2009 was declared the Year of Ivan Mazepa. This was a joint initiative of Den/The Day, represented by chief editor Larysa Ivshyna, and the National Museum of Ukraine’s History, represented by Yurii Savchuk, who holds Ph.D. in history. It has stirred up wide response and received the support of scholarly and progressive civic circles.
It was clear to us that our initiative should not be limited by time frames. This is only the first step in unveiling the charismatic personality of the hetman, whose political experiences (he stayed in power for over 20 years), and spiritual and material legacies, continue to live on. They have influenced Ukraine's present situation, and led to formation of numerous legends.
Just before the onset of the weekend, the museum of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy (premises of the Holy Spirit Church) launched an exhibit called “Ivan Mazepa and Kyiv Mohyla Academy.” Its core is composed of engravings depicting the hetman and panegyrical theses in his honour (from museum and library collections of Ukraine, Poland, and Russia). Mazepa was a generous benefactor of this educational establishment. Furthermore, the Kyiv Mohyla Academy was one of the key recipients of his spiritual and material investments. But these relations have been scantily studied, because of the extensive destruction of documents by Russian imperial ideologists. This is illustrated by the fact that of 12 decrees issued by the Brotherhood Monastery only two have been preserved. They are kept now at the St. Petersburg Department of the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Science. “The rest is represented by copies and has been partially published in the collection of Ivan Mazepa’s decrees under editorship of Butych. However, even he has not seen the four remaining ones,” said Tetiana Liuta, head of the NaUKMA museum and Ph.D in History. “For example, the first decree issued on July 4, 1961, showing the hetman on both banks of the Dnipro, confirms, at request of the rector Pakhomii Pidluzky, that Petro Mohyla granted the village of Pozniaky as a present . It also indicates that the academy owns estates in Podil, the village of Karpylivka with small villages Lukava and Kosachivka, the farmhouse in Ivanhorod, a dam on the river Oster, and the village Vypovziv.” It should also be noted that the exposition is made up by the samples of graphic works that offer a possibility to reveal the interesting sides of interconnections and discrepancies in the political systems and cultural priorities of Ukrainian and Russian politicians since the times of the Kolomak Articles in 1687, when Ivan Mazepa was appointed hetman,” Liuta went on. “In short, the interconnection was embodied by military cooperation (military marches), whereas the differences were categorical, and, above all, mental.”
The materials of the exhibit can be a subject of scholarly studies. The exposition will last till April.
N.B. After the launch of the exhibit, representatives of the Mazepa Family foundation conferred letters of honour on the researchers of the Mazepa times, among them Den’s contributors, Volodymyr Panchenko, Serhii Pavlenko, and Taras Chukhlib.
