Ivan Mazepa

Family home

Mazepa was born on 30 March [O.S. 20 March] 1639 in the village of Mazepyntsi [uk], near Bila Tserkva, then part of the Kiev Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, into the noble Mazepa family.^[5] His father, Stepan Adam Mazepa, was the town otaman of Bila Tserkva during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, while his mother, Maryna Mokiievska, was also of Cossack blood. Maryna later became the hegumene of the Voznesensk Monastery [uk] in Kyiv after the death of her husband and was then known by her monastic name, Mariia Mahdalena; the couple also had a younger daughter, Oleksandra.^[6]

In Polish service

In 1657, Stepan Mazepa became involved with Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who pursued a pro-Polish policy. In 1659, Stepan Mazepa travelled to Warsaw to attend the sejm and placed his son Ivan in service at the royal court of John II Casimir Vasa.^[7] Before that, Ivan Mazepa studied at the Kyiv Mohyla Collegium in Kyiv graduated with a degree in rhetoric.^[8] According to Samiilo Velychko, Ivan was to complete his philosophy course at the Jesuit college in Warsaw.^[9]

According to late tradition, King John Casimir sent Ivan Mazepa to study "gunnery" in Deventer (Dutch Republic) in 1656–1659, during which time he travelled across Western Europe.^[10] From 1659 the Polish king was sending him on numerous diplomatic missions to Ukraine.^[10] His service at the Polish royal court earned him a reputation as an alleged catholicized liakh (a more offensive word for a Pole)^[11] – later the Russian Imperial government would effectively use this slur to discredit Mazepa.^[12]

During one of his missions, Mazepa met Jan Chryzostom Pasek, whom he took to be a supporter of the anti-royal confederation. He led to Pasek's arrest and had him brought before the king, who was staying in Grodno at the time. According to Pasek's account, he managed to prove his innocence, the king rewarded him for the harm he suffered and Mazepa lost the royal trust.^[13] Further on in his memoirs, Pasek recounts the story of under what circumstances Mazepa left Poland in 1663. According to Pasek, Mazepa had an affair with Mrs. Falbowska, wife of his neighbour in Volhynia.^[14][15] When the neighbour discovered the affair, he tied Mazepa naked to a horse, head to tail, and fastened the horse. The horse carried Mazepa to his household, but he was so badly wounded that his own subjects were unable to recognize him.^[14][16] Pasek's memoirs were written in 1690–1695, when Mazepa was already a Cossack hetman; it is possible that Pasek, who had a personal grudge against Mazepa, colored the story.^[16] However, this anecdote also appears in the anonymous Memoirs to the Reign of Augustus II and in the memoirs of Marquis de Bonnac.^[17] The story was later recounted by Voltaire in his Histoire de Charles XII and became a recurring motif in the literary works of such writers as Victor Hugo, Lord Byron, Alexander Pushkin or Juliusz Słowacki, as well as in the paintings of such painters as Horace Vernet, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Chassériau, Théodore Géricault and others.^[14][10][17] The tale was probably widespread by then and referred to Mazepa's reputation as a womanizer.^[17]

Despite Pasek's accounts, Mazepa still remained in royal service. In February 1663 he was sent to the Cossack Hetman Pavel Tetera, to whom he brought the Hetman's mace, presented to Tetera by Tomasz Jan Karczewski [pl].^[9] Mazepa then took part in a royal campaign against Russia in left-bank Ukraine in years 1663–1664.^[9] Mazepa was certainly still at the royal court in 1665, probably until the abdication of John II Casimir in 1668.^[9]

Under Hetman Doroshenko

After the death of his father (ca. 1665), he inherited the title of the Chernihiv cupbearer.^[10] 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.^[10] 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.^[10] 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.^[10] The young, educated Mazepa quickly rose through the Cossack ranks, being promoted to army osaul in 1681, which brought him close to the elite (or starshyna) of the Cosssack military leadership.^[8]

Early rule

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,^[18] 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.^{[citation needed]} In 1689 Mazepa supported the deposition of Tsarevna Sophia, who had served as de facto regent of Tsar Peter I, which helped him ingratiate himself with the monarch, who valued the wide experience and education of the much older hetman. In words of a Russian historian, Mazepa "was like a father to Peter I in a sense".^[19]

As hetman, Mazepa used his knowledge in military matters to introduce a new successful strategy in the fight against the Tatars and their Ottoman overlords. This success relieved both Ukraine and Muscovy from the danger of devastating enemy raids and led Peter I to award the hetman with the Order of St. Andrew, the Tsardom's highest honour. The order, as well as the title of honourable prince of the Holy Roman Empire, awarded to the hetman by Emperor Joseph I in 1707 as recognition of his help in the fight against the Ottomans and Tatars, greatly contributed to Mazepa's status both in Ukraine and at the Moscow court.^[19]

With the personal agreement of Peter I, Mazepa managed to become an undisputed ruler of the Hetmanate, concentrating most power over Ukraine, including gathering of taxes, in hands of his own administration. As hetman, Mazepa became known as a patron of culture and arts. 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 Kiev-Mohyla Academy, the primary educational institution of Ukraine at the time. In many regards Mazepa greatly contributed to the establishment of the Russian Empire by supporting the policies of Peter I and providing the monarch with people needed to bring his reformist ideas into life. For example, the majority of religious figures who helped Peter I to reform the Russian Orthodox Church by bringing it under increased state control came from the Hetmanate, including Orthodox bishops Stefan Yavorsky and Theophan Prokopovich.^[19]

Himself a highly educated person who could speak both Latin and German, Mazepa established his court in a Western manner, reflecting the influence of Baroque art and literature on Ukrainian lands during that period. Mazepa's personal residence was reported to house one of the most extensive libraries of its time, containing numerous books and illuminated manuscripts from around Europe.^[19]

Great Northern War

Battling the Swedes

See also: Campaign of Grodno

In 1700, as the Russian Empire entered the Great Northern War against the Swedish Empire, Mazepa, despite having concerns about the Tsar's adventurous foreign policies, supported Peter I with troops and resources.^[19] In 1702, the Cossacks of Right-bank Ukraine, under the leadership of colonel 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. In 1704 Peter I allowed the hetman to incorporate the Right-bank territories into the Hetmanate, uniting Ukraine on both sides of the Dnieper for the first time in decades.^[19]

At the same time, Peter I decided to reform the Russian army and to centralize control over his realm. In Mazepa's opinion, the strengthening of Russia's central power could put at risk the broad autonomy granted to the Cossack Hetmanate under the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654. Attempts to assert control over the Zaporozhian Cossacks included demands of having them fight in any of the tsar's wars, instead of only defending their own land against regional enemies as was agreed to in previous treaties. Now Cossack forces were made to fight in distant wars in Livonia and Lithuania, leaving their own homes unprotected from the Tatars and Poles. Ill-equipped and not properly trained to fight on par with the tactics of modern European armies, Cossacks suffered heavy losses and low morale. The Hetman himself started to feel his post threatened in the face of increasing calls to replace him with one of the abundant generals of the Russian army.^{[citation needed]}

Growing discontent

Having decisively defeated the pro-Russian Augustus II the Strong in 1706 and the Danes earlier, Charles XII began his march on Moscow in early 1708 with a 50,000 strong army. Sweden seemed to be the dominant power in eastern Europe, while Sweden's ally, king Stanisław Leszczyński was poised to attack Left-bank Ukraine.^[23] Mazepa, meanwhile, had requested that Peter I provide at least 10,000 troops to defend Ukraine from the advancing Poles and Swedes, justifying his request by the fact that his own forces were dispersed along other fronts of the war; Peter allegedly responded "Not only ten thousand, but even ten men I cannot give. Defend yourself as you are able." This was a deep blow for Mazepa and the starshyna, who saw in this refusal to defend a loyal vassal a direct violation of the Kolomak Articles, signed at the beginning of Mazepa's rule, which had explicitly obliged Russia to protect Ukraine from military threats. The leadership of the Hetmanate now recalled the Khmelnytsky Uprising, when the Cossacks had renounced their oath to the Polish king after the latter had violated his obligations towards the Zaporozhian Host.^[24]

At the same time, the scorched earth policy of Peter, first conceived in 1707 and then implemented in August 1708, was deeply unpopular with both the common folk and with the Cossack elite of the Hetmanate.^[25][26] The Russian voevoda, or military governor, of the Kyiv region Dmitrii Golitsyn ordered Mazepa's troops to burn the land and mills through which Swedish troops were likely to pass.^[27] Peter's personal decree of 9 August 1709 to General Nikolai Iflant [ru] was more severe, stating that Iflant was to burn the grain in fields and barns, the buildings, mills and bridges, and to drive the local population into the woods if the Swedes were to enter Ukraine. In September of the same year, Peter ordered all officers and inhabitants of the Pochep sotnia in Starodub to be driven from their villages to the towns, making no effort at providing homes for the displaced. Mazepa was deeply imbittered by this perceived betrayal of the Tsar, writing to the colonel of Poltava in November 1708:^[28]

Such is their valour, any devoted son of the Little Russian fatherland can understand about this, that Moscow is not protecting us; [Moscow] has prepared to destroy the whole region and uproot the Little Russian people.

To the Ukrainian peasantry, which would not profit from the Tsar's goals in the Great Northern War (access to the Baltic Sea and trade with western Europe), it was no more appealing to accept the destruction of their towns and villages than to come under Swedish occupation. Prince Menshikov wrote in late 1708 that his troops "provoke only hatred from the inhabitants of the Little Russian region" while they stand and "burn them and steal their grain." Discontent grew amongst the population, which often blamed Mazepa for their troubles, as it was his administration that carried out Peter's orders. In May 1708, peasants in Chernihiv rose up and fought against the Kalmyks, which were plundering the countryside for supplies. The Cossacks sent to suppress Bulavin's rebellion on the Don increasingly took the side of the rebels instead of Tsarist troops.^[29]

Change of sides

Charles Whitworth, the English ambassador to Russia, wrote in September that Mazepa will struggle to keep the population loyal if the Swedes were to approach.^[30] In late 1708, discontent grew even further, with riots happening all major towns and cities of the Hetmanate.^[31] Around this time, Mazepa sold all his estates in Russia.^[32] Having established contact with Leszczyński back in 1705, but not having seriously considered a change of sides yet, Mazepa finally made his move, defecting to the Swedes in late October 1708.^[23]

Mazepa, however, could only muster a small force to follow him: the Nizhyn and Pereiaslav regiments were stationed in Smolensk, while the Starodub and Chernihiv regiments were in Propoisk, both cities far to the north of left-bank Ukraine; the Kyiv Regiment was located in Right-bank Ukraine; the Poltava Regiment and the professional cavalry units were suppressing the Bulavin Rebellion of the Don Cossacks on the Don river to the east,^[33] while the Hadiach Regiment was in Kyiv. Thus, only 2,800 inexperienced cavalrymen and one infantry regiment remained at Mazepa's disposal, totalling about 4,000 men.^[34][35] The poor state of the Hetmanate's army could be explained by Mazepa's loyal service in the Great Northern War against Sweden: over 40,000 Cossacks had been sent to the frontline, and in some regiments, fatality rates were over 60 or 70 percent. Moreover, Cossacks had been engaged in large-scale construction and engineering works, primarily in the cold and swampy Gulf of Finland region, which likewise claimed the lives of many Ukrainians.^[26]

Despite the low number of actual combat-worthy troops to join Mazepa, the starshyna, or the Cossack officer elite, had overwhelmingly supported and joined Mazepa's defection. Of the ten colonels on the left bank, six had joined Mazepa, whereas the four that did not (the colonels of the aforementioned Nizhyn, Starodub, Chernihiv, and Pereiaslav, including Ivan Skoropadsky and Pavlo Polubotok) could not have physically joined him, for they were stationed far away; notably, even of those four, Skoropadsky and Polubotok expressed sympathy towards Mazepa's actions. Polubotok would later die in 1725 while imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for supporting Ukrainian autonomy, while Skoropadsky was later declared a traitor by Peter.^[36] The entirety of the general staff and general clerks (including Samiilo Velychko) had followed him, which caused the Russian administration to report an acute shortage of qualified scribes in January 1709.^[37]

Peter, having learned of Mazepa's defection, initially struggled to believe the reports that the seventy year old Mazepa, hitherto loyal to him, would switch sides. However, upon accepting the truth, he set out to carry out brutal retribution by sacking Baturyn, the capital of the Hetmanate, on 24 October 1708. Already on 2 November, Baturyn fell to the Russian troops after a local Cossack showed them a hidden entry to the town fort.^[38] The Russian troops then proceeded to massacre up to 15,000 inhabitants (including men, women and children) of the city, while all governmental buildings were ransacked and destroyed. The scale of the violence was such that the Seim river ran red with blood for several days afterwards. Charles XII and Mazepa reached Baturyn on 7 November, finding the city a smouldering ruin. The loss of the city's garrison and large stockpile (which had included cannon, gunpowder, food and fodder) was a significant setback for the Swedes.^[39] Peter then designated Hlukhiv the new capital of the Hetmanate and, having arrived there, personally arranged for the election of a new hetman, Ivan Skoropadsky.^[34]

The Cossack officers who did not attend the election of Skoropadsky in Hlukhiv or those suspected of loyalty to Mazepa in general were then rounded up at Peter's headquarters in Lebedyn,^[40] where a special court tried and found guilty over 900 officers (including a diplomatic mission from the Zaporozhian Sich), who were then executed.^[34] Local civilians suspected of harbouring sympathies towards Mazepa were also subject to torture and execution; in particular, Prince Menshikov's men acted especially cruelly, employing methods such as dismemberment, use of the breaking wheel and impalement.^[41]

Diplomatic efforts

On 5 November 1708, an anathema (formal excommunication and denunciation) was declared by the Russian Orthodox Church while his effigy was hanged in Moscow.^[34] While traditional, primarily Russian, historiography has largely held the view that the Church unanimously condemned Mazepa's change of allegiance to the Lutheran Swedes, 21st century scholarship has taken the contrary position. For instance, the Ukrainian-born hieromonk Harvasii of the Solovetsky Monastery in Russia declared in 1727 during a recitation of the anathema that, "Our Mazepa is a saint, but your Moskal is a son without honour." Similarly, 3 years earlier, an archpriest from Lokhvytsia in Poltava Regiment had said that Mazepa was a saint that would go to heaven.^[42] More significantly, Stefan Yavorsky, the Ukrainian archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church who declared the anathema against Mazepa at Peter's decision, did himself not support the declaration; he wrote (but did not deliver) several sermons which criticised Peter's rule, while the text of the anathema itself largely praises Mazepa's deeds over the 20 years of his rule, condemning him only at the very end.^[43]

Against the background of immense stress, campaigning and advanced age, Mazepa's already poor health — as he suffered from a severe form of gout^[44] — deteriorated even further. Despite this, he then exerted considerable effort at winning over the support of the Zaporozhian Sich, ruled by the Kish Otaman Kost Hordiienko. This was an unlikely alliance, as from the very beginning of his political career, when he was captured and almost killed by the Zaporozhians of Ivan Sirko, he had held a negative view of the Zaporozhians, describing them as "brigands" in private letters. Nevertheless, Mazepa sent several letters to Hordiienko, who responded on 24 November that the Zaporozhians were ready to serve under the Swedish king, but demanded that ambassadors be sent for negotiations. A key Zaporozhian demand was the removal of the Kam'ianyi Zaton and Samar fortresses, which had been conceived and built with Mazepa's participation several years earlier, to protect against Crimean Tatar raids, but also to limit the autonomy of the Sich.^[45]

Peter and Menshikov, fearing the Zaporozhian cavalry would link up with the Swedish infantry at Perevolochna, likewise attempted to persuade the Sich to side with Russia instead. On 12 November 1708, Peter sent a directive instructing Hordiienko to avoid siding with Mazepa and instead come to Hlukhiv to participate in the election of a new hetman; Hordiienko refused. Ivan Skoropadsky's envoy, having arrived to notify the Zaporozhians of Skoropadsky's election as new hetman was almost beaten to death by Hordiienko himself. Unable to persuade Hordiienko diplomatically, Peter wrote to Menshikov on 21 February 1709 that he concurred with Skoropadsky's desire to "change the kish otaman". A group of loyal Cossacks were selected and sent to the Sich to overthrow Hordiienko, but they proved unable to do so.^[46]

Mazepa's diplomatic effort, however, was successful: having sent his best officers as envoys, Hordiienko finally wrote a letter expressing his desire to work together with Mazepa and the Swedes against the "evil-minded Moscow" on 16 April. Mazepa and Hordiienko subsequently met in Dykanka, after which the Zaporozhian swore allegiance to Charles XII and signed an agreement with Mazepa and the king. c. 5,000 – c. 8,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks then joined the Swedish camp from the Sich.^[47] This had an immediate impact on the other Cossack regiments of Ukraine, especially in Right-bank Ukraine and Poltava, where unrest against the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian governments increased, causing great concern to both Sieniawski and Golitsyn.^[48]

Battle of Poltava

Main article: 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. The hetman fled with Charles XII to the fortress of Bender (Tighina), in the Ottoman Empire's vassal Moldavia, where Mazepa soon died at the age of 70.^[19]

Exile and death

Mazepa was initially interred in the village of Varnița,^[49] and later reburied 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.^[50]

Ethnic identity

The term and concept of a fatherland (Ukrainian: отзична, romanized: otchyzna) was an important feature of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century political discourse in both the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the territory of modern Ukraine. Before Khmelnytsky's uprising, Poland or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were most commonly referred to as the fatherlands of their inhabitants, and Polonised Ruthenian noblemen such as Jeremi Wiśniowiecki or the Czartoryskis were described as sons of Poland or Lithuania, not of the Rus' or Ukraine.^[56]

After the formation of the Cossack Hetmanate and break from Poland, the slow transferral of the fatherland away from Poland or the Commonwealth began. While pro-Polish hetmans continued to refer to Poland as a "common fatherland" with the Poles, by the 1660's, Cossack Ukraine was increasingly seen as the fatherland of its inhabitants. Hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky of Left-bank Ukraine became one of the first to introduce this new idea of a Ukrainian fatherland into common political use (though his main rival, Hetman Pavlo Teteria of Right-bank Ukraine still called Poland a "common mother" of the Cossack Hetmanate). Notably, Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself was oft called the "father of the fatherland", clearly demonstrating that Ukraine primarily referred to the territory of the Cossack Hetmanate. While Ukraine became widely recognised as the fatherland by many, among them the hetmans Petro Doroshenko and Mykhailo Khanenko, the Rus' or Ruthenia was also sometimes called the fatherland, rather than Ukraine.^[57]

Mazepa himself was no exception to this new trend. By the turn of the 1700's, his circulars often spoke of a "Little Russian fatherland", while he himself was sometimes also called the "father of the fatherland" (that is, the Hetmanate). After Mazepa's defection to the Swedes in 1708, however, Peter I — who had not frequently used the term before — positioned himself as champion and defender of "Little Russia", while labelling Mazepa a traitor who wished to restore Polish subjugation.^[58]

Now locked in an ideological battle with Peter I, Mazepa called upon Ivan Skoropadsky to attack the "Muscovite" troops as a "true son of the fatherland"; in explaining his reasons for siding with the Swedes, he stated that he was acting for the welfare of "the common welfare of my father-land, poor unfortunate Ukraine". A significant innovation of Mazepa was framing the war against Russia as a battle between two distinct nations: the Little Russians (Ukrainians) and Great Russians.^[59]

Despite Mazepa's defeat at the Battle of Poltava, his usage of Ukraine as the name of a national fatherland distinct from Great Russia or Muscovy became only more popular in the years since his death, while the old terms which referred to a supposed All-Russian nation (such as Little Russia) declined; a 1728 drama dedicated to the new Hetman Danylo Apostol likened him to Khmelnytsky and called upon the viewers to celebrate Khmelnytsky's victories: "Do not weep, o Ukraine, cease to grieve; it is time to turn your sorrow into joy."^[60] For this reason, modern historians generally refer to Mazepa as a Ukrainian; Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva speaks of Mazepa as a "Ukrainian historical leader";^[61] while Paul Robert Magocsi calls him "the Ukrainian hetman",^[26] as does Bushkovitch.^[62]

Romantic relationships

In 1668 or 1669 Mazepa married Anna (Hanna), the daughter of Bila Tserkva colonel Semen Polovets and widow of his successor Samuil Frydrykiewicz. That marriage allowed Mazepa to enter the circles of Right-bank Cossack starshyna, contributing to his career rise. Hanna died in 1702.^[63][64]

Renowned as a womanizer, at the age of 60 Mazepa started courting 16-year old Motria, the daughter of chief judge Vasyl Kochubey. Motria's parents strictly opposed the possibility of their marriage, as the hetman was her godparent, and such a union would be prohibited according to church law. However, Motria disobeyed, and in 1704 fled her parents' house. Fearing a scandal which could lead to his own anathema, Mazepa sent Motria back, but the couple continued their contacts in correspondence. In total, twelve love letters written by Mazepa to Motria have been preserved. Kochubey eventually married his daughter to a member of Cossack starshyna called Chuikevych.^[65]

Mazepa's affair with Kochubey's daughter led to a conflict between the two men. In 1707 Kochubey accused Mazepa of treason in a letter to Peter I, but the following investigation blamed the denouncer himself due to being bribed by the hetman. After numerous tortures, in July 1708 Kochubey and another accuser of Mazepa, Poltava colonel Ivan Iskra, were delivered to the hetman's military camp and beheaded (following Mazepa's desertion both would be posthumously rehabilitated and reburied in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra). Motria herself was exiled to Siberia together with her husband, and upon her return would become a nun.^[66]

Authentic sources

• Hetman of [Zaporozhian Host on/of] both sides of the Dnieper (гетманъ обойхъ сторонъ Днепра;^[67] Войска Запоро(ж/з)ского (c) обоихъ сторонъ Днепра гетман(ъ))^[68] - first mentioned in a pledge made by the newly elected hetman under the terms of Kolomak Treaty of 1687, signifying his claims to both Left- and Right-bank Ukraine; also present in latter documents.
• Hetman with Their Illustrious Tsar's Majesty's Zaporozhian Host (гетманъ з Войскомъ их царского пресвѣтлого величества Запоро(з/жс)ким(ъ))^[69] or Hetman of Their [Most Illustrious and Sovereign Lords'] Illustrious Tsar's Majesty's Zaporozhian Host ([Пресвѣтлѣйшихъ и державнѣйшихъ великихъ государей] ихъ царского пресвѣтлого величества Войска Запорозского гетманъ)^[70][71] - used by Mazepa under the joint rule of Peter I and Ivan V (1687–1696).
• Hetman of His [Most Illustrious and Sovereign Lord's] Illustrious Tsar's Majesty's Zaporozhian Host ([Пресвѣтлѣйшого и державнѣйшого великого государя] его царского пресвѣтлого величества Войска Запороз(с/жс)кого гетманъ)^[72][73] - under one-person rule of Peter I (after 1696).
• Hetman of His [Illustrious and Most Sovereign Lord's] Illustrious Tsar's Majesty's Zaporozhian Host and Knight [of the Glorious Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew] ([Пресвѣтлѣйшого и державнѣйшого великого государя] его царского пресвѣтлого величества Войска Запорожского гетманъ и [славного чина святого апостола Андрея] кавалер(ъ))^[74][75] - after being awarded with the Order of St. Andrew in 1704.
• Hetman of His Illustrious and Most Sovereign Lord's (and) Tsar's Majesty's Zaporozhian Hosts and Knight of the Glorious Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew and White Eagle (Пресвѣтлѣйшого и державнѣйшого великого государя его царского величества Войскъ Запорожскихъ гетманъ и славного чина святого апостола Андрея и Бѣлого Орла кавалер(ъ)) - after being awarded with the Order of the White Eagle and attaching Right-bank Ukraine to the Hetmanate in 1705.^[76][77]

Dubious sources

• Prince of Ukraine (князь України) - supposedly contained in the 1708 treaty between Charles XII and the Cossack Hetmanate as claimed in a 1925 article by Ilko Borshchak.^[78]

Russian and Soviet historiography

Historians of the Russian imperial era, including Dmitri Bantysh-Kamensky, Sergey Solovyov and Vasily Klyuchevsky considered Mazepa to be a traitor for his alliance with Charles XII of Sweden.^[83] However, some Russian historians of émigré background later changed that view, seeing Mazepa's decision as justified by the wish to preserve his country's autonomy.^[82]

A positive view of Mazepa was taboo in the Soviet Union and considered as a sign of "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism". In the 1971 Soviet Encyclopedia on the History of Ukraine Mazepa was characterized as a "traitor of the Ukrainian people", and the 1979 History of the Ukrainian SSR referred to his name as a "symbol of treachery and betrayal".^[82] During the years of Perestroika, however, many historical works saw light that viewed Mazepa differently.

Ukrainian historiography

Ukrainian historians initially had a predominantly unfavourable view on Mazepa, considering his policies and decisions to have been influenced by interests of the Cossack elite, and not of the nation as a whole. Among those Ukrainian authors who saw Mazepa as a traitor were Mykola Kostomarov, Panteleimon Kulish, Oleksandr Lazarevskyi and Volodymyr Antonovych. However, starting from the late 19th century, a new generation of students of Ukrainian history started reassessing Mazepa's figure. Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Viacheslav Lypynskyi, Dmytro Doroshenko, Oleksander Ohloblyn and some others recognized the hetman as a patriot of Ukraine, who attempted to obtain for his country independence from Moscow's rule. In the 20th century Mazepa was elevated by some historians and publicists, most prominently Dmytro Dontsov and Natalia Polonska-Vasylenko, as a symbol of struggle for Ukraine's independence.^[82]

Independent Ukraine

After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazepa became increasingly seen in a positive light, as a great statesman who attempted to defend Ukrainian autonomy and interests. This is perhaps best evidenced by the 10 hryvnia bill featuring a portrait of Mazepa. This positive or revisionist view, however, is disputed by pro-Russian factions.^[84][85][86] Russia has repeatedly condemned Ukraine for honoring the figure of Ivan Mazepa.^[87] In an April 2009 survey by the Research & Branding Group, 30 percent of the population of Ukraine viewed Mazepa as "a man who fought for the independence of Ukraine", while 28 percent viewed him "as a turncoat who joined the enemy's ranks".^[86]

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".^[88] The same day, around 100 people held a protest in Simferopol against the marking of the 370th birthday of Mazepa.^[84][85] 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".^[86]

In August 2009, a monument to the hetman, the work of the sculptor Giennadij Jerszow,^[89] was unveiled at Dytynets Park in Chernihiv.^[90] The opening was accompanied by clashes between the police and opponents of Mazepa.^[87]

After researching his genealogy in 2009, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko did not rule out that his family is connected with the family of Mazepa.^[91]

In August 2009, Yushchenko decreed the resuming of a halted construction of an Ivan Mazepa monument in Poltava.^[92] A monument to Mazepa was to be erected on Slava Square in Kyiv in 2010 to fulfill a decree of Yushchenko.^[93] 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.^[87] 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.^[87][96] The Poltava City Council on 25 February 2016 voted in favor of the monument.^[95] On 6 May 2016 President Petro Poroshenko unveiled the Mazepa monument in Poltava.^[97]

The name of the part of Ivan Mazepa Street in Kyiv, which runs past the Pechersk Lavra, was changed to Lavrska Street in July 2010.^[98] The move was met with protests.^[99] An exhibition dedicated to Mazepa is active in the Hetmanship Museum in Kyiv.^[100]

Mazepa's portrait is found on the ₴10 (Ukrainian currency) bill.^[86] Mazepynka, a type of military headwear worn by soldiers of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Galician Army, Ukrainian Insurgent Army and modern-day Armed Forces of Ukraine (since 2015) was named after hetman Ivan Mazepa.

A church bell originally ordered by Mazepa for a church in his capital Baturyn was discovered in 2015 at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in the Russian city of Orenburg.^[101] In 2018 a representative of the Patriarch of Constantinople proclaimed the anathema on Mazepa to be uncanonical, as it had been laid out of political grounds.^[102] During his visit to Mazepa's former capital of Baturyn in 2019, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko compared the hetman to George Washington, Simon Bolivar and Mahatma Gandhi.^[103] A major exhibition dedicated to Mazepa and his era opened in 2025 in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.^[104]

In other countries

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.^[50]

In 1855, the town of Mazeppa, Minnesota, was named by way of Byron's poem.^[105]

Literary works attributed to Mazepa

In an addition to being a politician a statesman, Mazepa is also known to have created works of poetry. His Duma represents an important document of Ukrainian political thought of his era. Created during the late 17th century (according to Oleksander Ohloblyn, circa 1698), the poem was preserved in the notes from the 1708 trial of Vasyl Kochubey, who used it to prove his accusation of treason against the hetman. The author of the "Duma" laments the state of Ukrainian lands during the Ruin, which led to the country's division between Poland, Moscow and the Ottomans, and calls on his compatriots to unite and fight against common enemies.^[106]

Further writings attributed to Mazepa are his letters to Motria, the daughter of Vasyl Kochubey, as well as a short verse in a mix of Old Ukrainian and Polish signed with the hetman's name, which was reportedly found in a prayer book stored at a monastery near Putyvl in 1770. Additionally, the text of Duma (poem) [uk] (also known by its first words, "Everyone desires peace"), a popular Ukrainian folk song is traditionally ascribed to Mazepa, although it is doubtful that its present form could have been composed by the hetman.^[107]

Works of art dedicated to Mazepa

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 (Prayer for Hetman Mazepa), was released in 2002.^[108]
• The Italian composer Carlo Pedrotti wrote a tragic opera titled Mazeppa in 1861, with libretto by Achille de Lauzieres.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009 the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, instituted the Cross of Ivan Mazepa as an award for cultural achievement and service.^[109]

In 2020 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave the 54th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Army the honorary title of "Ivan Mazepa".^[110] In 2022 Zelenskyy named a Ukrainian Navy Ada-class corvette after Mazepa.^[111]