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"HETMAN IN LOVE"
By Natalya Mykhaylova
Welcome To Ukraine Magazine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Issue Number Four, 1999
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The end of
the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth in Europe was
the time of political adventurers, love affairs, treachery and bravery.
Among the people who could be called “symbols of the time” one should name
Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, a distinguished general, politician,
cultural figure, patron of arts and poet.
Possessing seducing
charms of a Casanova and political flexibility of a Macchiavelli, he
entered beneficial and perilous alliances, blundered not once into deadly
cul-de-sacs and yet managed to extricate himself almost unscathed out of
desperate situations. “Hetman” was a military leader and head of state of
Ukraine in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and as any other
leader of his times, Mazepa was not an angel, but neither was he an
evil-doer as he was portrayed later by the Russian Imperial propaganda.
One can admit that probably some of the means he used to achieve his goals
were reprehensible but he never deviated from attempts to achieve his main
goal - independence and prosperity of Ukraine.
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“Woe to a bird that makes a nest close to a much-travelled
road”
This poetic image, symbolically portraying
Ukraine in the seventeenth century, is a line from a poem written by
Mazepa. Ukraine lived under constant pressure from the three aggressive
neighbouring states: Russia, Poland and Turkey. Having to fight on many
sides depleted Ukraine’s resources. Mazepa, seeing that the country faced
ruin and complete disintegration, undertook to unite all the lands of
Ukraine in one independent state. The only really powerful ally Mazepa
could turn to was Charles XII, King of Sweden, who was an inexorable enemy
of Russia in general and of Peter I in particular. War between Russia and
Sweden broke out in 1699 and Mazepa, being the Russian tsar’s vassal, was
obliged to join Peter in fighting against the Swedes. But Mazepa conducted
secret negotiations with Charles, as he sought an alliance with Sweden in
order to gain independence for Ukraine from both Russia and Poland. A
secret treaty between “the Prince of Ukraine” and “the King of Goths,
Swedes and Vandals” (thus the signatories of the treaty officially styled
themselves) was signed in 1708. Mazepa, a cunning and wily politician,
kept the treaty an absolute secret knowing too well what treachery meant.
He made it public only when the Swedish troops entered Ukraine. Tsar
Peter, when he learned of Mazepa’s siding with Charles, took a vengeful
action and razed the Hetman’s capital city of Baturyn to the ground.
Mazepa escaped but was pronounced “the traitor of the nation.” The priests
in all the churches of Ukraine (dozens of which were built with donations
from Mazepa) who, only a short time before, were regularly praying for the
Hetman’s health and well-being, now were forced to anathematize him. Then
in June of 1709, the Russian and Swedish armies clashed at last in a major
battle in the vicinity of Poltava.
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The Russian army had a
numerical superiority over the combined Swedish and Mazepa’s forces but
the Swedes were renown for their superior fighting qualities. The Russians
also had many more artillery pieces than the Swedes. If Charles and Mazepa
had won that battle the whole course of history of Ukraine and of the
whole Eastern Europe would have been changed. But the allies were beaten.
Mazepa sought asylum within the Sultan’s dominions where, in the town of
Bender, he died in September of 1709. Mazepa was, no doubt, a charismatic
personality whose role in history has been assessed and described
differently, from denunciation to extolling. Myth and fact combined to
shroud this figure in mystery. One of the definite facts was that he
possessed an uncanny gift of charming people, both kings and beautiful
women. Legends about Mazepa’s amorous exploits arose shortly after his
death. Some of them were based on the actual happenings.
Wild Horse
One of the legends
runs like this: second half of the seventeenth century, the court of the
Polish king, conspiracies, plots, intrigues, conflicts of aristocratic
ambitions. A young refined Ukrainian aristocrat by the name of Yan
Mazepa-Kaledinsky is attached to the court in the capacity of a diplomat.
He is very ambitious, a lady-killer, an about-towner. He begins one of his
innumerable love affairs with the wife of a very highly placed Polish
noble. But this time things turn out nasty for him - he is caught in the
act by the enraged and jealous husband.
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Guards and servants
are called and straight from bed, naked as he is, he is taken out of the
house into the courtyard where he is lashed to the back of a wild horse.
The horse is whipped hard, and overcome with pain, it gallops away into
the wide fields. The horse carries the unfortunate lover over hill and
dale, through forests and meadows, all across Poland and brings him to
Ukraine where it dumps at last its lifeless burden in a backwoods place.
Though this cruelly romantic story is in all probability a flight of
fanciful imagination but it inspired a number of European poets, and
Mazepa, similarly to Don Juan, has stayed in the world literature as an
embodiment of passion and love of freedom. Byron, Pushkin, Hugo and other
Russian, French and English poets either devoted whole poems to him or
featured him as a character in their poetry, Franz Liszt devoted a music
piece to Mazepa. In the twentieth century theatres in Broadway, New York,
they staged musicals about Mazepa. But is there any grain of truth in the
story that we’ve just told? Ivan (who in Polish was transformed into Yan)
Mazepa, a scion of a Ukrainian noble family did spend his young years at
the Polish royal court. The king had a habit of sending annually three
most talented youths of his court abroad for studies. He chose Mazepa
among others. Mazepa travelled to Germany, France and Italy and studied at
universities there. He returned to Warsaw enriched with knowledge of
foreign languages and many other things. He was a brilliant nobleman, one
of the most learned men of his time, ready to enter diplomatic service.
The Polish King John Casimir who was Mazepa’s patron, faced difficult
times. His country was disintegrating. There were many plots hatched to
overthrow him and one of the plots was headed by a Polish nobleman named
Pasek. Mazepa, when he inadvertently learned about the plot, reported it
to the king. John Casimir ordered to arrest the plotter but Pasek managed
to persuade the king he had been slandered and wrongly accused. Pasek was
acquitted but he bore an undying grudge against Mazepa. A year passed and
once Pasek ran by chance into Mazepa (they had studiously avoided each
other before) in a palace corridor, and emboldened by a couple of drinks
he had had, he began verbally abusing Mazepa. Mazepa pulled out his sword
and attacked Pasek. The duels were strictly forbidden, the fighting was
stopped by the guards and Mazepa, stripped of all his privileges, was
obliged to leave the Polish court. But Pasek still felt vengeful. He had
some literary talent and using Mazepa’s notoriety as a ladies’ man made up
a story that consequently brought Mazepa an all-European fame. There is an
irony in this: Pasek has long been forgotten and Mazepa, a legendary
lover, lives on as a literary character and historical personage.
Hetman’s last love
It is not known how
many women Mazepa had loved or, for that matter, it is not even known for
sure whether he actually was such an irresistible and insatiable lover as
he was later portrayed by poets. We know more about Mazepa’s last love, a
story tragic and highly moving. At the age of sixty he fell in love head
over heels with Motrya, the daughter of his comrade-in-arms Kochubey. She
was many years his junior but the tragedy of this love was not in the age
difference. Jean de Baluse, the French ambassador to Ukraine, thus
described Mazepa: “Though Ruler Mazepa is of quite an advanced age and his
visage may look severe, his eyes sparkle with youthful vigour, his hands
are white like a woman’s but he is extremely strong, his bodily strength
is greater than that of a sturdy German mercenary; also he is an
accomplised horseman.” Motrya could not resist Mazepa’s wooing and fell
for him. She was passionately in love with Mazepa but there was no future
for this love. The thing was that Mazepa was her godfather. The girl’s
parents soon learnt what was going on and her mother, a wilful and
unbending woman, turned all her anger against the daughter making her life
a sheer hell. When Motrya could stand it no more she took a desperate step
and ran away from home and joined her beloved Mazepa. Much as he wanted to
be with her, he realized he could not keep her in his house and returned
the poor, weeping girl to her parents. To marry a goddaughter was
unthinkable, no less a sin was to live with her out of wedlock. Several
letters of Mazepa to Motrya are still extant. In one of them he explains
why he had to send her back to her parents: “Had I kept you, Your
Ladyship, with me, we could not have withstood the temptation and would
have lived as husband and wife but the church would have put a curse on us
and would have demanded that we separate. What would have become of you
then, Your Ladyship? And I would have been thrown in torment over your
unhappiness and your tears that would surely have followed.” This letter
unequivocally demonstrates the purity of their relations. What followed is
sad and tragic. The friendship that had existed between Mazepa and
Kochubey, the girl’s father, turned to hatred and Kochubey, betraying his
former friend, reported Mazepa’s plans of alliance with the Swedes to Tsar
Peter. Peter did not believe Kochubey and had him bound and delivered back
to Mazepa. The Hetman had little choice but condemn his old friend to
death. Later, Peter ordered Mazepa’s grave found and opened. The body was
exhumed and hanged. Motrya married one of Mazepa’s companions-in-arms but
was captured with her husband after Mazepa’s defeat and death, and they
both were exiled to Siberia. Her husband died in exile, she returned to
Ukraine, took the veil and spent the rest of her life in a nunnery not far
from Poltava.
"Welcome to Ukraine" magazine, Issue Number Four, 1999
Kyiv, Ukraine, http://www.wumag.kiev.ua
Not for reproduction or distribution,
FOR PERSONAL and ACADEMIC USE ONLY
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