On this day, 314 years ago, in the city of Bendery, a treaty was concluded between the newly elected Hetman Pylyp Orlyk and the Cossacks of the Zaporizhzhia Army, which was called the "Pylyp Orlyk Constitution".
The abridged electronic version of the "Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk" was published by the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine.
After the Poltava Battle, in which Mazepa was defeated, Orlyk, together with his family and other senior officers, went into exile to Bendery, and then to Europe. When he was elected, the council of senior officers in 1710 adopted a document defining the rights and duties of the Hetman. It is not known whether the Cossacks had previously signed similar treaties: the documents have not survived and there are no references to them. Therefore, the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk is considered the first Cossack, Ukrainian Constitution.
However, Orlyk's Constitution is notable not only for its age. It absorbed the advanced achievements of European political thought. This is a "social contract", most of the provisions of which are conceptual in nature. This is a document that, in the political and legal concepts of that time, substantiates Ukraine's rights to state independence and its state system.
The document shows attempts to develop such a model of society, which would contain the most important achievements of the nation.
The Constitution is now kept in Sweden, but in 2021 it was brought to Ukraine on the occasion of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence. Then the document could be seen at the exhibition in St. Sophia Cathedral.
Excerpts of the document are available for viewing online. The photo shows the title, first and last pages of the document. On the last sheet is the signature of Hetman Orlyk and the seal of the Ukrainian Cossack state - the Zaporizhzhia Army.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the National Archives of Sweden handed Ukraine three copies of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, one is already displayed in the lobby of the Verkhovna Rada, the second will be in the President's Office, and the third will be in the Constitutional Court after its renewal and restart.
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