Resolution of the Politburo of the CC VKP(b) "On the 'Reform' of the Russian Alphabet," with an Appended Notice on the Results of the All-Union Conference of Orthographers Published in the Newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva, July 2, 1931

Source: Tom 17

Extract from Protocol No. 47
of the session of the Politburo of the CC
of July 5, 1931

On the "Reform" of the Russian Language.

In view of the continuing attempts to "reform" the Russian alphabet (see the notice on the results of the All-Union Conference of Orthographers in Vechernyaya Moskva of June 29), which create the threat of a fruitless and empty waste of state resources and energy, the CC VKP(b) resolves:

1) To prohibit any "reform" and "discussion" of a "reform" of the Russian alphabet.

2) To place responsibility for the execution of this resolution on People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Comrade Bubnov.

Secretary of the CC

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Vechernyaya Moskva, June 29, 1931

Results of the All-Union Orthographic Conference

On June 26, the All-Union Conference on the Reform of Russian Orthography, Punctuation, and Transcription of Foreign Words completed its work.

Following heated discussion and working through the project in sections, the conference adopted, with certain amendments, the project of the Institute of Language and Writing [NIYAZ]. The principle underlying this project is to bring written speech closer to spoken language, or, more precisely, to bring orthography closer to the living literary language.

The practical part of this project comes down essentially to the following:

The letters e, i, y, and the hard sign (and the apostrophe) are abolished.

Instead of e [backwards e], e is written everywhere (etazh, elektrichestvo -- the pronunciation, of course, remains the same). Instead of i, the Latin i is introduced.

The project introduces a new letter j (yot), which is used: first, everywhere instead of y [short i]; second, in combination with a, o, u instead of ya, ye, yu (jabloko, jug); third, in the middle of words instead of the hard sign or soft sign standing before vowels (objekt, kaljan), as well as in the word million (miljon); and fourth, in the combination soft-sign-i (chji, semji). The letters ya, yu, ye are retained to indicate soft pronunciation of the preceding consonant (nyanya, mel).

After zh, sh, ch, ts, the letters ya, yu, y are never written (ogurtsi, revolyutsija, tsigan).

The soft sign is abolished: 1) after sibilants (rozh); 2) in the middle of numeral words (pyatdesyat, semsot); 3) in the infinitive form of verbs ending in -tsya (on budet uchitsya).

On the question of double consonants in word roots, the project initially proposed abolishing them -- that is, writing Ana instead of Anna, kasa instead of kassa, etc. -- but the conference found this measure inadvisable. Thus, double consonants in word roots are retained.

The prefixes iz, voz, niz, raz, bez, chrez are always written with the letter z. The adjective endings -ogo, -ego are replaced by -ovo, -evo. Masculine adjective endings should be written -oj, -ej (krasnoj, dobroj). The adjective endings -ye, -ie are replaced by -yi, -ii (dobryi, sinii).

In compound titles (All-Union Central Executive Committee), only the first word is capitalized.

Free word hyphenation is established (s-ovet).

On the question of punctuation, the conference adopted a detailed set of rules that in many respects coincide with existing rules. The most significant change is the reduction of cases in which the comma is used (for example, between clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions).

On the question of transcription of foreign words, the project is based on the principle of rendering the pronunciation of words (especially surnames), not the spelling.

French nasal sounds are rendered by the letter n and (before labial consonants) by the letter m. The German h is rendered by the letter kh, the diphthong ei by ai. An exception is made for those surnames that have long and firmly entered the Russian language in a different transcription -- for example, Heine, Hauptmann must be written as before, and not Khaine, Khauptmann, as would follow from the new rules.

The project for the reform of orthography, punctuation, and transcription adopted by the All-Union Conference is submitted for approval to the Collegium of the People's Commissariat of Education, and then to the Council of People's Commissars.

V.G.

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Source: Istochnik, 1994, No. 5, pp. 101-102.

AP RF. F. 3. Op. 33. D. 15. L. 59-60.