My second choice is: Hetman Pylyp Orlyk (1672-1742)
Author of Ukraine's first Constitution: Republic of Ukraine.
"As a rule, Zaporizhyan Cossacks are associated with such virtues as knighthood, patriotism and Orthodoxy. However, the role of the Cossacks in the history of the Ukrainian nation transcends these virtues. Cossacks were the carriers of the Ukrainian national idea; they were the determining factor in the formation of the Ukrainian mentality; and the bearers of the intellectual potential of the Ukrainian people. And there was a good reason for this.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of Cossacks were literate. The Cossack elite was highly educated. They studied at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which was the first higher academic institution in Eastern Europe, and other European centers of learning. So, for example, the increase in popularity of different branches of science, law and state management that occurred among the Cossack elite was quite logical. The most prominent example of an educated Cossack statesman was Pylyp Orlyk (1672-1742). "
"...The formation of governments was based on the principle of Cossack self-rule - the election of all government members and judges at every level. There were even regulations that restrained the authoritarian power of the hetmans. In order to decrease the likelihood of tyranny and abuse of office, the Cossacks established a Rada, or self styled parliament made up of government officials, military leaders and others.
Pylyp Orlyk is regarded as the founder of Ukrainian constitutionalism, which traces its roots to common law as well as the Russkaya Pravda
(or universal truthes) of Kyivan Rus."
"..
.This document, which appeared eighty years before the Great French Revolution, was unique. It was the constitution of a republic, which stipulated the election of ALL government officials, including Hetmen, and the prohibition of serfdom...."
"...No doubt, Orlyk borrowed the principles from the democratic and
Christian structures of the Zaporizhyan Cossack Republic. Naturally, neither Russia nor other monarchal regimes of Europe could accept Orlyk's constitution. But
the Ukrainian people readily accepted the proposed state structure as a guarantee of their liberation from Moscow's rule..."
The Spirit of 1710. Ukraine's First Constitution
My third choice is, without a doubt, Hetman Yushchenko:
Because
WE CAN ALL express our views in 2008 without going to Siberia.