Ivan Mazepa

A plate showing Mazepa's coat of arms, once placed on the Chernihiv college.

Mazepa was probably born on 30 March 1639,[2] in Mazepyntsi, near Bila Tserkva, then part of the Kyiv Voivodeship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (today – Drozdy rural council, Bila Tserkva Raion), into a noble Ruthenian-Lithuanian family. His mother was Maryna Mokievska (1624–1707) (known from 1674 to 1675 by her monastic name Maria Magdalena),[7] and his father was Stefan Adam Mazepa (?-1666). Maryna Mokievska came from the family of a Cossack officer who fought alongside Bohdan Khmelnytsky. She gave birth to two children – Ivan and Oleksandra. Stefan Mazepa served as an Otaman of Bila Tserkva (1654), a Cossack representative of the King of the Polish–Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita, and a Czernihów podczaszy (Cup-bearer of Chernihiv, 1662).

Ivan Mazepa was educated first in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, then at a Jesuit college in Warsaw. In addition to the Ukrainian language, Russian and Polish, he was fluent in Latin (according to the recollections of the French diplomat Jean Baluze, “with excellent knowledge of this language he could compete with our best Jesuit fathers”) and spoke Italian and German. Pylyp Orlyk testified that Mazepa knew the Tatar language very well, as many Cossack foremen did at that time.[8] As a page, Mazepa was sent to study "gunnery" in Deventer (Dutch Republic) in 1656–1659, during which time he traveled across Western Europe.[9] From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king, John II Casimir Vasa (reigned 1648–1668) on numerous diplomatic missions to Ukraine.[9] His service at the Polish royal court earned him a reputation as an alleged catholicized "Lyakh"[10] – later the Russian Imperial government would effectively use this slur to discredit Mazepa. During this time there arose the legend of his affair with Madam Falbowska that inspired a number of European Romantics, such Franz Liszt, Victor Hugo, and many others.[9]

In 1663 Mazepa returned home when his father fell ill. After the death of his father (ca. 1665), he inherited the title of the Chernihiv cupbearer.[9] From 1669 to 1673 Mazepa served under Petro Doroshenko (Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine from 1665 to 1672) as a squadron commander in the Hetman Guard, particularly during Doroshenko's 1672 campaign in Halychyna, and as a chancellor on diplomatic missions to Poland, Crimea, and the Ottoman Empire.[9] From 1674 to 1681 Mazepa served as a "courtier" of Doroshenko's rival Hetman Ivan Samoylovych after Mazepa was captured on the way to Crimea by the Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko in 1674.[9] From 1677 to 1678 Mazepa participated in the Chyhyryn campaigns during which Yuri Khmelnytsky, with the support from the Ottoman Empire, tried to regain power in Ukraine.[9] The young, educated Mazepa quickly rose through the Cossack ranks, and from 1682 to 1686 he served as an Aide-de-Camp General (Heneralny Osaul).

"Ivan Mazepa, Supreme War Prince of Zaporizhian Cossacks"

In 1687 Ivan Mazepa accused Samoylovych of conspiring to secede from Russia, secured his ouster, and was elected the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine in Kolomak,[11] with the support of Vasily Galitzine. At the same time Ivan Mazepa signed the Kolomak Articles, which were based on the Hlukhiv Articles of Demian Mnohohrishny.

Gradually, Mazepa accumulated great wealth, becoming one of Europe's largest land owners. A multitude of churches were built all over Ukraine during his reign in the Ukrainian Baroque style. He founded schools and printing houses, and expanded the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the primary educational institution of Ukraine at the time, to accommodate 2,000 students.

In 1702, the Cossacks of Right-bank Ukraine, under the leadership of hetman Semen Paliy, began an uprising against Poland, which after early successes was defeated. Mazepa convinced Russian Tsar Peter I to allow him to intervene, which he successfully did, taking over major portions of Right-bank Ukraine, while Poland was weakened by an invasion of Swedish king Charles XII.

Decisive battle

Charles XII and Mazepa at Dnieper after the Battle of Poltava

The Swedish and Russian armies spent the first half of 1709 maneuvering for advantage in the anticipated great battle, and trying to secure the support of the local populace. Finally in June the Battle of Poltava took place. It was won by Russia and Peter the Great, putting an end to Mazepa's hopes of transferring Ukraine into the control of Sweden, which in a treaty had promised independence to Ukraine. Mazepa fled with Charles XII to the fortress of Bender (Tighina), in the Ottoman Empire's vassal Moldavia, where Mazepa soon died.

Mazepa was buried in Galați (now Romania), but his tomb was disturbed several times and eventually lost as a result of the Sfântul Gheorghe (St. George) Church demolition in 1962.[12]

As Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, Mazepa's style was as follows:

Hetman Ivan Mazepa of the Czar's Illustrious Highness's Zaporozhian Host, Knight of the Glorious Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew (Ukrainian: Гетьман Іван Мазепа Війська Його Царської Пресвітлої Величності Запорізького, Славного Чину Святого Апостола Андрія Кавалер).[13]

Mazepa's decision to abandon his allegiance to the Russian Empire was considered treason by the Russian Tsar and a violation of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. However, others argue that it was Imperial Russia who broke the treaty by not even trying to protect the Cossack homeland during busy fighting abroad while Ukrainian peasants were complaining about the conduct of local Muscovite troops. Many Cossacks had died while building Saint Petersburg, and the Tsar planned to deploy Cossack troops far from their homeland.[14][15]

Mazepa monument in Poltava

The image of a disgraceful traitor persisted throughout Russian and Soviet history. The Russian Orthodox Church anathemaised and excommunicated him for political reasons. Until 1869, his name was even added to the list of traitors publicly cursed in Russian churches during the Feast of Orthodoxy service, along with Pugachev, Razin and False Dmitry I. Later, a positive view of Mazepa was taboo in the Soviet Union and considered as a sign of "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism". During the years of Perestroika, however, many historical works saw light that viewed Mazepa differently. After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazepa was proclaimed a national hero in Ukraine's official historiography and mainstream media, as he was the first post-Pereyaslav Treaty hetman to take a stand against the Tsar, who failed to abide by the Treaty. This view however was disputed by pro-Russian factions.[16][17][18] Russia has repeatedly condemned Ukraine for honoring the figure of Ivan Mazepa.[19] According to an April 2009 survey by the Research & Branding Group, 30 percent of the population of Ukraine views Mazepa as "a man who fought for the independence of Ukraine", while 28 percent view him "as a turncoat who joined the enemy's ranks".[18]

During an event in Mazepyntsi to mark the 370th birthday (20 March 2009) of Hetman Mazepa, President Viktor Yushchenko called for the myth about the alleged treason of Mazepa to be dispelled. According to Yushchenko, the hetman wanted to create an independent Ukraine, and architecture thrived in Ukraine over the years of Mazepa's rule: "Ukraine was reviving as the country of European cultural traditions".[20] The same day, around 100 people held a protest in Simferopol against the marking of the 370th birthday of Mazepa.[16][17] In May 2009 the Russian foreign ministry stated in an answer to Ukraine's preparations to mark the 300th anniversary of the battle of Poltava and plans to erect a monument to Mazepa that those were attempts at an "artificial, far-fetched confrontation with Russia".[18]

₴10 banknote depicting Ivan Mazepa

₴10 coin depicting Ivan Mazepa

Mazepa's portrait is found on the ₴10 (Ukrainian currency) bill.[18]

In August 2009, a monument to the hetman, the work of the sculptor Giennadij Jerszow,[21] was unveiled at Dytynets Park in Chernihiv.[22] The opening was accompanied by clashes between the police and opponents of the Mazepa.[19]

After researching his genealogy in 2009, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko did not rule out that his family is connected with the family of Mazepa.[23]

In August 2009, Yushchenko decreed the resuming of a halted construction of an Ivan Mazepa monument in Poltava.[24] A monument to Mazepa was to be erected on Slava Square in Kyiv in 2010 to fulfill a decree of Yushchenko.[25] In May 2010 Kyiv city civil servants stated the city was ready to establish a monument as soon as the Cabinet of Ukraine would fund this project.[19] According to them the situation was similar to other unrealised monuments such as the "Unification Monument" and a monument to Pylyp Orlyk who in 2010 were conceived in 2002 and 2003 but still not built in 2010.[19][28] The Poltava City Council on 25 February 2016 voted in favor of the monument.[27] On 6 May 2016 President Petro Poroshenko unveiled the Mazepa monument in Poltava.[29]

The Ivan Mazepa Street in Kyiv, which runs past the Pechersk Lavra, was partly changed to Lavrska Street in July 2010.[30] The move was met with protests.[31]

In Galați (Romania), Mazepa is remembered in the name of two central neighbourhoods (Mazepa I and II) and with a statue in a park on Basarabiei street.[12]

DUMA

(translation by Dimitri Horbay in the newspaper Svoboda, Ukrainian Weekly Saturday, 22 March 1958, No. 55, Vol. LXV)[32]

"Mazeppa" by Théodore Géricault, based on an episode in Byron's poem when the young Mazeppa is punished by being tied to a wild horse.

The historical events of Mazepa's life have inspired many literary and musical works:

• Lord Byron – Mazeppa, poem (1818)
• Alexander Pushkin – Poltava, poem (1828–1829)
• Victor Hugo – Mazeppa, poem (1829)
• Juliusz Słowacki – Mazeppa, drama (1840)
• Franz Liszt – Mazeppa, symphonic poem (1851); Transcendental Étude No. 4.
• Marie Grandval – Mazeppa, opera (1892)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Mazeppa, opera (1881–1883)
• Michael William Balfe – The Page, cantata (1861)
• Taras Shevchenko
• Kondraty Ryleyev
• A Ukrainian-language film by Yuri Ilyenko, loosely based on historical facts and called Молитва за гетьмана Мазепу (Molytva za hetmana Mazepu), was released in 2002.[33]
• The Italian composer Carlo Pedrotti wrote a tragic opera titled Mazeppa in 1861, with libretto by Achille de Lauzieres.

In 2009 the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, instituted the Cross of Ivan Mazepa as an award for cultural achievement and service.[34]

In 2020 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave the 54th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army the honorary title of "Ivan Mazepa."[35] In 2022 Zelenskyy named a Ukrainian Navy Ada-class corvette after Mazepa.[6]

• Ivan Mazepa's Hetman's Banner
• List of Ukrainian rulers
• Mazepa family

• Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva. Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire. McGill-Queens University Press. 2020. ISBN 978-0-2280-0174-4
• Hrushevsky, M. Illustrated history of Ukraine. "BAO". Donetsk, 2003. ISBN 966-548-571-7
• Orest Subtelny, The Mazepists: Ukrainian Separatism in the Early Eighteenth Century (1981).
• Thomas M. Prymak, "Voltaire on Mazepa and Early Eighteenth Century Ukraine," Canadian Journal of History, XLVII, 2 (2012), 259–83.
• Thomas M. Prymak, "The Cossack Hetman: Ivan Mazepa in History and Legend from Peter to Pushkin," The Historian, LXXVI, 2 (2014), 237–77.
• Thomas M. Prymak, “Who Betrayed Whom? Or, Who remained Loyal to What? Tsar Peter vs. Hetman Mazepa,” Eighteenth Century Studies, LV, 3 (2022), 359-76.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ivan Mazepa.

• Bain, Robert Nisbet (1911). "Mazepa-Koledinsky, Ivan Stepanovich" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). p. 942.
• Mazepa at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine by Oleksander Ohloblyn
• Ivan Mazepa
• The Name of Ivan Mazepa (in Ukrainian)
• List of churches and monasteries in building of which invested Ivan Mazepa
• Orest Subtelny,"Mazepa, Peter I and the Question of Treason," {
• Re-Fighting the Northern War: The Celebration of the Battle of Poltava in Russia. Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva, Professor, Department of History, St. Petersburg State University. Author: Joseph Dresen (Kennan Institute) Archived 20 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
• Velychenko, S. The Battle of Poltava and the Decline of Cossack-Ukraine in light of Russian and English methods of rule in their Borderlands (1707–1914). historians.in.ua. 5 July 2012.

Predecessor Ivan Samoylovych

Hetman of Zaporizhian Host 1687–1709

Successor Ivan Skoropadsky (in Hetmanate) Pylyp Orlyk (in exile)