Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa (Іван Степанович Мазепа in Ukrainian; Иван Степанович Мазепа in Russian, historically spelled as Mazeppa) (circa 1640 — August 28, 1709), Cossack Hetman (Ataman) of the Left-bank Ukraine in 1687—1708.

Early Life

Mazepa was born in 1644 near Bila Tserkva, then a part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, into a noble family. He was educated first in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, then in a Jesuit collage in Warsaw and abroad. From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king John II Casimir.

Cossack general

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 (also Osaul).

Hetman

In 1687, Ivan Mazepa became the Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine, under the control of Russian Empire. He accumulated a great amount of wealth, becoming one of Europe's biggest land owners. A multitude of churches were built all over Ukraine during his reign. He has expanded the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which was the primary educational institution of Ukraine at the time, to accommodate 2000 students, founded schools and printing houses. Many Cossacks, however, grew increasingly frustrated with the repressive and authoritarian rule of the Hetmanate nobility (Starshynas ). Several uprisings against his rule, started in Zaporizhian Sich, failed.

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

The Great Northern War

In the beginning of the 17th Century, as Russian Empire suffered defeats in the Great Northern War, Peter I decided to reform the Russian army and to centralize the control over his realm. This has put at risk the broad autonomy granted to the Hetmanate under the Treaty of Pereyaslav. The attempts to assert control over the 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 lowered morale as their commanders were Russians and Germans who often did not much value their lives and 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. The hetman himself started to feel threatened at his post as there were increasing calls to replace him with one of the foreign generals which served in abundance in the Russian army, or with someone Russian.

Change of sides

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 the XII of Sweden, who threatened to attack the Hetmanate in 1708. Peter did so because he was waiting for an incoming attack from king Charles of Sweden and decided he could spare no forces. In the opinion of Mazepa, this majorly 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. Only approx. 3000 Cossacks agreed with the decision of their hetman, while some others remained loyal to the tsar. This was partly because Peter surreptitiously made the Orthodox clergymen to preach against him. The Russian army, however, sought revenge by razing the Baturyn, the Cossack capital, and killing all of its population and the defending garrison.

Those Cossacks who did not side with Mazepa elected a new hetman, Ivan Skoropadsky , on November 11, 1708. The fear of reprisals similar to the destruction of Baturyn, as well as 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 Zaporizhian Sich, which, though at odds with the hetman in the past, considered him and the nobility he represented a lesser evil when compared with the tsar. The Sich Cossacks paid dearly for their support of Mazepa, seen as a traitor by tsar Peter. Sich was destroyed in 1709 and a decree was issued to execute any active Zaporizhian Cossack.

Decisive battle

The Swedish and the Russian armies spent the first half of 1709 maneuvering for the advantageous position in the incoming big battle, as well as trying to secure the support of the local population. Finally in June, the Battle of Poltava took place. It was won by Russia, which put an end to Mazepa's hopes of transferring Ukraine under control of Sweden, which promised independence in an earlier treaty. He fled to the Turkish fortress of Bendery together with Charles XII, where he died shortly thereafter.

Historical legacy

Mazepa's decision to abandon his allegiance to the Russian Empire was considered as treason by the Russian tsar and a violation of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. An image of a disgraceful traitor persisted throughout Russian and later Soviet history. The Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated him. A positive view of Mazepa was a taboo in the Soviet Union and considered as a sign of "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism". During the years of Perestroika, however, many historical works which viewed Mazepa in a different way gained the spotlight. After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazepa became somewhat of a national hero in Ukraine's history textbooks and the mainstream media. His portrait is on Ukrainian currency, the 10 hryvnia bill. This view however is far from being undisputed, with many Ukrainians seeing Mazepa's actions as an attempt to preserve his power over Ukraine, a wrongful one since he swore allegiance to the Russian tsar.

Cultural legacy

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 Slowacki - Mazeppa, poem (1840)

• Ferenc Liszt - Mazepa, symphonic poem (1851)
• Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Mazepa, opera (1881-1883)

Recently, a Ukrainian-language film loosely based on historical facts, called "A Prayer for Mazepa" was released [1].