Mazepa Ivan (hetman) - short biography. Hetman Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich biography briefly The question of lifting the anathema

His exact year of birth is unknown (1629, 1633, 1639, 1644). Mazepa was brought up at the court of the Polish king Jan Casimir and was on the list of “rest nobles” (a family of chamber cadets). They think that Mazepa’s unsuccessfully executed assignment to Hetman Tetere in 1663 interrupted his court career. In 1665, after the death of his father Adam-Stepan Mazepa, Mazepa received the title of Chernigov Podchashe. His love affairs with Falbovskaya and Zagorovskaya, with which some associate Mazepa’s transition to the Cossacks, also date back to this time. Subsequently, Mazepa married the widow of the Belaya Tserkov colonel Fridrikovich. Whether Mazepa had children from this marriage is unknown. Having gone over to the Cossacks, Mazepa entered the service of Hetman Doroshenko and rose to the rank of general clerk. When Mazepa saw that Doroshenko’s case was lost, he went over to Samoilovich’s side and became close to him. There is news that Mazepa was the teacher of Samoilovich’s children. Under Samoilovich, Mazepa became general captain. Mazepa's participation in the intrigues and denunciation of Samoilovich has not been proven. After the overthrow of Samoilovich at the Kolomatsky Rada in 1687, Mazepa was elected hetman. He owed his election to bribing Prince V.V. Golitsyn and the generous promises given to the foreman. Mazepa rewarded the latter with the distribution of estates and colonels and other positions. As a hetman-administrator, Mazepa did not stand out in any way. There was a popular uprising against him in 1692, and under the leadership of Petrik Mazepa they managed to pacify it. Mazepa relied on the foreman and generously distributed his estates to her; The rights of peasants under Mazepa were interpreted in a restrictive sense. Mazepa also patronized the clergy, churches and monasteries. Mazepa's relations with Moscow were quite correct for a long time. The trip to Moscow, the meeting with Peter in Kyiv, the unquestioning execution of the orders of Peter I - everything gave the latter reason to consider Mazepa among his loyalists. Mazepa knew how to use his position and remove dangerous and popular people from the road. Thus, he ensured that the organizer of the Cossacks on the right bank of the Dnieper, Belaya Tserkov colonel Semyon Paliy, who was very popular, was exiled to Tomsk. It is believed that the first thought about treason came to Mazepa in 1705, when he discussed it with the widow Princess Dolskaya, née Vishnevetskaya. Later, Mazepa negotiated with her and with the Polish king Stanislav Leshchinsky, and in October 1707 he opened up to his general clerk, Philip Orlik. The negotiations were conducted secretly, and their content remains unknown. Until the very last moment, Mazepa managed to retain Peter’s trust. Denunciations against Mazepa were sent to Peter from Ukraine more than once. He ignored them. In the spring of 1708, Judge General Vasily Kochubey sent a denunciation against Mazepa through his relative, Colonel Iskra. Kochubey was annoyed with the hetman for Mazepa’s romantic relationship with Kochubey’s daughter (new information about this in the book by F.M. Umanets and in the “Notes” of A.M. Lazarevsky). Peter handed the informers into the hands of Mazepa, and they were executed. The story that Mazepa called Karl to Ukraine has no solid foundation. Nothing is yet known about Mazepa’s negotiations with Karl himself. Karl's move to Ukraine was apparently unexpected for Mazepa. When the Swedish king entered the territory of Ukraine, Mazepa and some colonels went over to his side. What agreement took place between them is unknown. From later acts we can conclude that Ukraine was supposed to remain free, maintain the integrity of its borders and the inviolability of its privileges. Having received news of Mazepa's betrayal, Peter immediately ordered the election of a hetman. Ivan Skoropadsky was elected hetman. Mazepa was anathematized. With the Battle of Poltava, Mazepa's cause was lost. He ran away with Karl and died on March 18, 1710 in Bendery. His body was transported to Galati and buried in the monastery of St. George. Some historians consider Mazepa’s transition to the side of Sweden to be an accidental fact, a matter of Mazepa’s selfish aspirations. But recently a different point of view has been put forward. The union of Ukraine with Sweden was brewing and prepared for a long time, and

Mazepa's step was not just a step of an egoist, but a political step, calculated only incorrectly, and therefore was not successful. The personality of Mazepa was of interest to many writers and poets, such as Pushkin, Byron, Gottshall, Slovatsky. Their poetic images, however, are very far from historical reality.

Ivan Mazepa is one of the most famous hetmans of Cossack Ukraine. He left his mark in history as a political figure who fought for the independence of his state. In 2009, the Order of Mazepa was established in Ukraine; it is awarded for merits in national diplomatic activities, charity and nation-building.

Pedigree of Ivan Mazepa

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich was born on March 20, 1640, some sources claim that several years later in the village of Kamentsy, later renamed Mazepintsy, near Bila Tserkva. The child was the offspring of Ukrainian nobles. Ivan's mother Maria Magdalene was a respected, educated woman with her own. Throughout her life, she was an adviser to her son. For the last 13 years of her life she was the abbess of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery.

Ivan's father Stepan-Adam Mazepa held a post surrounded by Hetman Vyhovsky.

Education

From childhood, Ivan Mazepa received an excellent education. On his father's estate, he learned horse riding and saber skills, and studied various sciences. Then he became a student at the Kiev-Mohyla College. A capable student is interested in the works of Roman and Greek philosophers, gravitates toward European literature, and speaks several foreign languages.

After completing his studies, his father sends Ivan to serve as a page with the Polish king. At court, Ivan Mazepa shows himself to be an educated, promising nobleman. He is sent to receive further education at universities. During his years of study, he managed to visit Italy, France, Germany and Holland.

The future Ukrainian hetman charmed people at first sight. Not only the power of his thoughts, but also flattering speeches and external qualities were his trump cards when climbing the career ladder.

The situation in Ukraine

Ivan Mazepa, whose biography is still full of inaccuracies, has come a long way to the top of his political career. At the end of the 17th century, Cossack Ukraine was going through hard times. The lands were ruled by three hetmans, who were oriented toward different foreign policy forces.

Peter Doroshenko was a protege of the Turkish Sultan, who had his own political interests in this territory.

Hetman Samoilovich took a pro-Russian position.

Ivan Mazepa, according to some sources, was excommunicated from the court for a quarrel with his colleagues, according to others, for an affair with a married lady. But, be that as it may, in 1664, Jan Casimir sent an army to Mazepa, left the corps and went to his father’s native village.

In 1665, after the death of his father, Ivan Mazepa took his position and became a subordinate of Chernigov.

Dreaming of a political career, he marries a wealthy widow, Anna Fridrikevich, who soon dies and leaves him a huge fortune and useful connections. Anna's father Semyon Polovets, being the general of the baggage train, provides protection to his son-in-law and arranges for him to serve under Hetman Doroshenko. Under the “Turkish” hetman, the confident and cunning Mazepa became captain of the court army and later a clerk.

In 1674, Doroshenko sent Mazepa to Turkey. As a present, he gives the Sultan slaves—Left Bank Cossacks. In Crimea, Ivan Sirko breaks him up, but does not kill him, but hands him over to Samoilovich. The gift of persuasion of people worked; some sources claim that Mazepa’s fiery speech saved his life.

Ivan Mazepa, whose biography is full of sharp turns of fate, began to look after the children of the Left Bank Hetman, and a little later he was appointed captain for faithful service. Samoilovich often sent Mazepa to Russia, and here they gained the favor of the tsar’s favorite, Prince Golitsyn.

Hetmanate

In July 1687, Mazepa, with the participation of his patrons, was elected hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine, and his predecessor Samoilovich, along with his relatives and retinue, was sent to Siberia.

Some sources claim that Mazepa gave a bribe to Golitsyn for help, others deny this fact.

And yet, in 1689, when young Peter ascended the Russian throne, a close friendship began between them. The experienced hetman gave the young majesty advice regarding foreign policy relations with Poland.

Meanwhile, Ukraine was in turmoil. In 1690, the Petrik uprising began. Mazepa, relying on his own army and the help of Peter, brutally suppressed him. Many contemporaries believed that Ivan Mazepa, whose history of reign was very bloody, was not distinguished by loyalty and devotion from his very youth. Our contemporaries call these qualities political instinct.

At the end of the summer of 1709, in the small village of Varnitsa near Bendery, the former hetman of Ukraine Ivan Mazepa (Koledinsky) was dying in terrible agony. He constantly lost his mind from unbearable, hellish pain stemming from dozens of incurable diseases. And, regaining consciousness, after a long, absurd muttering, he whined heart-rendingly: “Otroot mani - torn off!” (“I’m poisoned, I’m poisoned!”)…

But since poisoning an Orthodox Christian even before a grave death was always considered an unforgivable sin, the elders and servants decided to act according to the old custom - to drill a hole in the ceiling of a peasant hut. In order, therefore, to make it easier for the sinful soul of a dying person to part with his mortal body.

How can one not remember the old belief: the more a person sins during life, the more painful the death awaits him. Indeed, in the foreseeable past and present of the then Little Russia, it was difficult to find a more insidious, evil and vindictive person than Mazepa. He was an example of a classic and complete villain for all times and for all peoples.

Even though the general morals of the Little Russian politicians of that time did not suffer from special gentry (nobility). This is understandable: people living surrounded by stronger and more powerful neighbors were constantly forced to solve a painful but inevitable dilemma - who would be more profitable to “follow”. Mazepa achieved unprecedented success in solving such problems.

By the hour of his death, he had managed to commit a dozen major betrayals and an immeasurable number of minor atrocities.

“In the moral rules of Ivan Stepanovich,” writes historian N.I. Kostomarov, whom one would never suspect of Russophileism, had the trait ingrained from his youth that, noticing the decline of the strength on which he had previously relied, he did not bother with any sensations or impulses, so as not to contribute to the harm of the declining strength that was previously beneficial for him. Betrayal of his benefactors had already been demonstrated more than once in his life.

So he betrayed Poland, going over to her sworn enemy Doroshenko; So he left Doroshenko as soon as he saw that his power was wavering; So, and even more shamelessly, he did with Samoilovich, who warmed him up and raised him to the height of the senior rank.

He now did the same with his greatest benefactor (Peter I. - M.Z),” before whom he had recently flattered and humiliated himself... Hetman Mazepa, as a historical figure, was not represented by any national idea. He was an egoist in the full sense of the word. A Pole by upbringing and methods of life, he moved to Little Russia and there made a career for himself, forging the Moscow authorities and not stopping at any immoral paths.”

“He lied to everyone, deceived everyone - the Poles, the Little Russians, the Tsar, and Charles, he was ready to do evil to everyone as soon as the opportunity presented itself to him to benefit himself.”

The historian Bantysh-Kamensky characterizes Mazepa this way: “He had the gift of words and the art of persuasion. But with the cunning and caution of Vygovsky, he combined in himself the malice, vindictiveness and covetousness of Bryukhovetsky, and surpassed Doroshenko in love of fame; but all of them are in ingratitude."

As always, A.S. exhaustively accurately defined the essence of Mazepa. Pushkin: “Some writers wanted to make him a hero of freedom, a new Bogdan Khmelnitsky. History presents him as an ambitious man, inveterate in treachery and atrocities, a slanderer of Samoilovich, his benefactor, a destroyer of the father of his unfortunate mistress, a traitor to Peter before his victory, a traitor to Charles after his defeat: his memory, anathematized by the church, cannot escape the curse of mankind.”

And in “Poltava” he continued: “That he does not know what is sacred, / That he does not remember goodness, / That he does not love anything, / That he is ready to shed blood like water, / That he despises freedom, / That there is no homeland for him "

Finally, an extremely accurate assessment of the villain belongs to the Ukrainian people themselves.
The expression “Damn Mazepa!” for centuries it referred not only to a bad person, but to any evil in general. (In Ukraine and Belarus, Mazepa is a slob, a rude person, an evil boor - outdated.)

A very remarkable detail. More than a dozen portraits of this historical figure and even several artistic canvases with his image have reached us. Surprisingly, however, there is no elementary similarity among them! It seems that this man had many mutually exclusive faces. And he had at least five birthdays - from 1629 to 1644 (it’s such a treat for the hetman’s political fans to celebrate his “round” anniversaries!). However, Mazepa has... three dates of death. It's so slippery. Everything about him was not like people...

I deliberately omit Mazepa’s childhood, adolescence and youth. For the devil himself will break his leg in that segment of his flawed biography. Although I will quote the following excerpt solely out of respect for the authority of the authors: “The one who held this post at that time was a Polish nobleman named Mazepa, born in the Podolsk palatinate; he was the page of Jan Casimir and at his court acquired a certain European luster. In his youth, he had an affair with the wife of a Polish nobleman, and the husband of his beloved, having learned about this, ordered Mazepa to be tied naked to a wild horse and set free.

The horse was from Ukraine and ran away there, dragging with it Mazepa, half dead from fatigue and hunger. He was sheltered by local peasants; he lived among them for a long time and distinguished himself in several raids against the Tatars. Thanks to the superiority of his intelligence and education, he enjoyed great honor among the Cossacks, his fame grew more and more, so that the tsar was forced to declare him Ukrainian hetman.” This is a quote from Byron, given in French, taken from Voltaire.

True, it’s hard not to marvel at how two outstanding European creators fell for a simple idea. Because this could not really happen by definition. And involuntarily you still think: it’s not in vain that such outstanding Europeans began to wax poetic about the “Khokhlatsky Judas” so long ago. They even claimed that “the king was forced.” That is, they put the upstart nobleman and the greatest monarch in the history of mankind on equal terms.

All Mazepa’s contemporaries unanimously claim that he was a “sorcerer.” This is probably why they thought so because it was difficult for them to explain in any other way the incredible ability of this talented rogue to impress people and inspire them to trust him.
Meanwhile, it was precisely such insidious abilities (he was a master of hypnosis!) that elevated Mazepa to the pinnacle of power

When Pavlo Teterya was the hetman of Right Bank Ukraine, Mazepa entered his service. Hetmans at that time changed like the gloves of a capricious lady. And Teterya was replaced by Petro Doroshenko. Naturally “charmed” by the young nobleman, he appoints him general clerk - personal secretary and head of his chancellery. At the same time, Hetman Doroshenko played a complex, triple game. Remaining a subject of the Polish king, he sent his secretary to the hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine Ivan Samoilovich with assurances that he wanted to serve the Russian Tsar.

But a few months later he sent the same Mazepa to the Turkish Sultan to ask for help from the eternal enemy of the Orthodox. And as a gift to the Turks he presented “yasyk” - fifteen slaves from the Cossacks captured on the left side of the Dnieper. Along the way, Mazepa and the “goodies” were captured by Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by the Kosh chieftain Ivan Sirko.

The same thing that he wrote with his Cossacks the famous letter to the Turkish Sultan Mohammed IV: “You are a pig’s face, a mare’s ass, a biting dog, an unbaptized forehead, mother…. You will not herd Christian pigs either. Now it’s over, because we don’t know the date, we don’t know the calendar, but the day is the same as yours, so kiss us on the ass!”

And now I’m asking myself a question that no one will ever be able to answer. Well, why didn’t Ataman Sirko, devoted to Samoilovich (and therefore to the Russian Tsar!), this frantic defender of the Orthodox, the sworn enemy of the Tatars and Turks, cut off Mazepa’s head on the spot because he, the bastard, was taking fifteen Russian souls into slavery? After all, Ivan Dmitrievich always mercilessly exterminated the busurman’s accomplices. And then he took and sent the “vile enemy” to Hetman Samoilovich. It was only Providence that intended to make sure how low and vile Mazepa’s soul was still capable of falling.

Here, on the Left Bank, something else is happening, almost incredible, in any case, difficult to explain - it is Mazepa, as his confidant, that Samoilovich sends to Moscow for negotiations. There, his broken envoy meets... Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself! And then he travels to the Russian capital many more times, now strengthening his own authority. Omitting the countless tactical and strategic moves of Mazepa, between which he successfully “merged” Samoilovich and his entire family, where he was almost a relative, we only note that on July 25, 1687, the cunning courtier received, by bribing the Russian bureaucratic elite, “kleinota” (symbols) hetman's power - a mace and a horsetail.
During the reign of Mazepa, the enslavement of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (as the peasants were then called) took on a particularly wide scale.

And the hetman became the largest serf owner on both sides of the Dnieper. In Ukraine (the Hetmanate at that time), he took control of about 20 thousand households. In Russia - many more than 5 thousand. In total, Mazepa had over 100 thousand serf souls. Not a single hetman before or after him could boast of such fabulous wealth.

And at this time, very serious tectonic shifts of the empire were taking place in Russia, as a result of which Peter I ascended the throne. You will laugh, but Mazepa almost immediately ingratiated himself into incredible trust in the young Tsar. Even now it’s hard to believe, but in 1700 Mazepa received the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called - the highest Russian award for No. 2! (Prince Ivan Golovin was the first to be awarded). Apparently, the Russian Tsar really liked the cunning hetman, although the age difference separating them was 33 years.
And it is not by chance that Mazepa wrote to Peter: “Our people are stupid and fickle. Let the great sovereign not give too much faith to the Little Russian people, let him deign, without delay, to send a good army of soldiers to Ukraine in order to keep the Little Russian people in obedience and loyal citizenship.”

This, by the way, is about the delight of some historians about the longest Hetman rule of Mazepa - twenty-one years - and about his allegedly passionate desire for the independence of Ukraine at any cost. Not to mention the so-called Kolomatsky Articles, signed personally by the hetman upon his assumption of office. It states in black and white that Ukraine is prohibited from any foreign policy relations. It was forbidden for the hetman and elders to be appointed without the consent of the tsar. But they all received Russian nobility and the inviolability of estates.

And, excuse me, where is the “struggle for the independence of Ukraine”? Yes, for two decades Mazepa strictly carried out the will of Peter I. And he did the right thing. Only he did this solely for his own benefit. There’s not even a hint of “independence” here. It smelled later, when the hetman, flawed in all moral respects, for some reason believed that the invincible Swedish army would defeat the troops of the nascent Russian Empire.

It was then for the first time that Mazepa’s bestial, wolf instinct failed him. We know how long the rope can twist... But before we remind you of the final fall of the hetman as a politician, let us dwell on his ugliest human meanness...

The first song of Pushkin’s “Poltava,” who hasn’t forgotten, begins like this: “Rich and glorious is Kochubey.”

For many years they were almost the same age (Mazepa is a year older than Kochubey), they were friends - water is inseparable. And they even became related: the hetman’s nephew, Obidovsky, married Kochubey’s eldest daughter, Anna, and the youngest Kochubeevna, Matryona, Mazepa became his godfather.

Here in Ukraine, nepotism has been revered since ancient times as a spiritual kinship. Godparents look after the godchildren until they get back on their feet, and then the godchildren must take care of the godparents as if they were their own. In 1702, Mazepa buried his wife and was widowed for two years.

At that time he was well over sixty, and Matryona Kochubey was sixteen (in “Poltava” she is Maria). The difference, according to the most conservative estimates, is half a century.

And the old man decided to marry the young goddaughter, although he had previously seduced her mother. The “sorcerer” used all the techniques of his seduction: “My little heart,” “my heartfelt kohana,” “I kiss all the penises of your little white body,” “remember your words, given to me under an oath, at the hour when you left my chambers." “With great heartfelt anguish I am waiting for news from Your Grace, but in what matter, you yourself know well.”

From Mazepa’s letters it is clear that Matryona, who responded to his feelings, is angry that the hetman sent her home, that her parents scold her. Mazepa is indignant and calls her mother a “katuvka” - an executioner, and advises her to go to a monastery as a last resort. Naturally, the parents resolutely opposed the possible marriage. The official reason for the refusal was the church ban on marriages between godfather and goddaughter.

However, the resourceful Mazepa would not have sent matchmakers if he had not hoped that the church authorities, superbly lured by him, would lift the ban for him. Most likely, the Kochubeys were well aware of the kind of “halepa” (attack) the treacherous and evil groom could lead their entire family into. Yes, over time, Matryona got rid of her misconceptions:

“I see that Your Grace has completely changed with your former love for me. As you know, your will, do what you want! You will regret it later." And Mazepa fulfilled his threats in full.

According to the direct (and this has been established for sure!) slander of Mazepa, Kochubey and Colonel Zakhar Iskra, the tsar’s subjects were sentenced to death and handed over to the hetman for an exemplary execution. Before his execution, Mazepa ordered Kochubey to be brutally tortured again so that he would reveal where his money and valuable property were hidden. Kochubey was burned with a hot iron all night before his execution, and he told everything.

This “blood money” entered the hetman’s treasury. On July 14, 1708, the heads of innocent sufferers were cut off. The headless bodies of Kochubey and Iskra were handed over to relatives and buried in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The inscription was carved on the coffin stone: “Since death commanded us to remain silent, / This stone should tell people about us: / For loyalty to the Monarch and our devotion / We drank the cup of suffering and death.”

... And a couple of months after this execution, Mazepa betrayed Peter I

From the first steps of the Swedish troops on Ukrainian soil, the population offered them strong resistance. It was not easy for Mazepa to justify himself to Karl for the “unreasonableness of his people.” They both realized that they were mistaken - both in each other and in strategic calculations - each. However, Mazepa’s deceit, meanness and extreme lowliness had not yet been completely exhausted. He sent Colonel Apostol to the Tsar with a proposal, no more or less, to betray the Swedish king and his generals into the hands of Peter!

In return, he boorishly asked for even more: complete forgiveness and the return of his former hetman dignity. The proposal was more than extraordinary. After consulting with the ministers, the king gave his consent. For the bleziru. He understood perfectly well: Mazepa was bluffing to death. He did not have the strength to capture Karl. Colonel Apostol and many of his comrades joined the ranks of the army of Peter I.

Order of Judas - Odessa Politikum As is known, after the historical Battle of Poltava, Mazepa fled with Charles and the remnants of his army. The Tsar really wanted to get the hetman and offered the Turks a lot of money for his extradition. But Mazepa paid three times more and thus paid off.

Then the angry Pyotr Alekseevich ordered the production of a special order “to commemorate the hetman’s betrayal.” The outlandish “reward” was a circle weighing 5 kg, made of silver. The circle depicted Judas Iscariot hanging himself from an aspen tree. Below is a pile of 30 pieces of silver.

The inscription read: “The pernicious son Judas is cursed if he chokes for the love of money.” The church anathematized Mazepa's name. And again from Pushkin’s “Poltava”: “Mazepa has been forgotten for a long time; / Only in the triumphant shrine / Once a year anathema to this day, / The cathedral thunders about him with thunder.”

For several centuries, the name of the despicable traitor was even considered indecent to mention in serious works

Only a few Ukrainian Russophobes, such as A. Ogloblin, tried to whitewash the “damned dog” (the expression of Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko). This, if I may say so, historian became the burgomaster of Kyiv during the period of fascist occupation. His reign was marked by mass executions at Babi Yar. After the war, Ogloblin fled to the United States. The fascist burgomaster wrote his main book, the monograph “Hetman Ivan Mazepa and His Reign,” on the 250th anniversary of the traitor’s death (how, however, all vile people tenaciously stick to each other!) In his opinion, the goals of the traitor hetman were noble, the plans bold. Just in case: “He wanted to restore the powerful autocratic hetman’s power and build a European-type power, while preserving the Cossack system.” I just wonder who would have allowed him to do this in those days?
And yet, in reality, on a statewide, so to speak, scale, the memory of the “Khokhlatsky Judas” was reanimated by another Judas - first the main ideologist of Leninism-communism in Ukraine, and then the first cooperator of market lawlessness, President Leonid Kravchuk

The nickname, by the way, was taken from his personal youthful poetic exercises: “I am Judas. Iscariot!

...I will never forget the summer of 1991. Then the largest part of the Soviet army came under the jurisdiction of Ukraine: 14 motorized rifle, 4 tank, 3 artillery divisions and 8 artillery brigades, 4 special forces brigades, 2 airborne brigades, 9 air defense brigades, 7 combat helicopter regiments, three air armies (about 1100 combat aircraft) and a separate air defense army. The general centrifugal euphoric force of the collapse of everything and everyone also captured me, the then Soviet colonel. I’m a sinner, sporadic thoughts flashed through my inflamed brain, why shouldn’t I, a Ukrainian, go serve in Ukraine?

I thank God that I did not succumb to a spontaneous feeling.

But the philosophizing of the director of the Center for Ukrainian Studies of the Kyiv National University named after T.G. Shevchenko, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladimir Sergiychuk. In Soviet times, this learned man modestly and quietly engaged in agriculture. And in Nezalezhnaya he became one of the first researchers of the activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the exploits of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA): “Yes, Mazepa betrayed the Russian Tsar, but he did it in the name of the Ukrainian people, in the name of Ukraine.

The condition that Charles XII would be the protector of our country, that is, would take Ukraine under his guardianship, was quite beneficial for Ukraine at that time. Mazepa was the real father of the Ukrainian nation! And nothing will help those downtrodden people who don’t want to be interested in their own history.”

Kiev political scientist Dmitry Vydrin became an even more “progressive” ideologist in this direction: “Our country was born from the totality of thousands of betrayals. We betrayed everything! We took the same oath and kissed the same banner. Then they betrayed this oath and banner and began to kiss another banner. Almost all of our leaders are former communists who swore by one ideal, and then cursed the ideals to which they swore. From all this cumulative action, where there were thousands of small, large and medium-sized betrayals, this country was actually born.

This is how Ukrainian politics, our worldview and morality were formed. Betrayal is the foundation on which we stand, on which we have built our biographies, careers, destinies and everything else.”

And we are still surprised: how can the brothers and sisters of Ukraine put up with the revelry of openly fascist Benderists; how the blood in their veins does not run cold from the Odessa Katyn; why do many Ukrainian mothers, instead of unitedly and sacrificially speaking out against the fratricidal war, complain to the president: our sons do not have body armor, they have little ammunition and they are poorly fed. Yes, this is all a direct consequence of the current “national Ukrainian idea: we, Ukrainians, are traitors, and this is our strength!”
It’s time for the long-decayed bones of Pan Mazepa to start dancing: “she ne vmerla” Ukraine in his understanding

She - not all of her, of course, but a significant part of her - honors and prays for him, despite all his outrageous atrocities. Truly, the Mazepia plague is now raging in Ukraine.

Woe to the people whose national heroes include such flawed individuals as Mazepa, Petlyura, Bandera, Shukhevych, etc. Their examples are good for growing maidanut gopniks.

When the “glorious deeds” of the bastard Mazepa are given to a fighter as a role model, the fighter will act accordingly. Don't they understand this? But they really don’t understand.

...After the release of the film “Prayer for Hetman Mazepa” by the famous film director Yu. Ilyenko, I met with my old friend, the late artist Bogdan Stupka, who played the title role. Our long-standing relationship (we knew each other since 1970) allowed for a serious degree of mutual frankness. And I, without further ado, asked: “Bodya, why did you take on Mazepa?” “Well, you’re a smart person and you should understand that there are no forbidden roles for an actor. The meaner the hero, the more interesting it is to play him.”

“I agree with you if this is Richard S. He is always outside the ideological framework. But in this case, you understood perfectly well that the ardent nationalist Ilyenko used both you and your name to spoil Russia with his movie nightmare. Okay, let's leave out the fact that Yura (we also knew each other for a long time) is the author of the script, director, cameraman, actor, and his son played young Mazepa. But there are also rivers of blood, heads are chopped off like cabbage, and Kochubey’s wife, Lyubov Fedorovna, masturbates with her husband’s severed head. Peter I rapes his soldiers. Didn't that bother you? And this episode: Peter I stands over Mazepa’s grave, the hetman’s hand appears from under the ground and grabs the Tsar by the throat - didn’t it also?

Bogdan Silvestrovich was silent for a long time and painfully. Then he said: “As they say: don’t rub salt in my wound. Soon I will play Taras Bulba at Bortko’s. So I’m rehabilitating myself in front of people.” A great, world-class actor, he, of course, understood that Yuri Gerasimovich simply “used” him as an old friend. And his role is a catastrophic failure. It couldn't have been any other way. Just like the film itself turned out to be a disastrous failure. It was sent to the Berlin Film Festival. However, there the film was shown only in the category of films... for people with non-traditional sexual orientation!

Then we continued talking about Mazepa. And we came to a common conclusion.

If the criminal Koledinsky had not been pulled by the ears by the current upstart Ukrainian politicians into the current ideology, then we would not remember him more often than other hetmans
And so his personality is unnecessarily demonized. Meanwhile, he was an elementary, albeit very evil, scoundrel. It’s a shame that the current Ukrainian authorities like him so much.

...You can talk, write and broadcast as much as you like about what an outstanding statesman Mazepa was, who left our mortal world 305 years ago. It’s enough to go to Ukrainian Wikipedia and see there a countless list of merits of the glorious patriot of “independent Ukraine” Ivan Stepanovich: he is a polyglot, and a philanthropist, and a temple builder, and a poet, and a lover, and a “sorcerer”, and...

But then you remember Pushkin: “However, what a disgusting object! Not a single kind, supportive feeling! Not a single consoling feature! Temptation, enmity, betrayal, deceit, cowardice, ferocity.” And everything falls into place.

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BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH

There is a crossword puzzle in a Moscow newspaper. First question: “One of the most famous hetmans of Ukraine.” Without hesitation I write: “Mazepa” - and guess. Still would! After all, on the most popular banknote (10 hryvnia) his stern face is depicted. He looks at it insightfully and seems to ask: “What have you done for the good of Ukraine!?” Having overcome embarrassment, I, in turn, ask the question: “What have you done, noble sir, that you have the honor of decorating a state treasury note with yourself?” The Hetman, of course, is silent, so I myself have to look for the answer to this question.
**
After the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in September 1657, a leapfrog with the hetmans began on both banks of the Dnieper. For thirteen years, ten people held the coveted mace: I. Vygovsky, Yu. Khmelnitsky, (son of Bogdan), Y. Somka, P. Teterya, I. Bryukhovetsky, P. Doroshenko, D. Mnogohreshny, P. Sukhovey, M. Khanenko and, finally, I. Samoilovich. A common feature of each of the listed hetmans was their constant dependence either on Poland, then on Russia, or on Turkey. Not the least place in this situation was occupied by the Crimean Khanate.
And now Vygovsky is replaced by Yuri Khmelnitsky. He helps the Poles defeat the Russian army in Volyn and agrees to the return of Ukraine to Polish rule. The Cossacks of the Left Bank refuse to recognize this conspiracy and elect their Left Bank hetman. Desperate to restore order in the country, Yuri refuses the mace and in January 1663 enters a monastery. From this time on, Ukraine splits into two parts: the Left Bank (under the Moscow protectorate) and the Right Bank (under the Polish).
Even under B. Khmelnitsky, the left side of the Dnieper was very sparsely populated due to the fact that it was constantly subject to devastating Tatar raids. As fortresses began to be built under Moscow supervision, and rifle detachments were stationed in them, life became calmer and more organized. This contributed to an increase in the population, including due to the massive influx of refugees fleeing the master's dominance. The process was so intense that the original Russian lands soon began to be populated. These are the current Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk regions. By 1700, the Left Bank became the center of the political and cultural life of the Little Russian people, with a population of 1,200 thousand people.
But the Right Bank Hetman Petro Doroshenko is itching to rule all of Little Russia, and he moved his army to the Left Bank and overthrew the hetman there. Before he had time to gain a foothold on both banks, he had to move against the Poles. Feeling his military weakness, Doroshenko conspires with the Ottomans and agrees to turn the Right Bank into a Turkish province. With this step, he completely undermined his authority among the people.
On March 17, 1674, a council of colonels of the Left Bank gathered in Pereyaslavl, where Ivan Samoilovich was elected hetman of Little Russia. After the meeting, everyone went to dinner with Prince Romodanovsky, the Moscow military commander. And here, in the midst of the feast, a messenger from Doroshenko arrived. He was his general clerk, Ivan Mazepa. He conveyed to the prince the hetman’s request to stand with his entire army under the high royal hand. The prince was delighted at this request and assured the ambassador that the hetman could count on the royal mercy and go to him without any fear. Time passes, and Doroshenko, neither with nor without the army, does not go. Romodanovsky sends a messenger to him asking him to hurry up. Doroshenko replies: “I can’t do any of this now, because I am a subject of the Turkish Sultan. The Sultan’s, Khan’s and Royal sabers hang on my neck.”
In an effort to get support from Crimea in the fight against the Poles, Doroshenko sends Ivan Mazepa to the khan. Due to the fact that the hetman did not have any valuables worthy of the occasion, he sent as a gift 15 Cossacks who were in his captivity. According to the laws of that time, this was an unacceptable sin: the Orthodox hetman gives his own co-religionists into slavery to the infidels. And the value of the gift was very doubtful, considering that over the previous two centuries the Crimean Tatars managed to destroy or capture and sell into slavery up to 2.5 million Little Russians.
On the way to Crimea, the envoy is intercepted by Cossacks. The Tatars who accompanied him are killed, and the prisoners are released. Mazepa, for violating Christian canons, should have been executed with a brutal death, but, surprisingly, he was left alive. There is a legend that Mazepa so shocked the Cossacks with his eloquence that they did not raise a hand against him, and they handed him over to Hetman Samoilovich.
Samoilovich, through Romodanovsky, sends the prisoner to Moscow. There he is interrogated. He answers questions willingly and at length, revealing to the smallest detail the secrets of the hetman's court. In Moscow they find out how many guns and men Doroshenko has, and find out that the Poles are asking the hetman to persuade the Sultan to make peace with Poland and start a war with Muscovy. In short, Moscow is happy with Mazepa, he was granted the sovereign's salary, and with that he was released, but to Samoilovich. There he gains the trust of his new boss and becomes the teacher of his children.
**
Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa-Koledinsky - of noble origin, was born in 1639 (there are other dates, but in our opinion it is the most acceptable) in the village of Mazepentsy, not far from Bila Tserkva. From a young age he was in the service of the King of Poland, John Casimir. The young man liked the monarch and, among the three chosen, was sent to study abroad. From where he returned in 1659 and joined the host of royal courtiers. He, carrying out the king’s instructions, goes to the hetmans, so he was personally acquainted with Vygovsky, and with Yu. Khmelnitsky, and with Teterya. The unsuccessful amorous affairs that Mazepa committed until his old age forced our hero to leave Poland in 1663. Finding himself back in Ukraine, he marries an old but rich widow. Her father brings his son-in-law together with Hetman P. Doroshenko. Here, thanks to his education and talent, he quickly makes a career and becomes a clerk general, which can correspond to the current rank of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
***
Having settled with Samoilovich, Mazepa often travels to Moscow on government assignments. Natural insinuation, the ability to please at first sight and court experience allow him to gain the trust not only of the ministers of the royal court, but also of the young princes John and Peter. They are surprised at his scholarship and knowledge of court etiquette. Samoilovich, following in line with the Moscow successes of the envoy, elevates him and makes him general captain of the Zaporozhian Army.
***
In the summer of 1687, Russian and Cossack troops launched a campaign against the Crimea. At the head of the campaign was the boyar Vasily Golitsyn, the Cossacks were commanded by Hetman Samoilovich. The army of one hundred thousand was unable to overcome the deserted and waterless Wild Field (the south of present-day Ukraine) and turned back. The losses and expenses incurred had to be somehow justified and written off. Golitsyn, being the favorite of the ruling Queen Sophia, was untouchable, so the most convenient “scapegoat” was “appointed” Hetman of Little Russia Ivan Samoilovich. The corresponding work was carried out, and the Moscow government had at its disposal a detailed denunciation of the unseemly activities of this noble gentleman. The denunciation was signed by the most senior figures of the Zaporozhye Army. Among them are close associates of the disgraced hetman: Ivan Mazepa - General Captain and Vasily Kochubey - General Clerk.
Samoilovich and his family were arrested and exiled to Siberia without unnecessary proceedings, and Ivan Mazepa was elected as the Little Russian hetman, at the instigation of Vasily Golitsyn, on July 25, 1687, as the historian S. Solovyov says: “who had long thought about the hetman’s dignity.” Further, he characterizes Mazepa in the following way: “A servant of the Polish king, from a young age, brought by misfortune to the Ukraine among the Cossacks, a servant of Doroshenko, therefore, a juror of the Turkish Sultan, a servant of Hetman Samoilovich, and therefore a juror of the Tsar, Mazepa changed his oath so often that that change became his for the custom..."
Almost immediately after Mazepa’s election as hetman, some “gultyai,” as he put it, began to spread rumors that he was hobnobbing with the Poles and buying up estates in Poland. Ivan Stepanovich turns to Vasily Golitsyn with an excuse and receives full support from him.
The Russian government, forced to fulfill the terms of the treaty with the Poles, again organized a campaign against the Crimea in 1689. Prince V. Golitsyn was again placed at the head of the army, and Mazepa now commanded the Cossacks. On the approaches to Crimea, the Russian army is attacked by the Tatars. They are dispersed by artillery fire. Subsequently, this skirmish was passed off as a decisive victory over the Crimean Khan.
The Russian army approached Perekop so exhausted that Golitsyn abandoned the assault on the fortress and withdrew the army to Ukraine. Sophia extols the “successes” of her protege in every possible way, and she manages to preserve his reputation for some time.
In August of the same year, Mazepa travels to Moscow and, in small talk, talks about the last campaign against the Crimea, while extolling Golitsyn’s leadership abilities. The hetman is praised for his faithful service to the queen and given gifts. But then the power suddenly changes. Sophia is in the monastery, and Golitsyn is arrested. On the Russian throne is Peter I, paired with his mentally retarded brother.
Mazepa hears rumors that he is called “Golitsyn’s client.” “Client” not in the modern sense of the word (buyer, customer), but in the sense: a person dependent on a patron. He spends anxious days waiting for reprisals, not knowing that his advisers are convincing the tsar to maintain the status quo in Ukraine and not bring the matter to new elections. The Hetman is given an audience. His voice trembles from the fears he has endured, but this makes his loyal words sound even more convincing. The Tsar liked Mazepa’s speech, and so did the gifts previously intended for Golitsyn.
Mazepa, wanting to dispel the last suspicions towards himself, writes a petition in which he blackly vilifies Golitsyn and states that he was forced to give him large gifts of things and money, and therefore asks to reward himself from the estate of Sophia’s former favorite. The petition was accepted and worked as a sign of the Little Russian hetman’s devotion to the new government. His request is granted. Thus, another benefactor was betrayed, before whom he had to fawn and humiliate himself more than once. The chain of betrayals has lengthened by one more link.
Moscow immediately confirms the rights and liberties of the Little Russian people. Mazepa asks to increase the number of tsarist military men in Little Russian cities, and also seeks permission to carry out an accurate census of the Cossacks, so that no one can henceforth seem to be either a Cossack or a peasant and vice versa. These and other requests were fully satisfied. From this we can conclude that the fall of Sophia did not violate the good relations between Moscow and Little Russia.
But attempts to spoil them continued. Poland especially tried. The king, having received false information about Mazepa’s pro-Polish vacillations, instructs Lvov Bishop Joseph Shumlyansky to enter into communication with the hetman and find out his real intentions. The bishop, who dreamed of the Kyiv metropolis, sent the nobleman Domoratsky to Mazepa with an overly frank letter in which he called on the hetman to decide to break with Moscow. Already orally, Domoratsky informed the addressee that two regiments were stationed not far from the Little Russian borders and would come to the aid at the first sign from the hetman. And also, if the hetman treats the Polish state favorably, then Shumlyansky himself, dressed in secular dress, will secretly come to Baturin (Mazepa’s residence) in order to talk in the royal name from mouth to mouth about the liberties and rights of the military and the hetman.
But the bishop overdid it. Having received his message, Mazepa orders Domoratsky to be arrested and sends him along with Shumlyansky’s letter to Moscow.
Literally next, another letter is sent to Peter I, in which the anonymous author complains that the henchmen of Sophia and Golitsyn have long been convicted, and Mazepa, the source of all troubles, is still in Little Russia, which he is going to give to the Poles. Such a rare coincidence in time of two actions with different meanings allowed Moscow to conclude that someone was trying to discredit the hetman loyal to it.
Clerk Mikhailov was sent to Baturin to assure Mazepa of the royal mercy and ask: “How does Hetman Ivan Stepanovich argue whether this letter was written on the Polish side, and what suspicion does he have of Poland?” Mazepa bowed five times, thanking for the royal mercy and trust, looked at the image of the Mother of God and, shedding tears, exclaimed: “You, Most Holy Theotokos, my hope, look at my poor and sinful soul, both day and night I constantly care so that to serve God’s anointed until the end of my life, to shed my blood for their sovereign health, and my enemies do not sleep, looking for something to destroy me with.” After such a prayer statement, a discussion of the problem began and the “ill-wishers” indicated by Mazepa, although not directly related to the slander, were arrested and brought to justice.
The inept provocations of the Poles convinced Moscow of the hetman’s loyalty and highly valued it. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mazepa, for his services to the throne, the second in Russia, was awarded the highest state award on February 8, 1700 - the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
By 1701, the hetman's relations with the Zaporozhian Army worsened. The Cossacks said that he went to Moscow to “receive cavalry”, but did not inform about their needs, and they were completely ruined in the royal service, they threatened to go to serve the Polish or Swedish king. Mazepa, in response to this, asks to increase the number of archers guarding him from 300 to 1000.
The Cossacks called their participation in the Northern War “royal service.” Of course, it was difficult for them to fight against the highly organized Swedish army. But it wasn’t even a matter of big losses - they were not allowed to fight the way they were used to: driving in droves, plundering, burning and seizing loot. In order to restrain the predatory instincts of the Cossacks as part of the “correct” conduct of war, the Russian command was forced to set up outposts along their path.
Mazepa, trying to raise his authority among the Zaporozhye Cossacks, decided to go on a Livonian campaign himself. Having received permission from the king to set out, he went through Lithuania. I made a stop in Mogilev and here received an order to return to Baturin due to the fact that the Tatars had become more active. Mazepa returned, and the army left.
Later, Mazepa wrote to Golovin about the Cossacks who returned from that campaign: “(...) they, returning, bark with their dog lips: the hetman wanted to send us to Siberia or to Arkhangelsk in eternal captivity. Although I’m not afraid of their dog voices, it’s hard to tolerate such rogues.” He asks for sanctions to punish the Cossacks. Golovin replied: “Punishing the Cossacks would not harm Ukraine.”
Moscow well understood Mazepa's difficulties, and highly valued his diligence and ability to maneuver between the Cossack freemen and the need to strictly carry out the royal orders. In the winter of 1702-1703, the hetman was in Moscow and returned from there treated kindly and even more enriched. He received ownership of the Krupetskaya volost with all its villages and hamlets, and was given
sables, velvets and other valuables. By that time, Mazepa had become one of the largest feudal lords of his time: he owned about 100 thousand peasants in Ukraine and another 20 thousand serfs in Russia.
In January 1705, the hetman wrote to the same Golovin: “The Cossacks give me neither obedience nor honor, which I do with those dogs.” He still has to dodge, and if Charles XII had not come to the Russian borders, Mazepa would have died as a faithful servant to the Russian Tsar.
***
At the beginning of the 18th century, the Swedish army was considered the best in Western Europe - it had first-class weapons, was distinguished by discipline and high fighting qualities. Sweden at that time was an economically developed country, owned the entire Baltic region and dominated Northern Germany. Therefore, the defeats of the Russian army near Narva (November 1700) and later near Riga (June 1701) were not accidental - the Swedes were worthy of these victories.
King Charles XII of Sweden began a campaign against Poland in July 1701, considering it a greater threat to Sweden than Russia. On May 14, 1702, Charles XII entered Warsaw and then methodically conquered province after province from King Augustus II of Poland.
On July 4, 1706, Peter I comes to Kyiv to personally verify the possibility of defending it from the Swedish troops. The Tsar sends Menshikov to Volyn, and Mazepa orders, if necessary, to assist the prince and carry out all his instructions. This is where the noble ambition of the former royal chamberlain leaped up. Should he obey the one who sold pies as a child? He said indignantly in his circle: “This is what a reward I will receive in my old age for many years of faithful service! They are ordered to be under the command of Menshikov! Lord, free me from their pandemonium!” True, Menshikov’s low origins, at one time, did not prevent Mazepa from asking the hand of the prince’s daughter for his nephew.
On September 24, 1706, Augustus II abdicated the Polish throne, broke the alliance with Russia and recognized the Swedes' protégé Stanislaw I Leszczynski as the king of Poland. Peter I was forced to offer peace to the Swedes, but Charles XII rejected him.
***
And then somehow Mazepa, while in Dubno, received an invitation from Prince Vishnevetsky to come to him in Belaya Krinitsa to become the godfather of his daughter. While visiting, the hetman becomes close, as was planned in Poland, with Vishnevetsky’s mother, Princess Anna Dolskaya. This lady, who by that time had managed to bury two husbands, was not yet old and had not only an attractive appearance, but also an extraordinary mind. Mazepa has long conversations with her. Here, according to contemporaries, the seed of temptation was planted. A significant role in this was played not only by the fact that “the charming woman managed to drive him crazy” (Orlik’s opinion), but also by the unsuccessful attempt of Peter I to make peace with the Swedes, which Mazepa regarded as evidence of the weakness of Russia and the strength of Sweden.
Returning to Dubno, the hetman orders Philip Orlik, the general clerk, to send the princess a letter of gratitude and hand over the key to the digital alphabet. A few days later, he receives an encrypted answer: “I have already sent where it should be with a report of your true affection.” It is not difficult to guess which of the monarchs Mazepa gave preference to in conversations with Anna.
Soon a new letter arrives from Dolskaya, in which she calls the hetman to action and assures him of the favor of King Stanislav I and the guarantees of Charles XII. Having read the letter, Mazepa, in front of Orlik, began, with seeming indignation, to scold the princess: “The damned woman has gone mad! Previously, she asked me that the Tsar’s Majesty (Peter I - A.S.) accept Stanislav as his patronage, but now he writes something completely different! The woman is going crazy! The skillful, worn-out bird wants to deceive me! Stanislav himself is not strong in his kingdom, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is bifurcated: what could be the foundation for the crazy seductions of that woman? I grew old serving the royal majesty. Neither the Polish King Ian, nor the Crimean Khan, nor the Don Cossacks deceived me, and now, at the end of my century, a single woman wants to deceive me!” Mazepa was supposed to send the seditious message to Moscow, but, contrary to this, he orders Orlik to burn the letter in front of him. As we see, he continues to weigh the capabilities of the opposing sides on tricky political scales.
There were no letters from the “damned woman” for a long time, but then it arrived. She wrote from Lvov. You see, she happened to have lunch with the Tsar’s Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev. She sat at the table between him and General Renne. She casually mentioned Mazepa's name and spoke of him with praise. Renne said to this: “Have mercy, Lord, on this kind and reasonable gentleman. He, poor thing, does not know that Prince Menshikov is digging a hole under him and wants, after leaving him, to become hetman in Ukraine.” Sheremetev confirmed the general’s words. Dolskaya allegedly asked: “Why didn’t any of my good friends warn the hetman?” “It’s impossible,” answered the field marshal, “we ourselves endure a lot, but we are forced to remain silent.”
After listening to the letter read by Orlik, the “worn bird” pecked and fell into a snare. Mazepa began to remember the humiliation and deception that he had to experience from Menshikov. “Free me, Lord, from their dominion!” - he finished his complaints and ordered the general clerk to thank Dolskaya for the warning. This is all that he, surrounded by Moscow garrisons who protected him from the treacherous foreman and dashing Cossacks, could afford for today.
In 1707, in Zholkva (Right Bank Ukraine), at a military council, with the participation of the tsar, a plan was developed for a strategic retreat into the interior of Russia in case the Swedes rushed to Moscow. According to it, the army was supposed to avoid general battles and constantly attack convoys and enemy quartermasters, destroying forage and food supplies. Mazepa suggested at that meeting: if Karl and Stanislav split up and the Swedes went to Muscovy and the Poles to Ukraine, then he and his army, weakened by frequent campaigns and war, would not be able to resist the enemy, so he asked the tsar to give him at least ten thousand regular troops. Peter answered: “Not only ten thousand, but I cannot give ten people. Defend yourself as best you can." Mazepa was offended and did not go to dinner with the king, but sent an agent left for him by Princess Dolskaya to contact Stanislav, expressing his affection for him and asking that he not be treated as an enemy.
On September 16, 1707, he, along with a new letter from Dolskaya, receives a message from King Stanislav. After reading them, Mazepa said: “Oh, damned woman, she will destroy me.” After that, he was silent for a long time and finally said to Orlik: “I’m struggling with my mind: should I send this letter to the Tsar’s Majesty or not?” - and after a pause: “Now go, Philip, and pray to God, tomorrow we will consult. God sees that I do not do it for myself, but for all of you, your wives and children.”
The next morning, Mazepa and Orlik kiss the cross, swear allegiance to each other and then discuss the current situation. At the same time, the General Clerk reasons as follows: “(...) Who can explore the fate of God: what limit is set for a real war and who will have Victoria? If it’s behind the Swedes, your nobleness and we will all be happy, but if it’s behind the Tsar’s Majesty, then we will all be lost and we will destroy the people.” Mazepa assures that he will not deviate from his oath until he sees that the Tsar’s Majesty will not be able to defend not only Ukraine, but his entire state from Swedish potency.
On September 18, Mazepa replied to Stanislav that he could not carry out his decree to raise the people against the Muscovites due to the fact that the Ukrainian people, like different wheels, were not in agreement: some favor the Moscow side, others are inclined to the Turkish side, others love Tatar twinning, agreeing on everything this is with a natural antipathy towards the Poles. The only thing he promised: not to harm in any way the interests of Stanislav and the Swedish troops.
This letter was dictated to Orlik and appeared, to some extent,
covering up Mazepa's real plans. In October 1707, King Stanislav had a secret envoy from the hetman, who stated: “Everyone knows that the Moscow military men are big cowards and although they boast that they will firmly expect an attack from the Swedes, they always run away. Mazepa offers his assistance to the Swedish and Polish kings and promises in advance to build bridges for the Swedish army if the kings begin to patronize his intentions. The Moscow army, of which there will be six or seven thousand in Ukraine, will all be exterminated.”
The Swedish king was not particularly happy about this statement. “I noticed from experience,” he said, “that the Cossacks are capable of providing services when it is necessary to pursue a fleeing enemy, but in general during the war they cannot be relied upon.”
In November 1707, Moscow received a letter from Mazepa, which conveyed information of great importance: “The Ottoman Porta certainly and certainly intends to start a war with his royal majesty.” Details follow. Information about Turkey’s preparations for war is allegedly confirmed by the Jerusalem Patriarch Dosifei. Moreover: Dositheus is allegedly upset by Moscow’s lack of attention to him and will no longer write on this topic.
A copy of Mazepa's letter is sent to Pyotr Tolstoy, the Russian ambassador in Istanbul. The accompanying note said: “Mr. Ambassador, we are sending you a letter about a certain matter, for which we would like an immediate rebuke.” Then came the reproaches in the sense that you are sitting there, kicking ass, and we have to find out everything on the side. The fact is that Tolstoy constantly informed the government that in Istanbul they were not only not preparing for war, but were not even thinking about it.
The ambassador had to refute Mazepa's statements point by point. As for the behavior of Dositheus as described by Mazepa, this is also doubtful, because never before has the patriarch notified one hetman about such an important matter, and left the ambassador and the Russian government in complete ignorance. Subsequent events showed that the ambassador was right.
One can only guess what role Mazepa played here: an accomplice of the Polish-Swedish provocation or its initiator? If the hetman’s letter had been accepted on faith, then Peter should have, having exposed the direction to Moscow, transferred part of the troops to the Russian-Turkish border. It is interesting that even this misinformation did not violate Peter’s trust in the hetman.
Mazepa, we have already talked about this, was a considerable womanizer. Many of his love affairs have sunk into oblivion, but one remains in history. Being at an advanced age, Ivan Stepanovich was inflamed with a love passion for his goddaughter, sixteen-year-old Matryona Kochubey. This is what he wrote to her: “For this I kiss Coral’s lips, little white hands and all the limbs of your little white body, my beloved Kohana.” He, in violation of church regulations, asks for her hand in marriage, but is refused by his parents. He doesn’t calm down: he asks the girl to send him either a shirt from her body or a shirt from her neck. We would not remember these cupids here if they did not have tragic consequences. Motri's parents were extremely outraged by the old man's claims. They decided to take revenge, besides, Kochubey had been digging a hole under his boss for a long time.
At the beginning of 1708, Judge General Kochubey and Colonel Iskra, with great apprehension, reported to Moscow about the unseemly actions of Hetman Mazepa. Extensive materials were collected (33 points in total), even Mazepa’s poems were cited as his infidelity to the throne. In paragraph 5 of the denunciation, in particular, it was said that on May 11, 1707, the hetman received news of the defeat of the Russian troops at Propatsk. To the saddened Kochubey, he said, laughing: “Is the judge crying, is his tears already flowing?” Then on the same day he invited the guests to drink to the general health and, by the way, to the health of Princess Dolskaya, saying: “Let’s drink to the health of Ksenzhna her Mosce, for there is a valuable and wise lady, my dove!”
Chancellor Golovkin does not believe in Mazepa’s guilt, therefore, inviting Kochubey to Vitebsk, where he was at that time, he knew in advance that, after asking questions, he would send an informer to Kiev, “in order to show the hetman contentment.” Cross-examinations revealed inaccuracies in the denunciations, but Iskra stated that he did not know of any treason behind the hetman, and had only heard about it from Kochubey.
After long interrogations and torture, Kochubey “confessed” that he started all this out of malice against the hetman, and Iskra was in cahoots with him. Signing his testimony, Kochubey assessed his role in this case as follows: “A damned transgressor and a spoiler of his home and children.”
On June 11, Kochubey and Iskra were brought to Borshchagovka, which is not far from Bila Tserkva, and on July 14, after many biased interrogations and cruel torture, the criminals were presented before a meeting of the entire Zaporizhian army and a crowd of people. A letter of false denunciation was read, and both their heads were immediately cut off.
Mazepa, freed from the fear of being exposed, wrote to the tsar that Christian charity prompted him to ask for exemption from the death penalty for “national disturbers,” but since they dared to “speak with a flattering, deceitful tongue,” he showed no mercy to the slanderers.
***
In August 1707, the Swedish army, having had a good rest in Saxony, began moving towards Muscovy. Directly under the king there were forty-five thousand well-equipped troops, in Livonia under the command of General Lewenhaupt - sixteen thousand and in Finland another fourteen. Having such forces, Karl decided that they would be more than enough to deal with Russia.
Having waited until the rivers froze, on January 1, 1708, Charles XII, at the head of an army of forty-five thousand, crossed the Vistula. Having taken Grodno, he moved towards Moscow. On July 3, Russian troops were defeated at Golovchin (Mogilev district). Karl came out from Mogilev to the Dnieper, asking the Russians a riddle - where would the Swedes go: to the east or to the northeast? The concentration of Russian troops in the wrong place could become fatal, since there were not enough forces to resist in all directions, which were also distracted by the riots that engulfed Bashkiria and the Don.
At this time, an agent from Mazepa appeared at the Swedish headquarters. Through him, the hetman asked the king to hurry to Ukraine, since if this maneuver was slowed down, the Cossacks could spread to the tsarist troops. A temporary secret agreement was immediately concluded on behalf of Mazepa. The hetman pledged to provide the Swedes with winter quarters and provisions. In addition, he recklessly undertook to win over the Don Cossacks and the Kalmyk Khan to the side of the Swedes.
Another agreement was drawn up with Stanislav. All of Ukraine, as well as Smolensk, joined the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Mazepa, in reward for such a service, was promised a princely title and was given the voivodeships of Polotsk and Vitebsk with rights similar to those of the Duke of Courland. The day was agreed upon in advance when Mazepa would convene his colonels and announce an agreement to them. It will talk about the return of their former liberties, from which the Muscovites left one shadow.
Most of the Swedish generals were against the turn to Ukraine, but Karl was sure that the Golden Lion of the North, i.e. he himself will defeat the Eagle and dull his claws. This was guaranteed by Mazepa’s willingness to act on the side of the Swedish army.
In Mogilev, Charles XII sat down, waiting for the approach of Löwenhaupt and news of the uprising in Ukraine, but without waiting for either one, he left his place and went to the southeast! Ahead, at the crossing of the Desna, Mazepa should be waiting for him with the promised army.
Peter I, having learned about Loewenhaupt’s exit from Livonia to join the main forces, attacked him near the village of Lesnoy (about 70 km southeast of Mogilev) and defeated him. Two thousand carts loaded with military equipment became a Russian trophy. And Löwenhaupt brought Karl six thousand exhausted and hungry soldiers. But even the defeat at Lesnaya did not discourage Charles XII. He still hoped for Mazepa and his lucky star.
After the battle near Lesnaya, Peter went to Smolensk, and Menshikov ordered Starodub to monitor the movement of the Swedish army. On October 13, the Tsar, assuming that hostilities would spread to Ukraine, ordered Menshikov to meet with Mazepa to coordinate mutual actions. The prince, in fulfillment of the command, invites the hetman to his place, but Mazepa’s entourage shouts in one voice: “If you go, you will destroy yourself, us, and Ukraine!” Mazepa himself is afraid of a trick: they will lure him in, put him in shackles, and then, hello Siberia! He sends his nephew Voinarovsky to Menshikov with a message about his serious illness and about his departure from Baturin to Borzna for unction with oil from the Kyiv bishop.
On October 23, Voinarovsky rushed to Borzna with “terrible” news: Menshikov, he said, wanted to come in person to say goodbye to the dying hetman. Mazepa sees a catch here too, his nerves can’t stand it and on the same day he gallops to Baturin, ordering to wait for the Swedes there, and early in the morning on the 24th he crosses the Desna.
Menshikov, not finding Mazepa in Borzna, went to Baturin. On the way, a certain Sobolevsky appeared to him and said that Mazepa had gone to the Swedish king, having given instructions not to let the Russians into Baturino. The prince does not believe this and continues his journey to Baturin. There, referring to the order, Menshikov was not allowed into the fortress, saying that the hetman had left for Korop. On the way there, the prince learned that Mazepa had already crossed the Desna. Now he, too, was convinced that the hetman had defected to the enemy. He informs the king: “And through his evil behavior, we truly admit that of course he changed and went to the king of Sweden, for which there is an obvious reason and that his nephew Voinarovsky was with me on the 22nd day of this October, at midnight, without our knowledge and without saying goodbye to us, he went to see him.” He further writes that there will be no harm from the hetman’s act, since centurions and others come from all nearby places and, having condemned the traitor, ask the king to prevent their death. Peter received the message about the betrayal with great surprise. He was especially outraged that Mazepa “was faithful for 21 years..., now at the grave he has become a traitor and traitor to his people.”
Both Peter and Karl understood well how important it was to take possession of the food supplies made by Mazepa in Baturin. Both troops rushed to this wealth, but Menshikov was the first. The inhabitants of the castle refused to open the gates, responded to the proposal to start negotiations with abuse, but at night they sent the prince a letter in which they swore allegiance to the Tsar's Majesty and assured of their readiness to let his troops into the castle, but... in three days. It became clear that the Mazeppians were playing for time in order to wait for the Swedes to arrive. On the morning of November 2, Baturin was taken by storm. Menshikov took everything that could be taken with him, and burned and destroyed the rest. The news of the destruction of his residence plunged Mazepa into despondency. He said on this occasion: “Our cobs are evil and unlucky.”
Mazepa does not make public the agreement concluded with the Poles and Swedes, but, trying to raise the Little Russian people under his own and Swedish banners, he addresses it with a lengthy universal. Here are some phrases from it: “We now stand, brothers, at two abysses, ready to devour us, if we do not choose a reliable way to get around them. The monarchs who brought the theater of war closer to our borders are so bitter against each other that the peoples under their control have already and will continue to endure an immeasurable abyss of evil, and we between them are the point or goal of all misfortune.”
Let's clarify. Initially, Charles XII did not plan to go to Ukraine. His goal was Moscow, but Mazepa promised the support of the Ukrainian people, and he, contrary to the opinion of his generals, took this fatal step. Thus, it was not the monarchs, but Mazepa, who brought the theater of military operations closer to their homes.
Let us continue to quote Mazepa’s appeal: “My judgment, alien to passions and soul-harmful tendencies, is this: when the King of Sweden, always victorious, and whom all of Europe respects and trembles, defeats the Tsar of Russia and destroys his kingdom, then we will inevitably be counted among Poland and betrayed into slavery to the Poles. And if we allow the Tsar of Russia to become a winner, then the threatening disasters have already been prepared for us by this Tsar. And so it remains for us, brothers, from the visible evils that have befallen us, to choose the lesser (...) in the future peace of all the warring powers, it is destined to put our country in the state of powers in which it was before the Polish possession, under its natural princes and under all the previous ones rights and advantages (...) The leading powers in Europe: France and Germany undertook to guarantee this. (...) Our agreements on the above were concluded by me with the king of Sweden by a written act, signed on both sides and declared to the said powers. And now we must honor the Swedes as our friends, allies, benefactors, and as if sent from God to free us from slavery (...).”
People listened to this appeal and, after many arguments, agreed that changes were necessary, but they could not figure out how to approach them. What there was no serious disagreement about was the reluctance to move away from the Orthodox faith and surrender to the will of the Lutheran monarch, who tramples on the icons of the Saints and “defiles Wednesdays and Fridays with meat-eating.”
The Cossacks dispersed to their regiments, and early in the morning they left Mazepa’s camp, leaving him with two regiments consisting of Ukrainian Poles, with senior general officers and many officials. They went to the city of Starodub, where they found Menshikov’s building. They reported to him about Mazepa’s treachery and treason and asked permission to choose a new hetman. On November 5, 1708, in Glukhov, Mazepa was removed from the hetmanship, and on November 6, Ivan Ilyich Skoropadsky was elected as the new hetman. The Metropolitan of Kiev arrived in Glukhov with two bishops and on the 9th they consigned Mazepa to eternal damnation.
But let's return to Mazepa. On October 28 he found himself in the Swedish camp, and the next day he was received by the king. The hetman made a short but smooth speech in Latin, which was received favorably. According to the testimony of the secretary of Charles XII, Mazepa looked like an old man of 66 years old, of average build, thin, without a beard, but with a mustache according to Polish custom.
After dinner, the king retired with the hetman to his chambers, where he, as a sign of submission, laid the signs of his power at Charles’s feet: a horsetail and a mace.
On November 4 and 5, the Swedes crossed the Desna and entered Little Russia. The entry was not like an enemy invasion. The troops passed through the villages without touching property or committing outrages, but the people there “were then likened to wild Americans or wayward Asians. Coming out of his pits and shelters, he killed everywhere (Swedes) where he could only find them in small parties and individually” (G. Konisky, “History of the Rus,” 1846, p. 209).
According to European traditions of that time, the intensity of military operations in winter decreased, but the Swedes did not feel this this time - they were constantly disturbed by Russian flying detachments, and the winter of 1708-1709 was unusually harsh, and they suffered heavy losses not only in wounded and killed, but also frostbitten and sick. Swedish general Gustav Adlerfeld wrote: “And we suddenly found ourselves in the need to constantly fight both with the enemy and with the inhabitants of the region where we entered. This greatly upset old Mazepa, who came into indescribable grief when he heard that the Russians had taken possession of his treasures in the White Church, and he had pinned his hopes on them.”
Charles had difficulty keeping his army in obedience, but by spring he had no more than twenty thousand people left capable of holding weapons in their hands. And there were only thirty-four guns left, and no gunpowder at all.
After Mazepa's betrayal, Peter sends an embassy to Zaporozhye with a letter and a certain amount of money. Taking the money, the Cossacks drove the messengers away. Led by the Koshevoy ataman Kostya Gordeenko, an implacable enemy of Moscow, the Cossacks began military operations against the Russian troops.
In March, Mazepa invites Gordeenko to a meeting at Kochubey's former estate - Dikanka. Here the hetman made a lengthy speech, in which he said, in particular: “If you, the Cossacks, still retained your freedom, then you owe it to me, Mazepa. If the tsar's plan had come true, you would all have been bandaged, reforged and sent to Siberia. (...) We must recognize the special leadership of Providence over us, that at this very time the Swedish king entered our region and gave (...) hope for liberation from the oppressors.” Let us remember how Mazepa previously reviled the Zaporozhye Cossacks and called for repressions against them.
After the official part, there was a lunch that ended tragically. When the drunken Cossacks began to leave the hetman’s mansion, they began to grab various utensils and take them with them. The butler, who tried to stop this outrage, extremely offended the robbers. They complained to Gordeenko, who took all the butler’s reproaches personally and ordered them to leave the hetman’s court. Mazepa, having learned about this and fearing to lose his only allies, was in no way embarrassed, and gave them an obviously innocent man to slaughter. They knocked the unfortunate man to the ground, kicked him, throwing him between them, and finally stabbed him with a knife. Where, mospan (sir), is your vaunted eloquence, which has saved you more than once, even on the eve of death? Or habeat sibi! (well, to hell with it!),
Soon the Russians managed to intercept a letter from the Cossacks to Mazepa. In it, the Cossacks asked to allocate representatives from both kings and from Mazepa himself to conclude an agreement, and also to send troops to destroy Kamenny Zaton (Russian fortress). The time for exhortations was exhausted, the king sent an army to the Sich, and it was ruined. This happened in May 1709. From that time on, Ukraine became quiet, but this did not suit Mazepa. He turns to the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey II with a proposal to invade the “Cossack land”, for which he promised to become his tributary. The Khan would have been happy to “fight,” but the Turks were hiding in anticipation of the result of the brutal feud between the Swedish king and the Russian Tsar, so the Turkish Sultan categorically forbade Devlet-Girey to come into contact with the former hetman.
***
Having not received the necessary resources from Mazepa, Charles XII is trying to leave Ukraine. On the way there was the Russian fortress of Poltava, fenced with an oak palisade. The king considered her an easy prey, so he decided to take her. The generals tried to dissuade him from this, as they considered, a rash step, but he said: “If God had sent an angel from heaven with the order to retreat from Poltava, then I would not have retreated.” On April 29, the Swedes launched an assault on the fortress, but it was repulsed.
On June 4, the tsar arrived in the Russian camp near Poltava with an army of eighty thousand and more than a hundred cannons. Both troops - Russian and Swedish - began to carefully maneuver, preparing for battle. On June 17, during one of the reconnaissance missions, Karl was seriously wounded. Like Achilles, his heel was pierced, but not with an arrow, but with a bullet. It went all the way through my foot and stuck to my toes.
On June 28, 1709, the Battle of Poltava took place. The Swedes needed a quick victory - they were running out of ammunition. Their left flank and center managed to achieve an advantage, but this was the first and only success of the Swedish army - the overwhelming advantage of the Russian army in numbers and weapons affected it. Two hours later the battle was over. No matter how the king shouted from the stretcher: “Swedes, Swedes!” his army fled.
The king was put on a horse (according to another version, in a carriage) and he, accompanied by Mazepa and one and a half thousand horsemen, fled across all of Ukraine to Turkish Moldavia. Twelve thousand Swedish cavalrymen surrendered to the Russians at the Dnieper crossing. Russian losses amounted to 1,345 people killed, Swedish - 9,234 people killed and 18,794 prisoners.
The victory at Poltava surprised Europe, raising Russia's international authority to unprecedented heights. And, strange as it may sound, Mazepa had to thank for this. It was his adventurous plans that captivated Charles XII and forced him to take that fatal step, which led the once victorious Swedish army to a crushing defeat, and the Ukrainian people to immeasurable troubles.
The Russian government demanded the extradition of Mazepa from Istanbul, but he died before this issue was resolved. In various sources I found four dates for this mournful event: September 6, 21, 22 and October 2, 1709. Perhaps one of them is true, but which one? For me, a mystery.
***
The reader remembers that in 1707, at the military council in Zholkva, Peter I refused Mazepa troops. He said: “I cannot give even ten soldiers. Defend yourself as best you can." So here is the author of the book “Ukraine. History" (Kyiv, 1994) Orest Subtelny uses this episode to whitewash Mazepa’s act. He writes: “By breaking the tsar’s promise to defend Ukraine from the hated Poles - a promise that formed the very basis of the agreement of 1654 - Peter thereby freed the Ukrainian hetman from his obligations” (p. 210).
Based on the fact that the author of an extensive historical work remembered exactly this episode and considered it to justify the hetman’s unseemly act, let’s try to analyze it with the help of the same Subtelny.
So, he refers to the promise to defend Ukraine, allegedly given by the Russian Tsar at the conclusion of the Pereyaslav Treaty of 1654. Earlier (p. 175) he notes that “the original documents (of the treaty) have long been lost, only inaccurate copies and translations have survived,” and now, according to the same author, there are as many as five different interpretations of this document. Shouldn’t it follow from this that we no longer have the right to say anything specifically? But let us call for help the episode of signing the agreement itself. Here it is as stated by Subtelny: “Knowing how such things are done among the Poles, Khmelnitsky counted on the fact that in this case both sides would swear allegiance to each other: the Ukrainians - promising the tsar their loyalty, the tsar - promising the Ukrainians protection from the Poles, respect for rights and privileges. But Buturlin (the head of the Russian delegation) refused to swear allegiance on behalf of his monarch, explaining that, unlike the Polish king, the Russian Tsar is an autocrat and does not swear allegiance to his subjects. Reluctantly, Khmelnitsky and his comrades agreed to unilaterally swear allegiance to the tsar - because they were afraid that because of this, as it now seemed to them, a simple formality, they would be deprived of tsar’s help” (p. 174). So was there a promise from the king that Pan Subtelny writes about?
I did not find any other serious justification for Mazepa’s violation of allied obligations to Russia. True, there is one more, given by Mazepa himself in a universal known to the reader. Here it is: “I experienced the beginning of our common illnesses myself. You know that for my renunciation of his (Peter I) plans, which were striking for our fatherland, I was beaten on the cheeks like an intolerable harlot. And who here does not admit that the tyrant, who so shamefully cursed the person representing the nation, of course considers its members to be senseless cattle and his own dung? I do not justify the Russian autocrat, but, as you know, such were the morals. This could be confirmed by Mazepa himself, who once publicly whipped the clerk general Kochubey on the cheeks. It’s a shame, of course, when someone slaps you in the face, but in this situation there are two ways to solve the problem: hit back at the offender or wash your face with warm water after the execution. Just don’t throw an entire nation into trouble!
So for what merits was Mazepa awarded the honor of showing off on Ukrainian money? No matter how hard I try, I cannot understand the people who made this decision. Maybe they repaid Mazepa for his betrayal of the Muscovites? No, by breaking the oath, he betrayed not so much Peter as his people. Ukrainians assessed the hetman’s actions by mass non-participation in his adventure. And if not this, then what?
Perhaps his difficult twenty-year tossing between the aspiration to be a free nobleman and a Russian official at the same time was taken into account? But let's remember Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve apostles under Christ. “And he appointed twelve of them to be with Him and to send them to confession.” (Mark 3:14). Later, Judas betrays Christ and his name becomes synonymous with vile betrayal. Even the fact that for some time he faithfully served the Teacher’s ideas did not save him from obstruction.
People have long tried to solve the question: what prompted Judas to betray Jesus? The following idea was also expressed: Judas was a zealot, i.e. a member of a Jewish religious and political party that fought for the independence of the Jewish people. This nationalist party went to extremes and marked its disastrous activities with the complete enslavement of Israel by the Romans. In the action of this Jewish Zealot they see the disappointment of a man who wanted to accomplish something, but did not succeed. Similar hopes? And the death is similar: one immediately hanged himself out of shame, and the other immediately “died of sadness.”
But there is a difference in their posthumous fate. We will not find a picturesque image of Judas Iscariot on icons. There is none of them. The Church, recognizing the action of the former apostle as worthy of condemnation, was consistent in the future. The Ukrainian authorities, without bothering to justify their actions, disgraced the people by giving an honorable place on the state banknote to a person who became famous for his betrayal, for which he is anathematized.
So, Mazepa was made a symbol. Who doesn’t know that symbolism, establishing moral standards, like a road sign, shows the vector of the historical path. So where, having become engaged to Mazepa, are our statesmen taking us?

Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa

Ivan Mazepa.

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich (1644 - 1709) - hetman of Left Bank Ukraine (1687 - 1708). One of the largest landowners in Ukraine. Supporter of Ukraine's secession from Russia. For this purpose, he conducted secret negotiations with the Polish king Stanislav Leszczynski, and then with the Swedish king Charles XII, to whose side he openly went over together with armed detachments of Cossacks in October 1708 of the year. IN Battle of Poltava fought on the side of the Swedes. After the defeat, he fled with Charles XII to the Turkish fortress of Bendery, where he died.

Danilov A.A. Reference materials on the history of Russia of the 9th - 19th centuries.

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich (Mazepa Ivan) (02/19/1639 - 09/21/1709) - hetman of Ukraine (1687-1708). He strived for the separation of Left Bank Ukraine from Russia. During the Northern War of 1700-1921 he went over to the side of the Swedes who invaded Ukraine. After the Battle of Poltava (1709) he fled to the Turkish fortress of Bendery along with Charles XII.

Ukrainian nationalist organizations during the Second World War. Documentation. In two volumes. Volume 2. 1944-1945. Biographical information. P. 1051.

Historical Dictionary:

MAZEPA Ivan Stepanovich (1644-1709) - hetman of Left Bank Ukraine (1687 - 1708). From a Ukrainian noble family. He studied at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and was at the court of the Polish king. In 1669-1673. was a clerk in the army of the hetman of Right Bank Ukraine Ya. D. Doroshenko, in 1674 he transferred to the hetman of Left Bank Ukraine I. S. Samoilovich. In 1687 he was elected “hetman of the Tsar’s Majesty’s Zaporozhian Army on both sides of the Dnieper.” He enjoyed the full confidence of Peter I, and received from him the highest award in Russia, the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. Conducted secret negotiations on the separation of Ukraine from Russia with Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In October 1708 he went over to the side of Charles XII and participated on the side of Sweden in the Battle of Poltava. Peter I performed the ritual of abdication of Mazepa from the hetmanship in absentia, and at the same time he was excommunicated from the church. After the defeat of the Swedes, he fled with Charles XII to the Turkish fortress of Bendery, where he died.

Orlov A.S., Georgieva N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical Dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 292.

Marxist view:

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich, hetman of Left Bank Ukraine (1687-1708). He was brought up at the court of the Polish king. In 1669-1681 he served with the hetmans of Right-Bank and Left-Bank Ukraine, and in 1682-1686 general captain. One of the largest landowners in Ukraine, who owned more than 100 thousand peasants in Ukraine and St. 20 thousand serfs in Russia. Having become hetman, he sharply increased the feudal-serf exploitation of the peasantry and brutally suppressed peasant uprisings. Mazepa pursued a nationalist policy of separating Ukraine from Russia. For this purpose, he conducted secret negotiations with the Polish king S. Leszczynski, and then with the Swedish king Charles XII, promising to raise an uprising against Russia and join them with the Cossack army. During the Northern War of 1700-21, after the Swedish invasion of Ukraine, in October. 1708 M. openly went over to the side of Charles XII, betraying his people and Russia. After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, M. fled on tour with Charles XII. Bendery fortress.

Materials from the Soviet Military Encyclopedia in 8 volumes, vol. 5, were used.

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich (1644-1709) - hetman of Left Bank Ukraine (1687-1708). Born into a Ukrainian noble family, he was raised at the court of the Polish king. Since 1669 - in the service of the Hetman of Right Bank Ukraine P. D. Doroshenko, since 1674 - with the hetman of Left Bank Ukraine I. Samoilovich, since 1682 - general captain. Since 1687 - Hetman of Left Bank Ukraine. One of the largest landowners in Ukraine. Mazepa owned more than 100 thousand peasants in Ukraine and over 20 thousand serfs in Russia. He pursued a policy of strengthening feudal-serf oppression. In an effort to tear Ukraine away from Russia, Mazepa conducted secret negotiations first with the Polish king Stanislav Leszczynski, and then with the Swedish king Charles XII, to whose side he openly went over in October 1708, after the invasion of Swedish troops into Russia during Northern War 1700-1721. After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Mazepa, along with Charles XII, fled to the Turkish fortress of Bendery, where he died.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 8, KOSSALA – MALTA. 1965.

The peasants were hostile to the “Pole” Mazepa

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich (c. 1640-22.8.1709), hetman of Left Bank Ukraine. From a Ukrainian noble family. He studied at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, was at the court of the Polish king John II Casimir, and was sent to Europe for three years. Later he went on errands from the king to the Ukrainian hetman I.E. Vygovsky, Yu.B. Khmelnitsky, P.I. Tetere. In 1669-1673 he served as a clerk in the army of Hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine P.D. Doroshenko, in 1674 he transferred to Hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine I.S. Samoilovich, from 1682 general captain. In 1686, with the support of Prince V.V. Golitsyna participated in the deposition of Samoilovich, took the oath of allegiance to Russia and on July 25, 1687 was elected “Hetman of the Tsar’s Majesty’s Zaporozhian Army of both sides of the Dnieper.” In order to strengthen personal power, he relied on the Cossack elders, distributed land and prevented the transition of peasants to the Cossacks, put his followers at the head of the regiments, and strengthened, in contrast to the city Cossacks and Cossacks, personal “hunting” regiments. Trying to show his “loyalty to Orthodoxy,” he donated part of his income to the maintenance and construction of churches. Ordinary Cossacks and peasants were hostile to the “Pole” Mazepa, and therefore the latter had to resort to political and military support of the Russian Tsar: the hetman’s residence in the city of Baturin was constantly guarded by a streltsy (then soldier) regiment. Mazepa enjoyed the full confidence of Tsar Peter I, who considered him a skillful ruler and valued the information he supplied about the political situation in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The tsar considered the denunciations received since 1688 about Mazepa’s negotiations with Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as slander and forwarded them to Baturyn. Mazepa repeatedly received awards from the Russian government (including the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, 1700), he owned over 100 thousand peasants in Ukraine and over 20 thousand in Russia. In 1692-1695, Mazepa defeated the troops of the “Khan’s hetman” Petrik (an adventurer whose claims to hetmanship were supported by the Crimean Khan); during the Azov campaigns of 1695-1696 he acted in the lower reaches of the Dnieper as part of the army of B.P. Sheremetev. In 1697-1698, together with the Russian army, he marched near Ochakov. At the beginning of the Northern War of 1700-1721, he ensured the maintenance of garrisons and fortification work in the fortresses of Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine, sent Cossack detachments to auxiliary areas of military operations (to Pskov, Volyn, Galicia and Belarus). At the same time, in 1705-1707, he conducted secret negotiations with the Polish king Stanislav Leszczynski, who was completely dependent on Sweden, about the transition of Ukraine under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On October 25, 1708, under the pretext of uniting with the Russian army, Mazepa moved from 4-5 thousand Cossacks across the Desna to the location of the Swedish army. The remaining Cossack regiments confirmed their loyalty to the Russian Tsar. The “nest of treason” - Baturin - was burned by Russian troops; in November 1708, in Glukhov, Peter I performed the ritual of Mazepa’s absentee abdication from the hetmanship (at the same time he was excommunicated from the church). Mazepa's attempts to enter into negotiations on returning to Russian citizenship were rejected by the tsar. After the defeat of the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Mazepa fled to the Turkish fortress of Bendery.

Book materials used: Sukhareva O.V. Who was who in Russia from Peter I to Paul I, Moscow, 2005

The legendary and real Mazepa

Mazepa Ivan Stepanovich is a legendary character, beloved by romantics, who inspired Pushkin, Liszt, Delacroix, Byron and Hugo. Historical reality, however, is quite different from the legend. Being of noble origin, Mazepa studied at the Kyiv Academy, and then at the Jesuit College in Warsaw. He completed his education at German universities. IN 1659 he carries out the orders of the hetman of Ukraine. He spends the following years on his estate, with his family. In 1687, the Ukrainian Rada elected him hetman after Ivan Samoilovich, who was removed by Golitsyn on the orders of the ruler Sophia. He takes part in the Azov campaigns and fights against the Tatars in Ukraine. Tsar Peter has the most friendly feelings towards him, showers him with favors and gives such huge possessions that Mazepa’s wealth soon becomes a proverb. Therefore, when in October 1708, at the height of the Northern War, Mazepa goes over to the side of the enemy and joins the Swedish army, his betrayal causes general bewilderment. True, since 1705 he had already been in secret relations with Charles XII through the mediation of Stanislav Leszczynski. Mazepa manages to attract only half of the Cossacks, and in June 1709 it's broken under Poltava. Hiding with Charles XII in Bendery, which belongs to the Turks, he dies on September 11 (22), 1709. It still remains a mystery what really motivated Mazepa: did he want to return to Ukraine the previous liberties, gradually taken away by Russia, or, consumed by vanity, hoped to turn Little Russia into his personal destiny under the auspices of Poland ?

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Literature:

Dyadichenko V. A. Created a sussl-political organization of Livoberezhnaya Decorated the end of the 17th century - the beginning of the 18th century. Kiev, 1959;

Zadonsky N. A. Mazepa. East. chronicle. Voronezh, 1940.