On December 7, 1942, readers of the newspaper Pravda were shocked to see numerous letters "e" decorating its pages. In the header, to the right of the newspaper's title, it read: "Workers, collective farmers, and Soviet intellectuals! By selflessly working, increase your assistance to the front! Faithfully fulfill your civic duty to your homeland and its valiant defenders on the front." Below, there was a decree on the assignment of military ranks, signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, I. Stalin and the head of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Yakov Chadaev, issued a decree on December 6, 1942, which listed the following names: Ilyichev Ivan Ivanovich, Drebeneev Mikhail Fedorovich, Kiselev Anisim Fedorovich, Korolev Ivan Nikolaevich, and Lobachev Alexey Andreevich. This was the beginning of the process of introducing the letter "e" into print and writing, or, to put it more humorously, the "e-ification" of Russian spelling. However, this process came to an end a few years after Stalin's death in March 1953. Despite this, popular rumors persistently attribute the initiative to Stalin, although no written evidence has been found to support this claim. According to the gray-haired experts, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was very rude to Yakov Ermolaevich Chadaev, the head of the Council of People's Commissars, because Chadaev had brought a decree for the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to sign on December 5, 1942, in which the names of several valiant generals were printed without the letter "e." The rest was the work of Comrade Chadaev, who used government communication channels, or more simply, the Kremlin's telephone system, to inform those in need of the leader's desire to see "e" in writing and in print. And the process immediately began (trying not to begin), although, as can be seen from the newspapers of that harsh time, it was not without a bit of a struggle, as printing was only in high relief and it was necessary to cast the ... Читать далее