The Ems Ukase or Ems Ukaz, named after the city of Bad Ems, Germany, where it was promulgated, was a secret ukase of Tsar Alexander II of Russia issued in 1876, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print, with the exception of reprinting of old documents. The ukase also forbade the import of Ukrainian publications and the staging of plays in Ukrainian language.

The Ems Ukase was issued in response to the growing Ukrainian nationalism movement and the unrest of Ukrainian cossacks.

The Ukase coincided with some other actions against Ukrainian national culture. The situation was exposed by professor Mykhailo Drahomanov in 1878 at the International Literary Congress in Paris. Drahomanov was subsequently expelled from Kiev University.

Reference

• 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.