1873, March 31 - Mykola Mikhnovsky, a lawyer and ideologist of the independent movement in the Ukrainian movement of the early twentieth century, was born in Poltava in the family of a village priest. He is the author of the program document of the Tarasiv Brotherhood, The Credo of the Young Ukrainian, and the brochure Independent Ukraine.
Mykola Mikhnovsky was a descendant of an ancient Cossack family.
While studying in Kyiv (1890-95), he joined the Young Community. In 1891-93, he was a member of the secret student political organization Brotherhood of Tarasivites, and the author of its program Credo of the Young Ukrainian.
In 1899, in Kharkiv, he took an active part in Ukrainian social and political life. At the suggestion of the leadership of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, he wrote a brochure entitled "Independent Ukraine," in which he first put forward the idea of Ukraine's political independence.
In late 1901 and early 1902, he created the Ukrainian People's Party (UNP), which proclaimed its main goal to fight for Ukraine's independence.
In the party's program publications "The Workers' Cause in the UNP Program," "The Cause of the Ukrainian Intelligentsia in the UNP Program," and "Ten Commandments of the UNP" (1903), he developed the basic foundations and principles of Ukrainian nationalism.
He was one of the first to advocate the idea of forming our own armed forces. At the beginning of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, he founded the Ukrainian Military Club named after Pavlo Polubotko and became one of the organizers of the 1st Khmelnytsky Ukrainian Regiment.
After the establishment of the Hetmanate, Pavlo Skoropadsky was offered the candidacy of Mykola Mikhnovsky for the post of head of government. The hetman offered him only the position of "bunchezhnyi comrade" (personal adviser), which Mikhnovsky refused.
After the establishment of Bolshevik rule, he lived for some time in the Kuban, and in 1924 returned to Kyiv, where he was immediately arrested by the GPU.
On May 3, 1924, Mykola Mikhnovsky was found hanged in the garden of his friend Volodymyr Shemet's estate. His suicide note read as follows: "Rather than them, I'd rather kill myself..."