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Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk
The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk (Ukrainian: Конституція Пилипа
Орлика (Konstytutsiya Pylypa Orlyka) or Pacts and
Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian
Host Ukrainian: Пакти і Конституції прав і вольностей Війська
Запорозького (Pakty i Konstytutsii Prav i Volnostei Viyska
Zaporozkoho), Latin: Pacta et Constitutiones Legum Libertatumque
Exercitus Zaporoviensis) was a 1710 constitutional document written
by Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, a Cossack of Ukraine. [1] Sometimes it is
called the Bendery Constitution.
It established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in
government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary
branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the
Laws. The Constitution limited the executive authority of the
hetman, and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament
called the General Council. Pylyp Orlyk's Constitution was unique for
its historic period, and was one of the first state constitutions in
Europe.
The first page of the Bendery
Constitution. This copy is written in Latin
and probably penned by Hetman Pylyp
Contents Orlyk. The original is kept in the National
Archives of Sweden.
History
Articles of the Constitution
Preamble
Articles 1 5
Articles 6 16
Memory
References
Further reading
External links
History
After the Battle of Poltava, when Charles XII of Sweden's and Hetman Ivan Mazepa's armies were defeated by Peter I of
Russia, Pylyp Orlyk remained with Mazepa. Together, Orlyk, Mazepa, and their Cossack forces retreated to the city of
Bendery, in Bessarabia (now Moldova, then part of the Ottoman Empire). The Zaporizhian Cossack Army also settled
in this area.
When Mazepa died on 5 April 1710, Pylyp Orlyk was elected as the Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host. On the same day,
he issued the Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host. Hence, Orlyk's Constitution
is sometimes referred to by the city of its proclamation, Bendery.
Articles of the Constitution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pylyp_Orlyk 1/3
30/10/2018 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk Wikipedia
The document is made up of a preamble[2] and 16 articles. [3]
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 PolishLithuanian 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
Charles XII and Mazepa at the
Host and eventually subjugated the free Cossack nation. Ivan Mazepa's Dnieper River
politics and alliance with Charles XII of Sweden are 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 5
Articles 13 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 antiRussian alliance between Ukraine and the Crimean Khanate.
Articles 45 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 nonZaporozhians away from Zaporozhian territories
Articles 6 16
Articles 610 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."
Hetman Pylyp Orlyk
Articles 1116 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.
Memory
On 9 April 2010, the 300th anniversary of the creation of the Constitution, a monument was dedicated in Bender. The
monument is in the form of a book with engraved information about the history of the writing of the Constitution and
its full name in Ukrainian and Latin.
On Constitution Day 2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko remarked that the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk
is the predecessor of Ukraine's current constitution. [4]
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Pylyp_Orlyk 2/3
30/10/2018 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk Wikipedia
The monument in Bender Fortress
1. "300th anniversary of first Ukrainian constitution written by Pylyp Orlyk being celebrated" (http://www.kyivpost.co
m/news/nation/detail/63202/), Kyiv Post, (April 5, 2010)
2. Mahrytska, Iryna (20050624). "Hetman Pylyp Orlyk and Ukraine's First Constitution" (http://www.lawyer.org.ua/?
w=r&i=&d=601). Eastern Ukrainian National University of V. Dalya. Jurisprudentia/Slovo Prosvity. Retrieved
20060817.
3. "Constitution of Bendery". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, The (http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.as
p?AddButton=pages\B\E\BenderyConstitutionof.htm). Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. External link in
|title= (help); |access‐date= requires |url= (help)
4. Ukraine's leaders congratulate Ukrainians on Constitution Day (https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/514896.ht
ml), InterfaxUkraine (28 June 2018)
Further reading
Dogovor i postanovlenie mezhdu Get'manom Orlikom i voiskom Zaporozhskim v 1710, in Chteniia v Imperatorskom
obshchestve istorii i drevnostei rossiiskikh (Moscow 1858)
Krupnyts’kyi, B. Het'man Pylyp Orlyk i ioho politychna diial’nist’ (1672–1742) (Warsaw 1938)
Vasylenko, M. The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, AUA, 6, nos 34 (1958)
Sliusarenko, A. H.; Tomenko, M. V. Istoriia Ukrainskoi Konstytytsii, "Znannia," (Ukraine 1993), ISBN 5777006000
External links
Encyclopedia of Ukraine (http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/B/E/BenderyConstitutionof.htm)
(in Ukrainian) Text of the Pylyp Orlik Constitution (http://gska2.rada.gov.ua/site/const/istoriya/1710.html)
(in English) Information about the Constitution (http://mfa.gov.ua/en/newsfeeds/foreignofficesnews/48775denyko
nstitucijiukrajini)
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