The need to create an effective mechanism to ensure the implementation of language policy by our state has been increased at the present stage of the development of Ukraine and its legal system. It, on the one hand, will ensure the revival and spread of the Ukrainian language, and on the other will allow the development of national minority languages in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1992), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1992), the UN Resolution on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (1995), The Oslo Recommendations on the Language Rights of National Minorities (1998) and other existing international legal acts. Historical experience can significantly help the successful implementation of measures aimed at improving the effectiveness of domestic legislation in this area. It will allow us not to repeat the mistakes of the past and take into account and use the positive developments. Unfortunately, domestic practice demonstrates a clear lack of attention to the study and use of such experience. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive historical and legal analysis of the processes of legal consolidation and implementation of the language policy of the Russian Empire on the Ukrainian lands in the XIX – early XX centuries. In accordance with the purpose, the following tasks have been formulated: to consider how the imperial language policy has evolved, aimed at narrowing the scope of using the language of the Ukrainian people for assimilation, to emphasize the role and significance of the legal component in these processes that was expressed in the legislation and law-enforcement activity of the relevant state authorities. Scientific novelty is manifested in the fact that this article is one of the first scientific works, where the problems of legal consolidation of Russification language policy on the Ukrainian lands during the past and the beginning of the last centuries are studied according to the latest methodological positions, based on a comprehensive analysis of existing scientific literature, regulatory and law-enforcement acts, as well as other historical and legal sources. The author of the article has emphasized that the tsar pursued a policy of incessant formal and legal restrictions on the Ukrainian language during this period. It has been claimed that during the 60-80s of the XIX century there was the legislative consolidation of that policy. The author has determined the purpose of the imperial government – to limit the scope of use of the Ukrainian language in order to prevent it from becoming a key element in the creation of Ukrainian identity.