Anniversary events are held in Ukraine for the 100th anniversary of the Unity of Ukraine.

Ukrainian National Bar Association represented by the Center for Advocacy and Law Studies under the auspices of the Head of the Center Iryna Vasylyk initiated the presentation of the All-Ukrainian mobile exhibition "Advocates in Ukrainian State-Building".

The exhibition consists of 8 banners and tells about: advocates - foretakers of the Unity of Ukraine, members of the Ukrainian Central Rada and its Governments, governments of the Ukrainian State Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, Western Ukrainian People's Republic, Directors and Ministers of the Ukrainian People's Republic, founders of the Cathedral Ukraine and advocates-presidents in the struggle for independence of Ukraine and advocates-figures of Ukrainian emigration.

The exhibition was presented at the training seminars in Lviv and in Lutsk, as well as for students from Ternopil and Volyn, where the offices of the history of the bar and the legal literacy classes for advocates were opened, in particular at the Ternopil National Pedagogical University named after. Volodymyr Hnatiuk and at the East Ukrainian University named after Lesia Ukrainka.

"The period of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 is a turning point in the history of Ukraine of the XX century. Ukrainians proclaimed and defended the Ukrainian People's Republic - the first Ukrainian state of modernity with parliament, government and legislation - to grasp their arms, and felt their unity, became a nation-building nation. Advocates were active participants in the struggle for Ukrainian statehood. A significant number of advocates engaged in public and political work on the ground - elected city mayors and deputies of local self-government, held positions in local administrations, developed a network of political parties, founded and developed non-governmental organizations - noted the head of the Center for Advocacy and Law Research at the UNBA Iryna Vasylyk

Researchers at the Center found at least 22 advocates or advocates' assistants who were members of the Ukrainian Central Rada (UCR) headed by Mykhailo Hrushevskii. Among the names of well-known advocates are Kiev Mayor Eugen Ryabtsov, mayor of Bakhmut Lev Fleischer, Mayor of Lipovets in Kyiv region Vasyl Khymeryk, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Central Rada and his deputy head, co-operator and chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Bank Fedir Kryzhanivskii, UCR member and its secretary, later known academic historian and advocate - Andrii Yakovlev, Minister of Polish Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic - Metsislav Mickiewicz.

Among advocates - the forerunners of the Cathedral, we recall the advocate from Nizhyn Oleksandr Konysky, the author of the words "The Prayer for Ukraine" ("God's Great, Single"), the spiritual anthem of Ukrainians; advocate Illia Shrag from Chernihiv, a public-political, cultural and educational figure, deputy and leader of the Ukrainian fraction of the First State Duma of the Russian Empire from Chernihiv region (1906), who was the author of the draft law on the autonomy of Ukraine, submitted to the Duma; advocate Mykola Mikhnovskii from Kharkiv, who in 1900 issued the brochure "Independent Ukraine"; advocate, publisher and publicist Mykola Dmitriev.

In addition, advocates played a key role as representatives of the "Advocate's Age", the period of national renaissance in Galychyna in the 80s of the nineteenth century. Representatives of this generation have transformed Eastern Galicia from the most backward of the material and cultural and educational view of the province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the "Piedmont" of the Ukrainian national renaissance. These include, in particular, advocate Kyrylo Tryliovskii, the organizer of the movement in Galychyna and Bukovyna, advocate Kost Levytskii - the head of Ukrainian fractions in the Vienna Parliament and the Galychyna Regional Seym, and later the Prime Minister of the EUPR; Mykola Vasylko from Bukovyna, the organizer of the "Bukovinske Viche", who spoke for independence; advocates, Theophil Okunevskii, Stepan Fedak, Longyn Tsehelsky and others.

In the Ukrainian state-building, such leading advocates of Nadddniprianshchyna as the advocate Petro Klymovych from Odessa - the organizer and leader of Prosvita, member of the Odessa city administration, participated in the Ukrainian state-building, for many years the public (deputy) of the Odessa City Duma and Minister of Finance of the UPR; advocate Hryhoriy Stepura from Khmelnytsky, who was the provincial commissar of Podillya and Kharkiv region during those years; advocate Samiylo Pidgirskii from Volyn, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Law Society, judge of the Kyiv Appeal Court of the UPR; advocate Fedir Matushevsky from Cherkasy region, UPR Ambassador to Greece and many others.

Together with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky worked such advocates as Minister of Education and Arts, advocate Mykola Vasylenko; State Secretary of the Council of Ministers, advocate Igor Kistiakovsky, Minister of Trade and Industry of the Ukrainian State, advocate Sergii Gutnyk; Minister of Labor, advocate Maxym Slavinsky, member of the State Senate, advocate Mykhailo Pukhtynsky, Ambassador of the Ukrainian State in Turkey - advocate Olexandr Kistiakovsky.

Act Zluky of January 22, 1919 on Sofiyivsky Square, that is, the union of Eastern and Western Ukraine, in Kiev, was also proclaimed by advocates Lev Bachinskii and Longyn Tsehelsky, and for diplomatic missions in French the unity was announced by Yaroslav Olesnitsky.

Presidents of Ukraine for emigration for almost 40 years also had advocates - Andriy Livytsky and Stepan Vytvytsky, who united the entire Ukrainian diaspora and preserved the attributes of statehood - the flag, state seal and presidential attributes, that were returned to Ukraine after the proclamation of independence in 1991.

The center is perhaps the first to open these names from the angle of the role of advocates in the Ukrainian state-building. As you can see, previous generations of advocates proclaimed the independence of Ukraine, the task of today's generation of advocates is to preserve it", -  said Iryna Vasylyk.