Ivan Mazepa

The Ukrainian Cossack leader Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa (ca. 1644-1709) is considered a traitor by Russian historians, a great patriot by Ukrainian historians.

Neither the place nor the date of the birth of Ivan Mazepa can be given with certainty, but there is evidence that he was born a Polish subject in what is now the Ukraine and that his parents were landed gentry of the Eastern Orthodox faith. He received an excellent education and then went into the service of the Polish king John Casimir as a courtier. Soon, however, he became involved in a scandal, was dismissed from the royal court, and was forced to return to his home. There, his amorous misconduct provoked a jealous husband into having him bound naked to the back of an unreined horse and exposed to the uncertainty of rescue. When extricated from that misadventure, he left for the eastern Ukraine and entered the military service of the newly organized Ukrainian Cossack state, which had received Russian aid in shaking off Polish rule and accepted autonomous status under Russia.

On the strength of his ability and cleverness, Mazepa advanced rapidly, reaching the rank of inspector general while still in his early 30s. He also succeeded in winning favor among influential men in Moscow and, when Peter I became czar, in gaining his complete confidence. With the aid of his Russian friends, he was elected hetman (chief) of the Ukrainian Cossack state in 1687.

As hetman, Mazepa found it necessary to devote much of his time to coping with turbulent and rebellious groups under his jurisdiction. But he managed to build new schools and churches in the area and to bring a measure of justice to the peasants and the rank-and-file Cossacks. His chief goal became the freeing of his people from Russian domination and the formation, under his rule, of an independent state including all of the Ukraine. Yet he was careful to continue cultivating the Czar's trust, even at the cost of sending Cossack contingents to fight for Russia, in order to gain time for finding the outside assistance he would need to achieve his ultimate goal.

The war between Russia and Sweden which began in 1700 fed the discontent among the hetman's people as it dragged on, disrupting their commerce and giving the Czar reason to call an increased number of them into combat. Hoping to capitalize on this discontent as well as to take advantage of Sweden's hostility to Russia, Mazepa began secret negotiations in 1705 with Sweden and Poland, then under a pro-Swedish ruler. The outcome was an understanding that a united Ukraine ruled by Mazepa would be federated with Poland in return for Mazepa's provision of aid to Sweden. Rumors of these traitorous dealings reached Czar Peter, but he retained his faith in the hetman; and Mazepa, while waiting for a favorable opportunity to join the Swedes, continued to maintain the appearance of loyalty to the Czar.

When Sweden's Charles XII invaded Russia in the fall of 1708, Mazepa believed that his opportunity had come. He expected to be able to summon not only the Ukrainian Cossacks but also other Cossacks and the Crimean Tatars to follow him to the Swedish side. When ordered by Peter to bring his Cossacks to join the Russians, he pleaded illness as an excuse for delay, hoping to gain time in which to organize a large-scale defection. However, he soon learned that he was not to have that time, for one of the Czar's most trusted generals, accompanied by a military contingent, was on the way to Baturin, the Cossack headquarters, to investigate.

With no choice but to flee before he had completed preparations for an open break, Mazepa hastily left Baturin with about 1,500 Cossacks late in October and, calling all other Cossacks to join him, made his way to the chief Swedish camp in the northern part of the Ukraine. The consequences of that flight were inauspicious for his cause: few Cossacks answered his call, the Russian troops ravaged Baturin, and the Czar tightened his hold over the Ukrainian Cossacks by having a docile hetman elected to replace Mazepa.

The only hope remaining for Mazepa lay in Swedish military strength; and when the Swedes were decisively defeated by the Russians at Poltava on June 27, 1709, even that hope was dissipated. He had to join Charles XII in hazardous flight to Turkey, the nearest place of safety. Despite Peter's efforts to extradite Mazepa, the aged and ailing hetman was given sanctuary in Turkey. He died there, of natural causes, a few months later.

Further Reading

There is very little material in English on Mazepa. A brief and interesting account of his life is given in Clarence Manning, The Story of the Ukraine (1947).

(c. 1639 - 1709), Hetman (Cossack military leader) of Left-Bank Ukraine, 1687 to 1708.

Hetman Ivan Mazepa was raised in Poland and educated in the West, returning to Ukraine in 1663 to enter the service of the Polish-sponsored hetman Peter Doroshenko during the turbulent period of Ukrainian history known as the Ruin. In 1674 he transferred his allegiance to the Moscow-appointed hetman Ivan Samoilovich, whom he replaced when the latter fell from favor during Russia's campaign against the Crimean Tatars in 1687. He owed his promotion partly to the patronage of Prince Vasily Golitsyn.

In the 1680s to 1700s Mazepa remained loyal to Russia. In 1700 he became one of the first recipients of Peter I's new Order of St. Andrew. But he did not regard himself as permanently bound, as he governed in princely style and conducted a semi-independent foreign policy. In 1704, during the Great Northern War against Sweden, he occupied part of right-bank (Polish) Ukraine with Peter I's permission. However, Mazepa was under constant pressure at home to defend Cossack rights and to allay fears about Cossack regiments being reorganized on European lines. The final straw seems to have been Peter's failure to defend Ukraine against a possible attack by the Swedish-sponsored king of Poland, Stanislas Leszczynski. Mazepa clearly believed that his obligations to the tsar were at an end: "We, having voluntarily acquiesced to the authority of his Tsarist Majesty for the sake of the unified Eastern Faith, now, being a free people, wish to withdraw, with expressions of our gratitude for the tsar's protection and not wishing to raise our hands in the shedding of Christian blood" (Subtelny).

At some point in 1707 or 1708, Mazepa made a secret agreement to help Charles XII of Sweden invade Russia and to establish a Swedish protectorate over Ukraine. In October 1708 he fled to Charles's side. Alexander Menshikov responded by storming and burning the hetman's headquarters at Baturin, a drastic action which deprived both Mazepa and the Swedes of men and supplies. Mazepa brought only 3,000 to 4,000 men to aid the Swedes, who were defeated at Poltava in July 1709. Mazepa fled with Charles to Turkey and died there.

Peter I regarded the defection of his "loyal subject" as a personal insult. Mazepa was "a new Judas," whom he (unjustly) accused of plans to hand over Orthodox monasteries and churches to the Catholics and Uniates. In his absence, Mazepa was excommunicated, and his effigy was stripped of the St. Andrew cross and hanged. He remains a controversial figure in Ukraine, while elsewhere he is best known from romanticized versions of his life in fiction and opera.

Bibliography

Babinsky, Hubert. (1974). The Mazepa Legend in European Romanticism. New York: Columbia University Press.

Mackiv, Theodore. (1983). English Reports on Mazepa, 1687 - 1709. New York: Ukrainian Historical Association.

Subtelny, Orest. (1978). "Mazepa, Peter I, and the Question of Treason." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 2:158 - 184.

—LINDSEY HUGHES

Mazepa, Ivan (c. 1639–1709; ruled 1687–1709), hetman of Ukraine. Born in the Kiev region into a noble Ukrainian family, Mazepa was educated at the Kievan Mohyla Academy and the Jesuit College in Warsaw, and he also studied military affairs in the Netherlands. His father's pro-Polish attitude allowed the young Mazepa to become a diplomat in the service of the Polish king, John II Casimir Vasa. While at the king's court, Mazepa was alleged to have had amorous misadventures that were subsequently immortalized by nineteenth-century romantic writers and composers. In 1669 Mazepa left the royal court and entered the service of the pro-Polish Right-Bank hetman Petro Doroshenko. Doroshenko was not willing to accept the Truce of Andrusovo (1667), which in effect partitioned the Hetmanate between Poland and Russia; defying both powers, he made an alliance with the Ottoman Empire (1668). While on a diplomatic mission to the Crimean Tatars, Mazepa was captured by pro-Russian Cossacks, who delivered him to Moscow (1674). Mazepa's capture proved fortuitous, for Doroshenko not only failed to unite the Hetmanate but plunged it into a series of wars that depopulated and destroyed the Right-Bank Hetmanate. Meanwhile, Mazepa's imprisonment was brief, as the Russians decided that he would be more useful to the pro-Russian Left-Bank hetman, Ivan Samoilovych. Mazepa rose quickly in the camp of his former enemy, becoming Samoilovych's general aide-de-camp in 1682. After the failure of a joint Muscovite-Ukrainian campaign (first Crimean campaign, 1687), Samoilovych was deposed and exiled to Siberia, and with Russian backing Mazepa was elected hetman of Ukraine (1687).

Mazepa's primary internal focus was on the stabilization of Ukrainian society. He based his rule on consolidating an aristocratic elite (Cossack officers and nobles), granting them estates and new privileges. Other decrees attempted to regulate the Cossacks (1691), burghers, and peasants (1701). Mazepa allied himself closely with the clergy, confirming their privileges and granting property to monasteries. No hetman was a greater patron of the Orthodox church, education, or culture. He financed many church construction projects, some from his private funds, and donated many precious liturgical books, bells, and other church goods. He obtained the status of an academy for the Kievan Mohyla Collegium (1701). Mazepa was also a patron of literature and wrote a number of poems himself.

Politically, Mazepa relied on Muscovy and developed a close relationship with Peter I. He hoped to utilize Russian power to bolster his rule and recover Right-Bank Ukraine (which he occupied in 1704 on Peter's instructions). However, this alliance proved costly, for Peter ordered Cossack forces into foreign wars and construction projects. Moreover, Peter's drive toward a regulated empire was increasingly violating Ukrainian rights and liberties, pushing Mazepa to break with Russia and seek the protection of Sweden—a disastrous move, as the Swedish-Ukrainian forces were defeated by Peter at Poltava (1709). Mazepa retreated with the Swedish king to Ottoman-controlled territory and soon died in Bendery (now in Moldova). In the Russian empire, Mazepa was viewed as a heinous traitor, and "Mazepism" remained a code word for Ukrainian separatism. Ukrainian national historians regarded Mazepa as a hero in the struggle for Ukrainian independence.

Bibliography

Babinski, Hubert F. The Mazeppa Legend in European Romanticism. New York, 1974.

Krupnyckyj, Borys, ed. Hetman Mazepa und seine Zeit (1687–1709). Leipzig, 1942.

Ohloblyn, Oleksander. Het'man Ivan Mazepa ta oho doba. 2nd ed. New York and Kiev, 2001.

Subtelny, Orest. "Mazepa, Peter I, and the Question of Treason." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 2, no. 2 (January 1978): 158–183.

——. The Mazepists: Ukrainian Separatism in the Early Eighteenth Century. Boulder, Colo., 1981.

—ZENON KOHUT

Ivan Mazepa Іван Мазепа
Hetman of Ukraine
In office July 25, 1687 – November 11, 1708
Preceded by	Ivan Samoylovych
Succeeded by	Ivan Skoropadsky
Born	March 20, 1639 Bila Tserkva, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died	October 2, 1709 (aged 70) Bendery, Ottoman Empire
Nationality	Ukrainian
Religion	Russian Orthodox (excommunicated in 1708)

"Mazepa" redirects here. For other uses, see Mazeppa.

Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa (Ukrainian: Іван Степанович Мазепа historically spelled as Mazeppa; 20 March 1639—2 October 1709), Cossack Hetman of the Hetmanate in Left-bank Ukraine, in 1687–1708. He was famous as a patron of the arts, and also played a key role in the Battle of Poltava.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Hetman 2.1 The Great Northern War 2.2 Change of sides 2.3 Decisive battle 3 Historical legacy 4 Writings 5 Cultural legacy 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Early life

Mazepa was likely born March 20, 1639 in Mazepyntsi, near Bila Tserkva, then a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, into a noble Ukrainian family. His mother was Maryna Mokievska, and his father was Stefan Adam Mazepa. He was educated first in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, then at a Jesuit college in Warsaw and abroad. From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king, John II Casimir.

In 1669–1673, Mazepa served under Hetman Petro Doroshenko, and in 1674–1681, under Hetman Ivan Samoylovych. A young educated Mazepa quickly rose through the Cossack ranks and in 1682–1686, he served as a General-Yesaul.

Hetman

In 1687, Ivan Mazepa accused Samoylovych of conspiring to secede from Russia, secured his ouster and was elected the Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine, with the support of Vasily Galitzine's Russian government.

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 expanded the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the primary educational institution of Ukraine at the time, to accommodate 2,000 students, founded schools and printing houses.

Old 10 Hryvnia banknote depicting Ivan Mazepa.

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 invasion of Swedish king Charles XII.

The Great Northern War

In the beginning of the 18th century, as the Russian Empire suffered setbacks in the Great Northern War, 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 just defending their own land against regional enemies as was agreed to in the treaty. Now Cossack forces had to fight in distant wars in Livonia and Lithuania, instead of protecting their own homes from the Tatars and Poles. Unequipped and not properly trained to fight on par with the modern European armies, Cossacks suffered heavy losses and low morale, as their commanders were Russians and Germans who often did not value their lives or their specific military abilities. The population of Ukraine had to bear the presence of the Russian army, which was accused of disrespectful behaviour and looting in Ukrainian cities where it was stationed.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Change of sides

Mazepa family coat-of-arms

Ivan Skoropadsky

The last straw in the souring relations with Tsar Peter was his refusal to commit any significant force to defend Ukraine against the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, who threatened to attack the Cossack Hetmanate in 1708. Peter expected that king Charles of Sweden was going to attack and decided he could spare no forces. In the opinion of Mazepa, this blatantly violated the Treaty of Pereyaslav, since Russia refused to protect Ukraine's territory and left it to fare on its own. As the Swedish and Polish armies advanced towards Ukraine, Mazepa allied himself with them on October 28, 1708. However, only 3,000 Cossacks followed their Hetman, with rest remaining loyal to the Tsar. Mazepa's call to arms was further weakened by the Orthodox Clergy's allegiance for the Tsar. Learning of Mazepa's treason, the Russian army sacked and razed the Cossack Hetmanate capital of Baturyn, killing the defending garrison and all of its population. The Russian army was ordered to tie up the dead Cossacks to crosses, and float them down the Dnieper River all the way to the Black Sea. This was done for the purpose of intimidating the Mazepa loyalists who lived downstream along the Dnieper.

Those Cossacks who did not side with Mazepa elected a new hetman, Ivan Skoropadsky, on November 11, 1708. The fear of other reprisals and suspicion of Mazepa's newfound Swedish ally prevented most of Ukraine's population from siding with him. Surprisingly, the only significant support which he gathered came from the Zaporizhian Sich, which, though at odds with the Hetman in the past, considered him and the nobility he represented a lesser evil compared with the Tsar. The Sich Cossacks paid dearly for their support of Mazepa, as Peter I ordered the Sich to be razed in 1709 and a decree was issued to execute any active Zaporizhian Cossack.

Decisive battle

Charles XII and Mazepa at Dnieper River 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, 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 Turkish fortress of Bendery, where Mazepa soon died.

Historical legacy

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, because it failed to even try to protect the Cossack homeland while busy fighting abroad^{[citation needed]}. The image of a disgraceful traitor persisted throughout Russian and Soviet history. The Russian Orthodox Church illegally anathemaised and excommunicated him for political reasons. 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 which viewed Mazepa differently. After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazepa was proclaimed a national hero in Ukraine's official historiography and mainstream media^{[citation needed]}, because he was the first post-Pereyaslav Treaty hetman to take a stand against the Tsar, who failed to ratify that Treaty. This view however is still disputed by pro-Russian factions.^[1][2]

During an event in Mazepyntsi to mark the 370th birthday (March 20, 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 was thriving in Ukraine over the years of Mazepa's rule, "Ukraine was reviving as the country of European cultural traditions".^[3] The same day around a hundred people held a protest in Simferopol against the marking of the 370th birthday of Mazepa. The protesters held posters with slogans as: "Dog Mazepa, damn you and your ideological followers!", "Eternal shame on the sickly Judas - Ivashka Mazepa and his followers!" and "Ukraine's future is in alliance with Russia". They also held flags of Russia, as well as portraits of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and Russian Emperor Peter the Great.^[2][1]

Mazepa's portrait is found on the 10 hryvnia (Ukrainian currency) bill.

Writings

DUMA
(translation by Dimitri Horbay in the newspaper Svoboda March 22, 1958)^[4]

While all for peace sincerely preach,
Not all in one direction reach.
Some right, and some left do range,
Yet all are brothers, how very strange.

There is no love, nor does harmony rank
Since we quenched our thirst at the Zhovti's bank.
Through disagreement, non are saved.
By our own endeavor have we become enslaved.

Aye, brothers, 'tis time to see
That we all cannot masters be!
Not all are grace with knowlegde wide
Enough, to over all preside.

...

Cultural legacy

"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, poem (1840)
• Ferenc Liszt - Mazepa, symphonic poem (1851); Transcendental etude #4.
• Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Mazeppa, opera (1881–1883)
• Michael Balfe. "The Page" Cantata. (1861). Performed at the University of Manitoba, March 2006.
• Taras Shevchenko
• Kondraty Ryleyev
• A Ukrainian-language film loosely based on historical facts, called "A Prayer for hetman Mazepa" (Molytva za hetmana Mazepu) was released in 2002. ^[5]

See also

• List of Ukrainian rulers

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Events by themes: The mass meeting as token of objecting against celebration in Ukraine of 370th anniversary from the day of birth of Ivan Mazepa, UNIAN-photo service (March 20, 2009)
2. ^ ^{a b} Opponents to marking 370th birthday of Mazepa rally in Simferopol, Interfax-Ukraine (20 March 2009)
3. ^ Yuschenko calls for myth of Hetman Mazepa's treason to be dispelled, Interfax-Ukraine (March 20, 2009)
4. ^ Svoboda of 1958 Template:En/uk icon
5. ^ Molitva za getmana Mazepu (2002)

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Mazepa-Koledinsky, Ivan Stepanovich.

• Mazepa article in online at Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

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