#3 The Ems Act
The Austrian empire played an important role as well, as they abolished what was left of the Cossack autonomy in the region, while the Russians destroyed what was left of their army. By assimilating them and wanting to make sure they keep their control over the Ukrainians, the Russians offered noble status to the officers that could prove with paperwork that they were indeed officers, but this left the rest of the population enserfed (a form of slavery in which people were bound and sold with the land they worked on).
As Empress Catherine II made sure the Ukrainian institution was dismantled, the intellectuals of the region took interest in Ukrainian folklore and history, the movement going as far as having Ukraine’s bard publish poems in Ukrainian and founding a secret political society for the freedom of the Slavic federation.
As Ukrainian nationalism was becoming more and more prevalent along with all the former Rus lands, the Russian authorities became more and more worried that this could lead to a riot. This led to Tsar Alexander II signing the Ems Act in 1876, which banned any and all publishing in Ukrainian and discriminating against the ones known to be nationalists, by getting them fired, arrested, or exiled from the lands. This just led to an increasing number of patriots, who started to formally call themselves Ukrainians. So there was a distinction from Russians.
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