The first Ukrainian Constitution (1710)

"Mirabilis et incomprehensibilis Deus in iudiciis suis, misericors in diuturna patientia, iustus in poena, ut continuo a condito hoc visibili mundo, iustissima iudicii sui lance una regna gentesque exaltat, altera pro delictis et iniquitatibus humiliat, una demancipat, altera vindicat, una extollit, altera deprimit."

The first Ukrainian Constitution was written in Latin, more than 300 years ago in a small town in Moldova and approved by the King of Sweden. The author of the Constitution was hetman in exile - Pylyp Orlyk. His son Grégoire Orlyk was a marshal of France. The Orly commune near Paris was named after Grégoire Orlyk, who had his estate in the area. 

Orlyk’s Constitution appeared 22 years earlier than the birthplace of the first American President George Washington, and 80 years ahead of the ideas of the French Revolution.

When the Swedish-Ukrainian troops suffered defeat at Poltava, Pylyp Orlyk not betrayed the oath and stayed with Ivan Mazepa and the dream of complete independence of Ukraine. Since then he was in Turkey, in the town of Bender. After the death of Grand Hetman Ivan Mazepa April 5, 1710 Hetman of Ukraine elected Pylyp Orlyk. On the same day and declared the so-called Constitution. The full name of the Constitution is “Pacta et Constitutiones Legum Libertatumque Exercitus Zaporoviensis”.

The Constitution was made up of the preamble and 16 articles.

Preamble

The preamble briefly discusses Cossack history, their Khazar origin, the rise of the Zaporizhian Sich and its downfall when after under Bohdan Khmelnytsky it rebelled against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and ended up serving Imperial Russia. According to the introduction, using all available means, Moscow limited and nullified rights and freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host and eventually subjugated the free Cossack nation. Ivan Mazepa's politics and alliance with Charles XII of Swedenare explained as logical and inevitable, mandated by the need to free the homeland. The independence of the new state from Russia is given as the primary goal of the Bendery Constitution.

Articles 1-3 dealt with general Ukrainian affairs. They proclaimed the Orthodox faith to be the faith of Ukraine, and independent of the patriarch of Moscow. The Sluch River was designated as the boundary between Ukraine and Poland. The articles also recognized the need for an anti-Russian alliance between Ukraine and the Crimean Khanate.

Articles 4-5 reflected the interests of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the Bendery emigration. The Hetman was obligated:

a.     to expel, with the help of Charles XII, the Russians from Zaporozhian territories

b.     to grant the town of Trakhtymyriv to the Zaporozhians to serve as a hospital, and

c.      to keep non-Zaporozhians away from Zaporozhian territories

Articles 6-10 limited the powers of the hetman and established a Cossack parliament, similar to an extended council of officers, which was to meet three times a year. The General Council was to consist not only of the general staff and the regimental colonels, but also of "an outstanding and worthy individual from each regiment."

Articles 11-16 protected the rights of towns, limited the taxation of peasants and poor Cossacks, and restricted the innkeepers. Charles XII, king of Sweden and "the protector of Ukraine," happened to be in Bendery at the time, and confirmed these articles.

The original of the Constitution is stored in the National Archives of Sweden. To archive the document came after excavations on agricultural lands. It was found in a clay pot, rolled into a scroll. According to Swedish scientists rewrote Pylyp Orlyk rewrote document for presentation to diplomats of European countries. This document was prepared for transportation, but due to certain circumstances it buried.

Originals