Velyki Ukraïntsi

The Greatest Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Великі українці) was a Ukrainian TV project. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the Ukrainian public considers the greatest Ukrainians have been in history.

Logo of the project

The show is running under a license from the BBC and originally appeared on British TV under the name 100 Greatest Britons and was a successful show. Such countries as Canada, France, Germany, Romania and many others have also created their own versions.

Results

The TV show was broadcast on Inter being 90–180 minutes long during Sunday prime-time. The host of the program, Savik Shuster, started primaries (pre-voting) during his other Friday talk show The Freedom with Savik Shuster. The co-host of the programme was Inter's news anchor Hanna Homonai. Pre-voting took place in a number of Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv, Lviv, Yalta, Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, Simferopol, Nizhyn, Mykolaiv, Ostroh, Chernivtsi, and Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Top Ten

On 11 April 2008, the top 100 of Great Ukrainians were announced. The top 10 was to be re-voted, and the results were shown on 16 May 2008. The final top 10 were:[1]

  1. Yaroslav I the Wise (978-1054) (40%)
  2. Mykola Amosov (1913-2002) (19.88%)
  3. Stepan Bandera (1909-1959) (16%)
  4. Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) (9.3%)
  5. Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (1595-1657) (4.02%)
  6. Valeriy Lobanovskyi (1939-2002) (3.18%)
  7. Viacheslav Chornovil (1937-1999) (2.63%)
  8. Hryhoriy Skovoroda (1772-1794) (1.73%)
  9. Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913) (1.64%)
  10. Ivan Franko (1856-1916) (1.49%)

11 – 100

Great Ukrainians series

An hour-long documentary was filmed on each of the top 10 nominees, each of them hosted by a celebrity advocate, who delivered a passionate argument as to why their choice should be voted the greatest Ukrainian of all. The series concluded with a debate on the merits of each selected Ukrainian, bringing all of the advocates together to make a final plea to voters.

No. Great Ukrainian Celebrity Supporter
1 Mykola Amosov (1913-2002) Vitaliy Korotych
2 Stepan Bandera (1909-1959) Vakhtang Kipiani
3 Valeriy Lobanovskyi (1939–2002) Leonid Kravchuk (1934-)
4 Hryhoriy Skovoroda (1722–1794) Ostap Stupka (1941-2012)
5 Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913) Roman Viktiuk
6 Ivan Franko (1856-1916) Sviatoslav Vakarchuk (1975-)
7 Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (1595-1657) Dmytro Korchynskyi (1964-)
8 Viacheslav Chornovil (1937-1999) Taras Chornovil (1964-)
9 Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) Bohdan Stupka (1941-2012)
10 Yaroslav I the Wise (978-1054) Dmytro Tabachnyk (1963-)

Controversy

Manipulations

The Chief of Great Ukrainians project, journalist Vakhtang Kipiani, informed the public in his blog, that the voting system had been manipulated by unknown persons. He stated that a couple of days prior to publishing the results he was aware of a possible win for Yaroslav the Wise. Prior to that, with a huge lead in first place was the controversial Stepan Bandera. For example, the winner, Yaroslav I, received 60,000 votes in one month and almost 550,000 in just one day. Mykola Amosov, who took second place, received almost 150,000 votes in just one day. Kipiani said that if these manipulation hadn't taken place Yaroslav would not have won.

Among other Great Ukrainians for whatever reasons appeared Volodymyr Lenin as well as such names like Stakhanov, Hlushkov, and Vatutin.

Other editions

Other countries have produced similar shows; see Greatest Britons spin-offs

References
  1. Yaroslav the Wise - the Greatest Ukrainian of all times, Inter TV (19 May 2008)
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