Ivan Mazepa

Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa (Іван Степанович Мазепа in Ukrainian; Иван Степанович Мазепа in Russian) (circa 1640 — August 28, 1709), Hetman of the Leftbank Ukraine in 1687—1708.

Mazepa was born into a noble family and educated first in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy then in a Jesuit collage in Warsaw and abroad. From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king John II Casimir. In 1669-1673 he served under Hetman Petro Doroshenko, and in 1674-1681 - under Hetman Ivan Samoylovich. In 1682-1686, he served as a General Yesaul (also Osaul). In 1687, Ivan Mazepa became the Hetman of the Left-bank Ukraine and one of the biggest land owners. Nurturing patriotic ideals of a Ukraine independent of Muscovy, Mazepa secretly negotiated with the Polish king Stanislaus Leszczynski, and later with Charles XII of Sweden. His decision was based, in part, upon the Tsar's refusal to honor security gaurantees, which Mazepa saw as a revocation of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. During the Great Northern War of 1700-1721, Ivan Mazepa openly sided with Charles XII in October of 1708. After the Swedish defeat in the Battle of Poltava of 1709, Mazepa fled to the Turkish fortress of Bendery together with Charles XII.

The historical events of Mazepa's life have inspired such romantic writers as Lord Byron, Juliusz Slowacki, Alexander Pushkin as well as Ferenc Liszt, recently they were the subject of a recent Ukrainian-language film loosely based on historical fact, called "A Prayer for Mazeppa" [1].