Who is the most important historical figure in Ukrainian history?

[bm-21Lemko]

"Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy" is the national anthem of Ukraine



Wrote it and was in fact a Lemko

[General23]

you and me are the most important, cause we can make yourselves do a lot!

[BlueandGold]

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.

[Dekameron]

Orlyk as with most Cossack Hetmans was basically a local warlord who didnt give a broken penny about Ukraine, i'm amused to no end when ukrainian people list Cossacks as great historical figures when said Cossacks were never ukrainian didnt see themselves as such and did not care for Ukraine.

I'd agree about Juszczenko though, he wrenched Ukraine from post soviet rubbish and thats quite an achievement.

[dobko]

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 - 5
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 - 16

Hetman Pylyp Orlyk 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 of the general staff and the regimental colonels, but also of "an outstanding and worthy individual from each regiment."

Articles 11-16 protected the rights of towns, limited the taxation of peasants and poor Cossacks, and restricted the innkeepers. Charles XII, who was present in Bendery at the time, confirmed these articles, as "the protector of Ukraine."

References
^ Mahrytska, Iryna (2005-06-24). "Hetman Pylyp Orlyk and Ukraine's First Constitution". Eastern Ukrainian National University of V. Dalya. Jurisprudentia/Slovo Prosvity. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Constitution of Bendery". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, The. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.

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 3-4 (1958)
Sliusarenko, A. H.; Tomenko, M. V. Istoriia Ukrainskoi Konstytytsii, "Znannia," (Ukraine 1993),

[Dekameron]

My apologies i feel educated

[The Big Yin]

No love for papa Brezhnev?




He was the leader of the U.S.S.R at the height of it’s power and he was a Ukrainian just like his predecessor if nothing else that makes him important.


EDIT: Also I have ask, arnt Cossacks a separate group from Ukrainians who just happened to settle on lands now part of modern Ukraine, because you get Russian Cossacks too that implies they are a separate transnational group.