The idea of a Constitution governing the structure and functioning of a national government didn’t originate with the US Constitution. One of the earliest ones was written nearly a century earlier, by Pylyp Orlyk, who was born in what is today Belarus. His Constitution, which he wrote in 1710, was written in Ukrainian. Orlyk himself began his career as close associate of Ivan Mazepa, a Ukrainian leader (a Hetman) who struggled against the Russian Tsar Peter I to try to achieve Ukrainian independence.
Orlyk was born October 11, 1672, although in his day the date was different — it’s been adjusted to agree with our modern calendar. He was a Cossack; a member of a people, not a military (although there was a Cossack military). He lived in various European cities, including Stockholm, Hamburg, Prague, Krakow, and Paris, often in exile imposed by the Russian Empire. He served as a “Hetman in Exile,” and wrote numerous essays and proclamations about Ukraine. His story is difficult to explain to western audiences because it involves events, battles, and historical figures that are almost entirely unknown here. Even the arrangement of nations in Eastern Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries isn’t taught in the US.
Nevertheless, Olyk was and is a highly important figure in the history of Ukraine and that who region. There are monuments to him, including in Sweden (where he lived for years). And more than 100 streets in Ukraine and Ukrainian settlements are named for him. The Ukrainian government has issued coins and postage stamps commemorating both Orlyk and the “Pylyp Orlyk Constitution.”
In addition to his national leadership and authorship of an early Constitution (which, by the way, first established the system of separation of powers), he kept a detailed diary that’s been preserved, and is one of the most valuable sources of information about daily life and politics in that place and time. I can’t cover all the details of Pylyp Orlyk here — and I don’t even understand all of them — but he’s definitely worth closer study if you get a chance.
