‒21
• Volodymyr Dibrova The Valuev Circular and the End of Little Russian Literature, 124 Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal 4 (2017)
• Andrii Danylenko Linguistic russification in Russian Ukraine: languages, imperial models, and policies, Russ Linguist (2019) 43:19–39
• Alexei Miller, The Ukrainian Question. The Russian Empire and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century, Central European University Press, Budapest – New York, 2003, ISBN 963-9241-60-1
• Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-0830-5. pp. 369–370 contain a translation.