One of the party's creators Viktor Medvedchuk has a very controversial biography due to being a son of a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists who managed to attain jurist diploma from a major university in the Soviet Union. He is better known as a state lawyer of several Soviet dissidents from Ukraine who eventually died in prison. In 1989 Medvedchuk was heading the biggest law firm in Kyiv with over 40 lawyers, yet not being a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Since 1989 Medvedchuk closely cooperated with football functionary Hryhoriy Surkis who in 1993 was able to become a president of FC Dynamo Kyiv.