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Pylyp Orlyk's Constitution was unique for its historic period, and was one
of the first state constitutions in Europe.
After the Battle of Poltava when Charles XII of Sweden and Hetman
Ivan Mazepa armies were defeated by Peter I of Russia, Pylyp Orlyk
remained on the side of Mazepa. Together, Orlyk and Mazepa retreated to
the city of Bendery, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. Zaporizhian
Cossack Army also settled in this area.
When Ivan Mazepa died on 5 April 1710, Pylyp Orlyk was elected
Hetman. On the same day, "Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and
Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host" was declared. Hence, Orlyk's
Constitution is sometimes referred to by the city of its proclamation -
Bendery.
The document is made up of a preamble and 16 articles.
The preamble briefly discusses cossack history, the rise and fall of
the Zaporizhian Sich after under Bohdan Khmelnytsky it rebelled against
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to serve the Imperial Russia. Using
all available means, Moscow limited and nullified rights and freedoms of
the Zaporizhian Host going as far as subjugating the free cossack nation,
states the introduction. Ivan Mazepa's 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
was 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: to expel, with the help of Charles XII, the
Russians from
Zaporozhian territories to grant the town of Trakhtymyriv to the
Zaporozhians to serve as a
hospital, and to keep non-Zaporozhians away from Zaporozhian
territories
Articles 6-10 limited the powers of the hetman and established a
unique Cossack parliament, similar to an extended council of officers,
which met three times a year. The General Council was to consist not only
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