The letter e - is it needed in the Russian language? To write or not to write? Lyubov Ryzhkova-Grishina Magic Primer Letter E.

How the letter E appeared September 29th, 2017

For a long time was not in Russian famous letter"yo". But this letter can boast that the date of its birth is known - namely, November 29, 1783. The “mother” of the letter is Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, an enlightened princess.

Let's remember the details of this event...

In the house of Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, who was at that time the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a meeting of the Academy of Literature, created shortly before this date, was held. Present then were G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, Metropolitan Gabriel and others.

And once during one of the meetings she asked Derzhavin to write the word “Christmas tree”. Those present took the proposal as a joke. After all, it was clear to everyone that it was necessary to write “iolka”. Then Dashkova asked a simple question. Its meaning made academicians think. Indeed, is it reasonable to designate one sound when writing with two letters? The princess's proposal to introduce a new letter “e” into the alphabet with two dots on top to indicate the sound “io” was appreciated by literature experts. This story happened in 1783. And then off we went. Derzhavin began to use the letter “ё” in personal correspondence, then Dmitriev published the book “My Trinkets” with this letter, and then Karamzin joined the “e-movement”.

The image of the new letter was probably borrowed from the French alphabet. A similar letter is used, for example, in the spelling of the Citroën car brand, although it sounds completely different in this word. Cultural figures supported Dashkova’s idea, and the letter took root. Derzhavin began to use the letter e in personal correspondence and used it for the first time when writing his surname - Potemkin. However, in print - among typographical letters - the letter е appeared only in 1795. Even the first book with this letter is known - this is the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “My trinkets”. The first word, over which two dots were blackened, was the word “everything”, followed by the words: light, stump, etc.

A widely known new letter e became thanks to the historian N.M. Karamzin. In 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich decided to replace two letters in the word “sl” when preparing to publish one of his poems io zy" with one letter e. Yes, with light hand Karamzin, the letter “e” took its place in the sun and became entrenched in the Russian alphabet. Due to N.M. Karamzin was the first to use the letter е in a printed publication, which was published in quite a large circulation, some sources, in particular, Bolshaya Soviet Encyclopedia, it is he who is mistakenly indicated as the author of the letter e.

In the first book of the poetic almanac “Aonids” (1796) he published, he published the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb with the letter e - “flowed”. But, oddly enough, in the famous “History of the Russian State” Karamzin did not use the letter “e”.

The letter came into place in the alphabet in the 1860s. IN AND. Dahl placed е along with the letter “e” in the first edition of “ Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language." In 1875, L.N. Tolstoy in his “ New alphabet"sent her to the 31st place, between yat and the letter e. But the use of this symbol in typography and publishing was associated with some difficulties due to its non-standard height. Therefore, officially the letter е entered the alphabet and received the serial number 7 only in Soviet time- December 24, 1942. However, for many decades, publishers continued to use it only in cases of extreme necessity, and even then mainly in encyclopedias. As a result, the letter “е” disappeared from the spelling (and then pronunciation) of many surnames: Cardinal Richelieu, philosopher Montesquieu, poet Robert Burns, microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur, mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev (in the latter case, the place of emphasis even changed: CHEBYSHEV; exactly the same the beets became beets). We speak and write Depardieu instead of Depardieu, Roerich (who is pure Roerich), Roentgen instead of the correct Roentgen. By the way, Leo Tolstoy is actually Leo (like his hero - the Russian nobleman Levin, and not the Jew Levin).

The letter ё has also disappeared from the spellings of many geographical names- Pearl Harbor, Königsberg, Cologne, etc. See, for example, the epigram on Lev Pushkin (the authorship is not exactly clear):

Our friend Pushkin Lev

Not without reason

But with champagne fatty pilaf

And a duck with milk mushrooms

They will prove to us better than words,

That he is healthier

By the strength of the stomach.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they “combed through” the alphabet, removed “yat” and fita and izhitsa, but did not touch the letter E. It is at Soviet power dots above e In order to simplify typing, most words were missing. Although no one formally banned or abolished it.

The situation changed dramatically in 1942. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin received German maps on his desk, in which German cartographers wrote down the names of our settlements accurate to points. If the village was called “Demino”, then in both Russian and German it was written Demino (and not Demino). The Supreme Commander appreciated the enemy's meticulousness. As a result, on December 24, 1942, a decree was issued requiring the mandatory use of the letter Yoyo everywhere, from school textbooks to the Pravda newspaper. Well, of course, on the maps. By the way, no one has ever canceled this order!

Often the letter “е”, on the contrary, is inserted into words in which it is not needed. For example, “scam” instead of “scam”, “being” instead of “being”, “guardianship” instead of “guardianship”. The first Russian world chess champion was actually called Alexander Alekhine and was very indignant when he noble surname they wrote incorrectly, “commonly” - Alekhine. In general, the letter “е” is contained in more than 12 thousand words, in approximately 2.5 thousand surnames of Russian citizens and former USSR, in thousands of place names.

A categorical opponent of using this letter when writing is designer Artemy Lebedev. For some reason he didn't like her. It must be said that it is indeed inconveniently located on a computer keyboard. Of course, you can do without it, as, for example, the text will be understandable even if zngo sklcht vs glsn bkv. But is it worth it?

IN last years a number of authors, in particular Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Yuri Polyakov and others, some periodicals, as well as the scientific publishing house “Big Russian Encyclopedia” publish their texts with the obligatory use of the discriminated letter. Well, the creators of the new Russian electric car gave the name to their brainchild from this one letter.

Some statistics

In 2017, the letter Yoyo turns 234 years old!

She is in 7th (lucky!) place in the alphabet.

There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with the letter Ё, of which about 150 words begin with е and about 300 words end with е!

On average, there is 1 letter e for every hundred characters of text. .

There are words in our language with two letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”.

There are several traditional names in the Russian language that contain the letter Ё:

Artyom, Parmen, Peter, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Matryona, Fyokla, etc.

Optional useletters eleads to erroneous readings and the inability to restore the meaning of the word without additional explanations, for example:

Loan-loan; perfect-perfect; tears-tears; palate-palate; chalk-chalk; donkey-donkey; cheerful...

For a long time there was no letter “ё” in the Russian language. But this letter can boast that the date of its birth is known - namely, November 29, 1783. The “mother” of the letter is Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, an enlightened princess.

Let's remember the details of this event. ...

And once during one of the meetings she asked Derzhavin to write the word “Christmas tree”. Those present took the proposal as a joke. After all, it was clear to everyone that it was necessary to write “iolka”. Then Dashkova asked a simple question. Its meaning made academicians think. Indeed, is it reasonable to designate one sound when writing with two letters (a diphthong in fact, although there are no diphthongs in the Russian language)? The princess's proposal to introduce a new letter “e” into the alphabet with two dots on top to indicate the sound “io” was appreciated by literature experts. This story happened in 1783. And then off we went. Derzhavin began to use the letter “ё” in personal correspondence, then Dmitriev published the book “My Trinkets” with this letter, and then Karamzin joined the “e-movement”.

The image of the new letter was probably borrowed from the French alphabet. A similar letter is used, for example, in the spelling of the Citroën car brand, although it sounds completely different in this word. Cultural figures supported Dashkova’s idea, and the letter took root. Derzhavin first used it when writing his surname - Potemkin. However, in print - among typographical letters - the letter е appeared only in 1795. Even the first book with this letter is known - this is the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “My trinkets”. The first word, over which two dots were blackened, was the word “everything”, followed by the words: light, stump, etc.

And the new letter e became widely known thanks to the historian N.M. Karamzin. In 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich decided to replace two letters in the word “sliosis” with one letter e when preparing to publish one of his poems. So, with Karamzin’s light hand, the letter “е” took its place in the sun and became entrenched in the Russian alphabet. Due to the fact that N.M. Karamzin was the first to use the letter ё in a printed publication, which was published in quite a large circulation; some sources, in particular, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, erroneously indicate him as the author of the letter ё. In the first book of the poetic almanac “Aonids” (1796) he published, he published the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb with the letter e - “flowed”. But, oddly enough, in the famous “History of the Russian State” Karamzin did not use the letter “e”.

The letter came into place in the alphabet in the 1860s. IN AND. Dahl placed е along with the letter “e” in the first edition of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. In 1875, L.N. Tolstoy in his “New ABC” sent it to 31st place, between yat and the letter e. But the use of this symbol in typography and publishing was associated with some difficulties due to its non-standard height. Therefore, officially the letter е entered the alphabet and received the serial number 7 only in Soviet times - December 24, 1942. However, for many decades, publishers continued to use it only in cases of extreme necessity, and even then mainly in encyclopedias. As a result, the letter “е” disappeared from the spelling (and then pronunciation) of many surnames: Cardinal Richelieu, philosopher Montesquieu, poet Robert Burns, microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur, mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev (in the latter case, the place of emphasis even changed: CHEBYSHEV; exactly the same the beets became beets). We speak and write Depardieu instead of Depardieu, Roerich (who is pure Roerich), Roentgen instead of the correct Roentgen. By the way, Leo Tolstoy is actually Leo (like his hero - the Russian nobleman Levin, and not the Jew Levin).

Our friend Pushkin Lev

Not without reason

But with champagne fatty pilaf

And a duck with milk mushrooms

They will prove to us better than words,

That he is healthier

By the strength of the stomach.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they “combed through” the alphabet, removed “yat” and fita, and Izhitsa, but did not touch the letter E. It was under Soviet rule that dots over e disappeared from most words in order to simplify typing. Although no one formally banned or abolished it.

The situation changed dramatically in 1942. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin received German maps on his desk, in which German cartographers wrote down the names of our settlements down to the dots. If the village was called “Demino”, then in both Russian and German it was written Demino (and not Demino). The Supreme Commander appreciated the enemy's meticulousness. As a result, on December 24, 1942, a decree was issued requiring the mandatory use of the letter Yoyo everywhere, from school textbooks to the Pravda newspaper. Well, of course, on the maps. By the way, no one has ever canceled this order!

Often the letter “е”, on the contrary, is inserted into words in which it is not needed. For example, “scam” instead of “scam”, “being” instead of “being”, “guardianship” instead of “guardianship”. The first Russian world chess champion was actually called Alexander Alekhine and was very indignant when his noble surname was spelled incorrectly, “commonly” - Alekhine. In general, the letter “е” is contained in more than 12 thousand words, in approximately 2.5 thousand surnames of citizens of Russia and the former USSR, in thousands of geographical names.

Some statistics

In 2013, the letter Yoyo turned 230 years old!

She is in 7th (lucky!) place in the alphabet.

There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with the letter Ё, of which about 150 words begin with е and about 300 words end with е!

On average, there is 1 letter e for every hundred characters of text.

There are words in our language with two letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”.

There are several traditional names in the Russian language that contain the letter Ё:

Artyom, Parmen, Peter, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Matryona, Fyokla, etc.

The optional use of the letter ё leads to erroneous readings and the inability to restore the meaning of the word without additional explanations, for example:

Loan-loan; perfect-perfect; tears-tears; palate-palate; chalk-chalk; donkey-donkey; cheerful...

And, of course, the classic example from “Peter the Great” by A.K. Tolstoy:

With such a sovereign, we’ll take a break!

What was meant was “let’s take a break.” Do you feel the difference?

How do you read “Let’s Sing Everything”? Are we all eating? Shall we eat everything?

sources

http://origin.iknowit.ru/paper1262.html

https:// ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%81

http://esperanto-plus.ru/bukva_io.htm

For a long time, the Russian language did not have the famous letter “ё”. But this letter can boast that the date of its birth is known - namely, November 29, 1783. The “mother” of the letter is Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, an enlightened princess.

Let's remember the details of this event...

The image of the new letter was probably borrowed from the French alphabet. A similar letter is used, for example, in the spelling of the Citroën car brand, although it sounds completely different in this word. Cultural figures supported Dashkova’s idea, and the letter took root. Derzhavin began to use the letter e in personal correspondence and used it for the first time when writing his last name - Potemkin. However, in print - among typographical letters - the letter е appeared only in 1795. Even the first book with this letter is known - this is the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “My trinkets”. The first word, over which two dots were blackened, was the word “everything”, followed by the words: light, stump, etc.

A widely known new letter e became thanks to the historian N.M. Karamzin. In 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich decided to replace two letters in the word “sl” when preparing to publish one of his poems io zy" with one letter e. So, with Karamzin’s light hand, the letter “е” took its place in the sun and became entrenched in the Russian alphabet. Due to N.M. Karamzin was the first to use the letter ё in a printed publication, which was published in quite a large circulation; some sources, in particular, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, erroneously indicate him as the author of the letter ё.

In the first book of the poetic almanac “Aonids” (1796) he published, he printed the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb with the letter e - “flowed”. But, oddly enough, in the famous “History of the Russian State” Karamzin did not use the letter “e”.

The letter came into place in the alphabet in the 1860s. IN AND. Dahl placed е along with the letter “e” in the first edition of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. In 1875, L.N. Tolstoy in his “New ABC” sent it to 31st place, between yat and the letter e. But the use of this symbol in typography and publishing was associated with some difficulties due to its non-standard height. Therefore, the letter e officially entered the alphabet and received the serial number 7 only in Soviet times - December 24, 1942. However, for many decades, publishers continued to use it only in cases of extreme necessity, and even then mainly in encyclopedias. As a result, the letter “е” disappeared from the spelling (and then pronunciation) of many surnames: Cardinal Richelieu, philosopher Montesquieu, poet Robert Burns, microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur, mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev (in the latter case, the place of emphasis even changed: CHEBYSHEV; exactly the same the beets became beets). We speak and write Depardieu instead of Depardieu, Roerich (who is pure Roerich), Roentgen instead of the correct Roentgen. By the way, Leo Tolstoy is actually Leo (like his hero - the Russian nobleman Levin, and not the Jew Levin).

The letter е also disappeared from the spellings of many geographical names - Pearl Harbor, Königsberg, Cologne, etc. See, for example, the epigram on Lev Pushkin (the authorship is not exactly clear):
Our friend Pushkin Lev
Not without reason
But with champagne fatty pilaf
And a duck with milk mushrooms
They will prove to us better than words,
That he is healthier
By the strength of the stomach.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they “combed through” the alphabet, removed “yat” and fita and izhitsa, but did not touch the letter E. It was under Soviet rule that the points above e In order to simplify typing, most words were missing. Although no one formally banned or abolished it.

The situation changed dramatically in 1942. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin received German maps on his desk, in which German cartographers wrote down the names of our settlements down to the dots. If the village was called “Demino”, then in both Russian and German it was written Demino (and not Demino). The Supreme Commander appreciated the enemy's meticulousness. As a result, on December 24, 1942, a decree was issued requiring the mandatory use of the letter Yoyo everywhere, from school textbooks to the Pravda newspaper. Well, of course, on the maps. By the way, no one has ever canceled this order!

Often the letter “е”, on the contrary, is inserted into words in which it is not needed. For example, “scam” instead of “scam”, “being” instead of “being”, “guardianship” instead of “guardianship”. The first Russian world chess champion was actually called Alexander Alekhine and was very indignant when his noble surname was spelled incorrectly, “commonly” - Alekhine. In general, the letter “е” is contained in more than 12 thousand words, in approximately 2.5 thousand surnames of citizens of Russia and the former USSR, in thousands of geographical names.

In recent years, a number of authors, in particular Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Yuri Polyakov and others, some periodicals, as well as the scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia" publish their texts with the obligatory use of the discriminated letter. Well, the creators of the new Russian electric car gave the name to their brainchild from this one letter.

Some statistics

In 2013, the letter Yoyo turns 230 years old!

She is in 7th (lucky!) place in the alphabet.

There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with the letter Ё, of which about 150 words begin with е and about 300 words end with е!

On average, there is 1 letter e for every hundred characters of text. .

There are words in our language with two letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”.

There are several traditional names in the Russian language that contain the letter Ё:

Artyom, Parmen, Peter, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Matryona, Fyokla, etc.

Optional use letters e leads to erroneous readings and the inability to restore the meaning of the word without additional explanations, for example:

Loan-loan; perfect-perfect; tears-tears; palate-palate; chalk-chalk; donkey-donkey; cheerful...

And, of course, the classic example from “Peter the Great” by A.K. Tolstoy:

Under such and such a sovereign let's take a break!

It was meant - " let's take a break" Do you feel the difference?

How do you read “Let’s Sing Everything”? Are we all eating? Shall we eat everything?

And the last name French actor there will be Depardieu, not Depardieu. (see Wikipedia)

And, by the way, A. Dumas’s cardinal’s name is not Richelieu, but Richelieu. (see Wikipedia)

And the correct way to pronounce the surname of the Russian poet is Fet, not Fet.

On November 29 (November 18, old style), 1783, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy, which was attended by the poet Gavriil Derzhavin, playwrights Denis Fonvizin and Jacob Knyazhnin and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy, was discussed.

Dashkova suggested that those present at the meeting introduce a new letter “ё” to represent the corresponding sound in writing, instead of the two letters “io”. For the “minor” letter in the Russian alphabet, they did not invent a new sign: they used the existing letter e, placing two dots above it - an umlaut. The princess's innovative idea was supported by a number of leading cultural figures of the time. Gabriel Derzhavin was the first to use the letter “ё” in personal correspondence. In November 1784, the new letter received official recognition.

The letter was replicated by a printing press in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House with the publishers Ridiger and Claudius during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Dmitriev. The first word printed with the letter "е" was the word "everything". Then came the words “light”, “stump”, “immortal”, “cornflower”. In 1796, in the same printing house, Nikolai Karamzin, in his first book “Aonid” with the letter “e”, printed the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb - “flowed”. In 1798, Gabriel Derzhavin used his first surname with the letter “e” - Potemkin.

In 1904, the Spelling Commission was created at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which included the largest linguists of that time. The commission's proposals, finally formulated in 1912, boiled down to simplifying graphics based on the phonemic principle (eliminating letters that did not denote any sounds, for example "ъ" at the end of words, and letters denoting the same sounds as other letters, "yat" ", "and decimal", "fita", "izhitsa"). In addition, the commission recognized the use of the letter “е” as desirable, but not mandatory.

On January 5, 1918 (December 23, 1917, old style), a decree was published, signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who introduced reformed spelling as mandatory and also recommended the use of the letter "ё".

In Soviet times, the letter "ё" was "officially recognized" in 1942, after the publication of the order "On the introduction of the mandatory use of the letter "ё" in school practice." A year later, a reference book on the use of the letter “ё” was published. In 1956, the Academy of Sciences and the Ministry higher education The USSR approved and then published the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” with paragraphs on the use of the letter “ё”. However, in practice its use continued to be optional.

IN Russian Federation the use of the letter “ë” in title documents is regulated. In a letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated May 3, 2007 to the authorities that issue official documents to citizens state standard, it is prescribed to use the letter “е” in proper names.

A letter from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated July 20, 2009 recommends using the letter “ё” in school textbooks.

Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Dmitry Livanov, the rules for using the letters “e” and “e” should be enshrined at the legislative level.

Now the letter “е” is contained in more than 12.5 thousand words, in no less than 2.5 thousand surnames of citizens of Russia and the former USSR, in thousands of geographical names of Russia and the world and in thousands of names and surnames of citizens of foreign countries.

In 2005, in Ulyanovsk the letter “ё” was established. The author of the monument, Ulyanovsk artist Alexander Zinin, depicted an exact enlarged copy of the letter that was used in the almanac "Aonids", where Nikolai Karamzin first published a poem with a new letter.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

On December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter “ё” was introduced in school practice. It was from this day that this letter, which still causes a lot of talk and controversy around itself, officially entered the Russian alphabet. And she took an honorable place in it - 7th place.

"RG" cites a number of interesting and little known facts about the letter "Y" and its history.

Princess Christmas tree

The “godmother” of the letter “e” can be considered Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. On November 29 (18), 1783, one of the first meetings of the Russian Academy of Sciences took place, at which the princess was present among the respected poets, writers and philosophers of that time. The project of the 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” was discussed. The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “yolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” And she proposed using the new letter “е” to express words and pronunciations, for example, such as “matіoryy,” “іolka,” “іozh.” Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by a member of the Academy of Sciences, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg Gabriel. Thus, November 29 (18), 1783 can be considered the birthday of “yo”.

One of the first to use “ё” in personal correspondence was the poet Gavriil Derzhavin. The letter first appeared in a printed edition in the late 90s of the 18th century - in the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “And My Trinkets,” printed in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House. There are the words “everything”, “light”, “stump”, “immortal”, “cornflower”. However, in scientific works At that time, the letter "ё" was still not used. For example, in “History of the Russian State” by Karamzin (1816-1829) the letter “ё” is missing. Although many researchers and philologists give credit to the historical writer Karamzin for introducing the letter “e”. Among her opponents were such famous figures as the writer and poet Alexander Sumarokov and the scientist and poet Vasily Trediakovsky. Thus, its use was optional.

It couldn't have happened without Stalin

On December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918), a decree was published, signed by People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, which ordered “all government and state publications” from January 1 (old style) 1918 “to be printed according to the new spelling.” It also said: “Recognize the use of the letter “ё” as desirable, but not obligatory.” And only on December 24, 1942, according to the order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter “ё” was introduced in school.

There is a legend that Stalin personally had a hand in this. On December 6, 1942, the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Yakov Chadayev, brought an order for signature in which the names of several generals were printed with the letter "e" rather than "e". Stalin flew into a rage, and the very next day, December 7, 1942, the letter “e” appeared in all articles of the Pravda newspaper. However, publishers initially used the letter with two dots at the top, but in the 50s of the twentieth century they began to use it only when necessary. The selective use of the letter "ё" was enshrined in the rules of Russian spelling in 1956.

To write or not to write

In accordance with the letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 “On decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is prescribed to write the letter “ё” in cases where a word can be misread, for example, in proper names, since ignoring the letter “ ё" in this case is a violation of the Federal Law "On state language Russian Federation".

According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, the letter “ё” is written in the following cases:

When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: “we recognize” as opposed to “we recognize”; "all" as opposed to "all"; “perfect” (participle) as opposed to “perfect” (adjective), etc.;
- when you need to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: Olekma river.
- In special texts: primers, school textbooks of the Russian language, spelling textbooks, etc., as well as in dictionaries to indicate the place of stress and correct pronunciation.
According to the same rules, in ordinary printed texts the letter “e” can be used selectively. But at the request of the author or editor, any text or book can be printed with the letter “е”.

Especially if there are rarely used, borrowed or Difficult words: for example, “gyeza”, “surfing”, “fleur”, “harder”, “slit”. Or you need to indicate the correct emphasis: for example, “fable”, “brought”, “carried away”, “condemned”, “newborn”, “filler” (the letter “e” is always stressed).

Leo instead of Leo

The optional use of the letter “е” has led to the fact that today names are written without it:

Philosopher and writer Montesquieu;
- X-ray physics;
- physicist Anders Jonas Ångström, as well as the unit of length Ångström, named in his honor;
- microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur;
- artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich;
- Nazi leaders Goebbels and Goering;
- writer Leo Tolstoy (the writer himself pronounced his name in accordance with the old Moscow speech tradition - Lev; Tolstoy was also called by members of his family, close friends and numerous acquaintances).

The surnames Khrushchev and Gorbachev are also written without the “ё”.

Other interesting facts

In 2005, in Ulyanovsk, by decision of the city mayor’s office, a monument was erected to the letter “e” - a triangular prism made of granite, on which a lowercase “e” is stamped.

There are about 12.5 thousand words in the Russian language with “ё”. Of these, about 150 begin with “е” and about 300 end with “е”.

In the Russian language, words with several letters “ё” are also possible, usually these are compound words: “three-star”, “four-vector”.

More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of “e” or “e” in them. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina. The correct spelling of such surnames in personal documents and various property and inheritance matters is especially important. A mistake can deprive a person, for example, of an inheritance. For example, the Elkin family from Barnaul reported that in the 1930s their ancestor lost his inheritance due to the fact that it was registered in the Elkin family. And Perm resident Tatyana Teterkina almost lost her Russian citizenship due to the incorrect spelling of her last name in her passport.

There is a rare Russian surname Yo of French origin, which is written in French with four letters.

The surname of the famous Russian poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (Foeth - German by origin) was distorted during the printing of his first book. He gained fame under the name Fet. At the same time, he spent part of his life under the name Shenshin.