100 years ago, a new spelling was finally and officially introduced in Russia. On October 10, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars and a resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the National Economy "On the removal from circulation of common letters of the Russian language" (i decimal, fit and yat) were adopted.
The first edition of the decree on the introduction of a new spelling was published in the Izvestia newspaper less than two months after the Bolsheviks came to power, on December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918 in a new style). As a result, the reform of the Russian language led to the emergence of a myth about "Bolshevik arbitrariness", "forcible simplification of the language" by the communists, etc. This opinion began to take shape back in the Soviet era. Then the spelling reform, largely due to which (this fact cannot be denied) illiteracy was eliminated in a huge country in the shortest possible time, was presented as a conquest of the revolution, as a merit of exclusively Soviet power.
It is clear that after the collapse of the USSR, this assessment with a plus sign was changed to a minus one. In the 1990s, they even raised the question of returning to the old spelling. The churchmen were especially zealous in abolishing the "Bolshevik" spelling. The letters "er" and "yat" (especially the first one), withdrawn during the reform, in the early 1990s became one of the symbols of both "old", pre-revolutionary Russia, and opposition to the "scoop." One of the most striking examples of this is Kommersant in the title of the newspaper Kommersant (Kommersant). The newspaper began to be published during the Soviet era, challenging the then order (already at the stage of collapse).
An example of the illiterate use of yat in today's Russia. "ANTIKVARIAT" instead of "ANTIKVARIAT". Photo: Nicolay Sidorov, commons.wikimedia.org
In reality, the Russian Bolsheviks in a country engulfed in turmoil did not have time to draw up plans to reform the Russian language. There were enough other worries. The Soviet government simply used the plans already prepared earlier. Thus, the reform was prepared long before the 1917 revolution and was prepared not by revolutionaries, but by professional linguists. Of course, among them were people with their own political views. For example, a Russian linguist, literary historian, academician A. I. Sobolevsky, known for his active participation in the activities of various kinds of nationalist and monarchist organizations, in particular, the Union of the Russian people. Preparations for the reform began at the end of the 19th century: after the publication of the works of Yakov Karlovich Grot, who for the first time brought together all the spelling rules,the need to streamline and simplify Russian spelling became clear.
It can also be noted that the idea of the unjustified complexity of Russian writing came to minds of some scholars back in the 18th century. So, the Academy of Sciences first tried to exclude the letter "Izhitsa" from the Russian alphabet back in 1735, and in 1781, at the initiative of the director of the Academy of Sciences Sergei Gerasimovich Domashnev, one section of "Academic News" was printed without the letter b at the end of words. That is, this idea was born in Russia long before the 1917 revolution.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Moscow and Kazan Pedagogical Societies proposed their projects for the reform of Russian writing. In 1904, at the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences, the Spelling Commission was created, before which the task of simplifying the Russian writing was set (primarily in the interests of the school). The commission was headed by the outstanding Russian linguist Philip Fyodorovich Fortunatov, and it included the largest scientists of that time - A. A. Shakhmatov (who headed the commission in 1914, after the death of F. F. Fortunatov), I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, P. N. Sakulin and others. The commission considered several proposals, including quite radical ones. At first, it was proposed to abandon the letter b altogether, and use b as a separating mark, while canceling the writing of the soft sign at the end of words after hissing words and writing with a mouse,night, love. The letters "yat" and "fita" were immediately decided to be removed from the Russian alphabet. A draft of the new spelling was presented by scientists in 1912, but was not approved, although it received widespread discussion.
Promotional video:
Further, the case was continued under the Provisional Government. On May 11 (24), 1917, a meeting was held with the participation of members of the Spelling Commission of the Academy of Sciences, linguists, school teachers, at which it was decided to soften some provisions of the 1912 draft. Thus, the members of the commission agreed with the proposal of A. A. Shakhmatov to keep the soft mark at the end of words after hissing. The result of the discussion was the "Resolution of the meeting on the simplification of Russian spelling", which was approved by the Academy of Sciences. Already after 6 days, on May 17 (30), the Ministry of Education issued a circular proposing to introduce reformed spelling in schools from the new school year. Another circular was issued on June 22 (July 5).
Thus, the reform of the Russian language would have taken place without October. True, under the Provisional Government, the transition to the new spelling was planned to be gradual. And the Bolsheviks, in accordance with the situation, acted decisively, revolutionary.
Thus, the Bolsheviks withdrew from the printing houses all letters with the letter b. Despite the fact that the new spelling did not abolish Kommersant at all (this proposal, which was considered in 1904, was subsequently rejected by the Spelling Commission), but only its spelling at the end of words (the use of Kommersant as a separating mark was retained), the letters were selected everywhere. To designate the separating mark, typesetters had to use an apostrophe, so spellings such as pod'em, congress, etc. arose.
As a result, the new spelling was introduced by two decrees: after the first decree signed by the People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky and published on December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918), a second decree followed, on October 10, 1918, signed by the Deputy People's Commissar M. N. Pokrovsky and the head of affairs of the Council of People's Commissars V. D. Bonch-Bruevich. In accordance with the reform, the letters yat, fita, I (“and decimal”) were excluded from the alphabet; instead of them should be used, respectively, E, F, I; the hard sign (b) at the end of words and parts of compound words was excluded. Already in October 1918, the official bodies of the Bolsheviks - the newspapers Izvestia and Pravda - switched over to the new spelling. It is interesting that the old spelling, abolished by the decrees of the Bolsheviks, became one of the symbols of the White movement, and it played the same role for the Russian emigration. For example, I. A. Bunin noted: “By order of the Archangel Michael himself, I will never accept the Bolshevik spelling. For one thing, at least because a human hand has never written anything like what is now written in this spelling."
Thus, the new spelling is not "the arbitrariness of the Bolsheviks", but the result of many years of work by leading Russian scientists in old, pre-revolutionary Russia. The Soviet government has just completed this process in the style of those fiery years - in a revolutionary way.
Author: Samsonov Alexander