The article aims at researching the political and legal nature and phenomenology of revolutions and revealing the interrelations of the doctrine and practice of constitutionalism and revolutions in Ukraine and abroad. The author analyzes the origin of the category of the concept “revolution” (“revolutio”), the diversity and evolution of its senses: from reinstatement of prior state of certain phenomena – to radical changes in the state and social system. It is concluded that the category “revolution” was introduced into political and legal turnover from the astronomy works by N. Copernicus in the middle of the XVI century and acquired its modern significance in the second half of the XVIII century, simultaneously with another category known since Antiquity – “constitution”. The author analyzes the most well-known proto-revolutions of ancient Egypt, Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland etc. The author arrivesat the conclusion that the “revolutionary” nature of respective uprisings and riots ensued from their more recent reconsideration by scholars in the XVIII–XX centuries. The following causes for revolutions are singled out: firstly, availability of a well-formulatedpolitical legal ideology based on the doctrine (doctrines) of constitutionalism; secondly, struggle for the establishment and protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms (each new “generation” of human rights was established in the course of bourgeois and democratic, socialist and worldview revolutions of the late XX – early XXI centuries); thirdly, presence of socially active public associations (institutions of civil society) and political parties. The author demonstrates that the first revolution, in its modern political and legal meaning, was the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England. The article also studies the so-called “great revolutions”, which had an impact on the overall political, social and economic progress of nations, states and continents, namely: the American and French revolutions of the late XVIII century, the European revolutions of 1830–1871, the Japanese revolution of Meiji era in 1869, Young Turk revolution of 1908, the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the German revolution of 1918, the Chinese revolution of 1949, the Cuba revolution of 1956, the Iranian revolution of 1979, and the “Velvet Revolutions” of the late XX century. Attention is paid to the Ukrainian revolutions: the Ukrainian revolution of 1917–1921, the “Revolution on Granite” of 1990, the Orange revolution of 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity of 2014 and others. The article explains the meaning of the category “revolution” and its essential features; summarizes the main causes and preconditions of revolutions; explores the issue of classification of revolutions, and also determines the nature of the interaction between constitutionalism and revolutions.

List of legal documents 
 

Legislation 
1. Konstytutsiia Ukrainy [Constitution of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 28 chervnia 1996 r. № 254k/96-VR. Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy. 1996. № 30. St. 141 (in Ukrainian). 

Bibliography

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Edited and translated books

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17. Hans-Adam II, Derzhava v tretomu tysiacholitti [The State in the Third Millennium] (Havrylov I ta Kondratiuk L per, DIPA 2018) (in Ukrainian).

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23. Plokhii S, Brama Yevropy [The Gate of Europe] (Klochko R per, Knyzhkovyi Klub “Klub simeinoho dozvillia” 2016) (in Ukrainian).

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