HETMAN IVAN MAZEPA: A life for and against the tsar

It would be very difficult, if at all possible, to find another figure in Ukrainian history viewed by descendants at such different angles as Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Treachery and venality incarnate for some; profound love of his native land and being prepared to sacrifice his own life for its well- being. Is it only the hetman’s personal qualities that attracts historians’ interest? I am convinced that it is not. His own path in search of truth and his own road to Calvary are extremely important in understanding the destiny of Ukraine as a whole.

About to take the most fateful step, siding with the Swedish king and leading his own subjects into a uncertain future, Hetman Mazepa told his people that he did it “not for my own benefit, not for exceptional privileges, not to add to my wealth or from any other selfish desires, but for the good of all of you... for the sake of my native land, for our poor Mother Ukraine... and I shall do it, so help me God...” Did they believe him then? Do people remember it now?

IN HIS MAJESTY’S SERVICE

Ivan Mazepa received the mace as hetman of Left-bank Ukraine in 1687, after yet another conspiracy of the Cossack starshyna against the Ukrainian Hetman, instigated by Prince Vasily Golitsyn, Regent Sofia’s favorite, when Hetman Ivan Samiylovych was dismissed and exiled to Siberia. Golitsyn, however, would fall into disgrace with the regent soon after and follow Samiylovych’s route. Then Sofia was dethroned. Under the circumstances, it seemed Mazepa’s days as hetman were also counted. Yet he not only survived, but also strengthened his position considerably.

Immediately after his election at a military camp on the Kolomak River, Hetman Ivan Mazepa led his regiments to ruthlessly suppress revolts that sprung up on the Left Bank every time there were changes in power. Simultaneously he addressed universals [decrees] to his associates, ordering them not to practice lynch law, not to take vengeance on rebels, but to restore justice in court or amicably. To pour oil on the water, he stopped handing out state-owned lands to private owners and forbade the starshyna officers corps to levy hard taxes and impose forced labor. To make his determination to restore law and order in Ukraine perfectly clear, Hetman Mazepa confiscated estates near Poltava from several functionaries after their venality was proved in court. In 1701, he ordered the sotnyk [captain] of Nizhyn to stand trial on charges of “unbearable misconduct and constant fraudulent practices as a landlord.”

When he first met Peter I, Ivan Mazepa succeeded in winning his unreserved confidence. This is hard to believe, considering the Hetman’s close contact with the now exiled Golitsyn and the young tsar’s pathological suspiciousness. It is also hard to overestimate in view of the implications for Mazepa personally and for Ukraine in general. Owing to the tsar’s attitude, Mazepa did not take long to reinforce state power in Ukraine, and Moscow lessened control over the hetman’s government. In addition, the starshyna officers were now concerned about showing their best in Ukraine rather the currying favors with the tsar’s dignitaries.

Perhaps for the first time under Moscow suzerainty, the Ukrainian Hetman now felt a full-fledged ruler of his land. Raising the hetman’s status found reflection in the exterior of Baturyn, capital of the hetmanate. His court was expanded and contemporaries said it matched the finest courts of Europe, specifically that of Warsaw. In keeping with monarchic canon, Ivan Mazepa had an entourage and sumptuous protocol was observed.

Countless secret denunciations sent to Moscow, any of which would have cost him his head in the recent past, were shelved or returned to Baturyn. Characteristically, one such report, submitted by Justice General V. Kochubei and Colonel I. Iskra of Poltava, resulted in their public execution. Ivan Mazepa was given additional privileges and awards. Further convincing evidence of Ivan Mazepa’s standing in the Russian hierarchy is the fact that he was the second to receive the Order of Andrew the First Called, Russia’s highest award, in 1702, even before it was conferred on Peter I.

HETMAN VS. TSAR: BROTHERS, OUR TIME HAS COME

The tsar and his court were thunderstruck to learn that Ivan Mazepa sided with Peter I’s inveterate enemy, Swedish King Charles XII, in 1708. Naturally, the Ukrainian Hetman’s more than twenty years of unblemished service, his high social standing, and flawless reputation could not explain what had happened. He was then seventy, and it could not have been anything personal, only something of far greater importance, like serving the interests of the Ukrainian state.

Mazepa did not decide on that cardinal move overnight, of course, nor was it an easy decision to make. In fact, making that decision took a long time. Among the reasons were Peter’s plans to liquidate Ukrainian autonomy, all those ordeals befalling the Cossacks during the Russo-Swedish Great Northern War, along with postwar devastation, autocratic interference in Ukraine’s economy and trade. Last but not least, there were international considerations. The Swedish king had dealt Russia a painful blow in the Baltic region, bringing Denmark and Prussia to their knees, dethroning Poland’s King Augustus, Peter I’s ally. Considering the situation, could Ivan Mazepa expose Ukrainian territories to Swedish attack and sacrifice the Cossacks to defend Peter I’s great ambitions that were totally alien to Ukraine’s national interests? The Hetman decided to avoid participation in the bloodshed and declared political support of the Swedish king who was then at the pinnacle of glory and whose victory over Moscow seemed only a matter of time.

Ivan Mazepa addressed an impassioned speech to his troops on October 25, 1708: “Brothers, our time has come; we shall use this advantage, we shall take revenge on the Muscovites for all those years of violent dominance, for all their cruelty and injustice; we shall defend our freedom and Cossack rights from their encroachments now, so we shall have them in the future. Now is the time to shed this hateful yoke and make our Ukraine independent and free.”

After that the Hetman led his men to join Charles XII, leaving behind decades of vassal service to Moscow, seeing ahead what he believed would be independent life.

VAE VICITUS, WOE UNTO THE VANQUISHED

However, the military campaign of 1708-09 became a classic example of how the biggest of plans can turn into an utter fiasco. The Swedish generals, until then generally believed invincible, suffered a defeat in White Russia and in the Siversky lands, whereupon Charles XII, rather than take a short cut to Moscow through Bryansk and Kaluga, headed for Ukraine, followed by Russian forces. Peter I’s closest associate, Prince Aleksandr Menshikov, bribed the Cossack starshyna and the Russians seized Baturyn on November 2, turning the Cossack capital into a smoking ruin. The residents (various sources indicate between six and fifteen thousand), including women, children, and elders, were tortured and killed to teach Ukraine a lesson. According to an anonymous chronicler, in the next two months tsarist bloodhounds “searched homes, seizing Cossacks suspected of loyalty to Mazepa, breaking them on the wheel, quartering and impaling them, so that hanging by the neck and beheading was regarded as the easiest punishment...” The French ambassador wrote to Paris, horrified, “Ukraine is soaked in blood, ruined by pillage and presents a terrifying picture of the barbarian victor’s triumph.”

While ruthlessly punishing Mazepa’s supporters, Peter I was quite generous toward the hetman’s opponents, presenting them with the rebels’ estates and other property. Characteristically, a priest by the name of Zarutsky from Novhorod-Siversky, who had written odes glorifying Ivan Mazepa, now produced wrathful verse condemning him for treason. Peter I rewarded him with a village.

In the second half of November 1708, the Russian tsar’s people hanged the Ukrainian Hetman in effigy. On the ninth day after the “execution” (November 23), Ivan Mazepa was anathematized simultaneously in Hlukhiv and Moscow (a ritual that would be repeated for the next 200 years during the first week of Lent at all churches of the Russian Empire, until the anathema was ceremoniously lifted by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, July 10, 1918).

The Swedish army’s defeat in the Battle of Poltava was for Ivan Mazepa the last act of the 1708-09 drama, whereupon he had to flee with Charles XII and seek refuge with the Turkish sultan. Peter I tried to flatter and bribe the Turkish court into surrendering the Ukrainian Hetman, promising 300,000 gold coins in return for his head, but the sultan, pressured by the Swedish king and foreign diplomats, proclaimed Mazepa his guest and granted him personal immunity.

In any case, the old hetman cared little for what Peter I was up to at the time. He was defeated morally and exhausted physically; what was left of his strength was dwindling quickly. He died during a thunderstorm and torrential rain, on the night of October 3, 1709, in Varnitsa, a village near Bendery (Moldova).

Centuries later, knowing the tragic outcome of Mazepa’s political scheme, one can find a number of mistakes in what he did. The only thing he can hardly be accused of is absence of love of his Mother Ukraine. Ivan Mazepa will remain in Ukrainian history as a true and impassioned patriot.