Congratulations on the Constitution Day!

Constitution Day: the history of the holiday

On June 28, 1996, the Verkhovna Rada finally, after many months of debate, adopted the Basic Law of our country, which replaced the 1978 constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. 315 parliamentarians voted «for». By the way, Ukraine became the last country of the former USSR to adopt its own Constitution.

From the first days of the declaration of independence, attempts to adopt the Constitution were unsuccessful. In 1995, the president and the Verkhovna Rada signed the Constitutional Treaty, which discussed the key principles of the distribution of power in the country before the adoption of the Basic Law.

In 1996, a special parliamentary commission was created under the leadership of deputy Mykhailo Syrota, who is considered one of the «fathers» of the Constitution. On June 27, consideration of the document began in the Verkhovna Rada, which later became known as «constitutional night». Leonid Kuchma personally came to the parliament to monitor the process.

Deputies worked on the project all night from June 27 to 28. The president’s remarks were taken into account, and it was also possible to adopt controversial articles about state symbols in Ukraine, about the state Ukrainian language (which the communists and socialists categorically opposed, demanding that Russian be approved in the Basic Law as the second state language), as well as about the right to private property.

Finally, on June 28 at 9:20 a.m., people’s deputies voted for the Constitution of Ukraine. 315 deputies voted for the adoption (36 – against, 12 – abstained, 30 – did not vote). For the first time, the anthem approved by the Constitution sounded in the parliament hall. People’s deputies solemnly brought the blue-yellow state flag into the hall.

By the way, the original Constitution with the signatures of the then President Leonid Kuchma and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksandr Moroz, was shown to the general public for the first time only in 2016 – until then, it was permanently stored in the Central Archive of the highest authorities.

The adoption of the Constitution became the most important step in ensuring human and citizen rights, contributed to the further increase of Ukraine’s international authority on the world stage. The 1996 Constitution, with some changes and additions, is still in force in the country at the present time. Since then, the Constitution of Ukraine has been amended 6 times.

Interestingly, Constitution Day is the only public holiday mentioned in the text of the Basic Law itself (Article 161).