Seven betrayals of Ivan Mazepa: a genius strategist or a cunning adventurer?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Reviews about this historical figure to this day resemble a swing with a large amplitude - from plus to minus and vice versa. Disputes do not subside both in the scientific community and at the level of public understanding of the role of Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa in the history of Russia and Ukraine. One thing can be said for sure - he was an outstanding personality, before whose bright colors the fictional fiction of works about Mazepa Ryleev, Pushkin, Byron and Hugo fades. A subtle and intelligent, purposeful and ambitious, well-educated hetman-diplomat with the mind of a philosopher and a romantic poet in the depths of his soul - this is all about him.

Servant of King Jan Casimir. Treason to the patron near Bila Tserkva

At the end of the 16th century, Rzeczpospolita was a European state with centralized power and a developed gentry democracy. The Polish nobility, well-educated and having strong connections at the court, treated noble people from Little Russia with mockery and arrogance.

In this sense, the fate of Ivan Mazepa is similar to the fate of many noble Orthodox families. At the age of 20, he has already graduated from the Jesuit college and the Kiev-Mohyla Academy (rhetoric class). He perfectly knew Latin, in addition to his native Ukrainian, was fluent in Russian, Polish, and Tatar languages, was familiar with the works of Aristotle, Plato, Machiavelli, often quoted Ovid and Horace. As a supporter of the gadyach agreement, his father, Adam Stefan Mazepa, faced serious troubles in order to save his son, he sends him to serve at the court of Jan Casimir.

The younger Mazepa was appointed to the rest, and in 1659 he was already the king's envoy to the hetmans of the Left-Bank Ukraine. But among the arrogant courtiers, the smart and ambitious Ukrainian nobleman never became equal and did not have worthy prospects for himself. Taking part in the campaign of Jan Casimir in 1663 to the Left-Bank Ukraine, Mazepa leaves the army. This happens next to the White Church - maybe it is at this moment that he implements the long-made decision to return to Ukraine.

In the service of the hetman Doroshenko. Triple play

Mazepa enters the service of the hetman of Right-Bank Ukraine Petro Doroshenko, who quickly discerned outstanding abilities in this still little-known nobleman and rather quickly appointed him head of his entire chancery. In order to strengthen the position in the gentry environment and quickly move up the career ladder, Mazepa marries the rich and eminent widow Fridkevich.

Doroshenko played a triple game. Remaining a subject of the Commonwealth, he sends Mazepa to convey a message to Samoilovich, in which he declares his desire to serve the Russian Tsar. And soon he instructs Mazepa to go for patronage to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, sending him 15 captive Cossacks from the Left Bank as a gift.

The envoy is captured by the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Much to his surprise, Mazepa comes out of this binding alive. He gets to Samoilovich. The hetman of the Left-Bank Ukraine convoys him to Moscow, where he was introduced to the tsar, and even managed to acquit Doroshenko before him. Mazepa was instructed to take the draft letters addressed to the hetman of the Right Bank and released. Only Mazepa did not reach him - he remained in the Left Bank, where Ivan Samoilovich was the hetman.

Fatal friendship. Mazepa's new patron - hetman Samoilovich

First, Ivan Samoilovich, taking into account the scholarship and courteous manners of Mazepa, takes him as a teacher of his sons. But very soon he notices that he has a state mentality, and appoints him to the post of chief esaul. In terms of intelligence and level of strategic thinking, Mazepa surpasses his patron, but he carefully hides it and is waiting for its moment.

After an unsuccessful military campaign against the Crimean Khanate, Golitsyn blames Samoilovich for her failure. And then there's a denunciation of him: he abuses his official position, appropriated the military treasury. The petition was signed by several people from the hetman foreman, including Ivan Mazepa. Samoilovich, who served the tsar regularly for 15 years, was exiled to Siberia, and his son was executed. Although in the denunciation of the hetman the truth was partly about abuse, but that was all.

Changing the cartridge. Mazepa is the owner of the coveted mace

After the very young princes Ivan and Peter were enthroned, Russia was in fact ruled by Princess Sophia and her favorite Golitsyn. Mazepa manages to find an approach to the princess's pet. Generous gifts to Prince Golitsyn and the Cossack foreman did their job - the hetman mace was in the hands of Mazepa.

Treason to Princess Sophia and her favorite Golitsyn. Somersault to the feet of 17-year-old Peter

17-year-old Peter becomes aware of the plans of his half-sister and part-time steward Sophia to kill him and Tsarina Natalya Nikolaevna. He escapes to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Not only the patriarch, but also the boyars, as well as service people go over to his side. Therefore, Sophia has no choice but to surrender the archers-conspirators and abandon her intentions. Golitsyn is sent into exile.

A serious threat loomed over Mazepa's head, behind his back the foreman was already picking up a new candidate for the hetmanate. Appearing before the young tsar, the hetman hears that he and his army are not to blame for the crimes of the ruler Sophia and Prince Golitsyn. Of course, Mazepa swears allegiance to Peter I.

Betrayal of the king. Union with the Swedes

The tragedy of the situation with the betrayal of Mazepa of Peter I lies in the fact that he served the tsar with faith and truth for long 20 years, and he believed Mazepa as himself, but they thought differently: Peter in the scale of a huge state, and Mazepa - in local Little Russian categories.

At the same time, Peter I did not harness the Cossack foreman, like the Russian nobility, to regular military and civil service and did not limit the cultural autonomy of Ukraine. Not a penny was transferred from the Hetmanate to the treasury of Russia. Mazepa in the prosperous Left Bank gave the foreman a "well-fed, prosperous life."

There was no settlement of the hetman lands by Russians. On the contrary, there was an intensive colonization of Russian territories by Ukrainians who sought protection from the Poles and Crimeans. The depletion of the material and human resources of the hetmanate was much less than in Russia. But Mazepa failed to appreciate what Peter I gave him. And this is his fatal mistake.

Hetman Mazepa, proceeding from the perception of Russia not as a Motherland, but as a protectorate, which, in his opinion, performed poorly the main function - protecting the territory of Little Russia, and also out of conviction in the invincibility of the Swedish army, is trying to "save" Hetman Ukraine. Behind the king's back, he is negotiating with Leszczynski, whom Charles XII plans to put on the throne in Poland after the victory. Mazepa promises the Swedish king support with provisions, winter quarters and manpower. And to the Swedish puppet, the candidate for the Polish throne Stanislav Leszczynski, Mazepa proposes to accept the Hetmanate as "his legacy." By this act, he betrayed his land.

But in fairness, it should be noted that the betrayal of Mazepa did not bring real damage to the strategy of Peter I and benefit to Charles XII, it simply turned out to be in vain.

Treason to Charles XII. Death of Mazepa

Mazepa underestimated the military reform, as a result of which the combat capability of the Russian army increased significantly. He made a bet on the Swedish king and was cruelly mistaken. The same, in turn, made a mistake in Mazepa. Finding himself in a very difficult situation after the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709, Mazepa makes a last attempt to get out of it: through the envoy, he offers the king to betray Charles XII into his hands, and in return - full forgiveness and the hetman mace. It was pure gamble and it was not destined to come true. After the decisive battle, the Swedish king, and with him Mazepa, fled to Bendery to the Turkish sultan. Behind the rise of a career, a high position and the fabulous wealth of Mazepa.

Unknown and forgotten by all, he ingloriously ends his days in a foreign land. There is a version that he was poisoned or that he himself took the poison, because he could not bear the whole incident. There is only one sad thing in this story: a man gifted with many talents with a state mentality and an extraordinary mind turned out to be a cunning adventurer. Ambition led him to such a sad outcome of life.

And the hetman Doroshenka was also an outstanding person. He even had to ancestor of the wife of Alexander Pushkin.