The letter «Ё» in Russian: from the monopoly of official linguistics to a comprehensive humanitarian understanding. Part 1

In the article, based on a historical review of the problem of the letter “ё”, the necessity is substantiated and an attempt is made to consider it not only as a subject of linguistics, but also other social and humanitarian sciences - history, religious studies, philosophy, philosophical and applied ethics, law, public morality, theory and practice of public administration. According to the author, numerous discussions and current rules for (non)use of the letter “ё” in published texts do not (sufficiently) take into account the norms of social interaction, values and interests of people for whom the written and spoken Russian language in their unity is not only a means of daily communication, but the need for a holistic, spiritual, moral, aesthetic perception of life. The task of the proposed first part of the article is not only to summarize the main facts and problems of the formation of the letter “ё” as an independent unit of the Russian alphabet in the 18th - early 20th centuries, but also to correct errors and inaccuracies made in numerous publications on these issues.