The National Archives of Sweden preserve the original Latin version of the first Ukrainian constitution—Pacta et Constitutiones Legum Libertatumque Exercitus Zaporoviensis ("Pacts and Constitutions of the Laws and Liberties of the Zaporizhian Host").
The document was written on April 5, 1710, in Bender (a port city on the Dniester River).
It was adopted 77 years before the U.S. Constitution (1787), 81 years before the Polish Constitution (1791), and 81 years before France's first written Constitution (1791).
Thirty years ago, on this day, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted the Constitution of modern independent Ukraine, which had emerged from Soviet rule, thanks be to God.
Under this Constitution, it is the duty of the government to protect our lives, health, and security.
Some Western commentators who describe Ukrainians as a "young nation" might do well to remember that 316 years ago, Pylyp Orlyk, using nothing more than a goose quill, drafted one of the earliest constitutions in Europe. 😉
