On Ivan Mazepa’s birthday, March 20, 2009, I happened to be in the Museum of Hetmanship at the launch of the book Shliakh do Poltavy (The Way to Poltava) by the contemporary Ukrainian historian Taras Chukhlib. The event was organized by the Our Time Agency.
The first thing that impressed me was the atmosphere of patriotism that is still present in the Museum of Hetmanship. It seems to be crisscrossed with invisible threads, uniting generations of Ukrainians who proudly consider themselves part of the powerful European nation. In the circle of educated people, where everyone was expressing his/her patriotic opinions concerning the personality of Ivan Mazepa, it seemed to me that I had traveled to the Cossack times and was surrounded by Cossacks, saluting the outstanding hetman. It was the first time in my life that I felt comfortable in unknown environment. Many in the audience had lived in times of the communist regime. However, none of them said a word about Mazepa as a traitor. The participants of the presentation spoke about the Ukrainian hetman as one of the greatest personalities in Ukrainian history.
Now I will be speaking about Mazepa the benefactor, patron, and founder. The life of the initiator of the Cossack Renaissance started in the village of Mazepyntsi. At the age of 20 Mazepa was a strong and handsome young man whose eyes sparked with willpower, dignity, faithfulness, and strength. Mazepa was maturing and acquiring life wisdom. He understood that his calling was to be among the Cossacks. So his life path took him to the Sich.
In this place, where the Dnipro’s waves were hit against the high rapids and the free wind was whistling the tunes of freedom, Mazepa fulfilled his credo: to live and serve Ukraine. He distinguished himself among the Cossack community with his sharp intellect, diplomatic talent, courage, and enthusiasm that he showed in battles. Therefore the Cossack leaders appointed him General Osaul. But Mazepa did not want to be thankful for small mercies and edged his way to the highest post in the Sich.
In 1687 Ivan Mazepa was elected hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine. This event was the beginning of the golden era of the Ukrainian culture, called the Ukrainian Renaissance, during which education, science, art, and architecture flourished.
Love for his native land and its Christian virtues fueled Mazepa’s irresistible wish to restore churches and build new ones. Thanks to his philanthropic devotion, the late 17th century is regarded as the golden era of Ukrainian architecture. Despite all the problems and continuous oppression from the northern neighbor, an architectural style originated and flourished in Ukraine that later came to be known as the “Ukrainian Baroque.” It reached its height in Mazepa’s time, so researchers sometimes call it the “Mazepa style.” Peter I called Mazepa the great architect of holy churches.
Mazepa initiated and funded the construction of a number of grand churches in the Hetmanate that considerably changed the architectural lanscape of many cities, including Kyiv, Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Hlukhiv, Lubny, Baturyn, Bakhmach, etc.
Mazepa invested tremendous effort in the development of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. It was thanks to his intercession that in 1701 the Kyiv Collegium was given the official status of higher education institution by the tsar and received the title “academy.” Mazepa did so much for this establishment that his contemporaries called him the “donator of the glorious Mohyla-Mazepian Academy.”
In 1690–93 he built the new Theophany Cathedral of the Brother (Academic) Monastery on the place of the old wooden church built in times of Hetman Petro Sahaidachny. The noble hetman donated over 200,000 gold coins for its construction.
A pearl of the Ukrainian baroque, the Church of All Saints, was built in the Kyiv Cave Monastery in 1696–98 at Mazepa’s expense. In 1698–1702 stone fortress walls with the overall length of more than one kilometer were built around the Kyiv Cave Monastery, with the works again funded by Mazepa. At the time of construction these walls fully met the standards of military engineering. Stone towers were constructed in its corners. The most renowned and imposing are Troitska, Palatna, Maliarna, Hodynnykova, and Kushnyk towers. Apart from the above-mentioned buildings, Mazepa built up the Assumption Cathedral of the monastery. The hetman made donations to work on this building on numerous occasions, which makes historians believe that he spent most of his efforts and money precisely for this project.
Hetman Mazepa put many efforts in the cause of restoring the most precious monuments of the princely era in Kyiv. One monument that stands out from the rest is the Saint Sophia Cathedral, which was neglected until the 16th century. In 1690–96 Saint Sophia was restored at Mazepa’s expense. The church was shaped in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Two new side altars were built in the north and south, as well as four new Communion tables (two on the upper and lower stories each). After the 1696 fire, owing to the efforts of Ivan Mazepa and Varlaam Yasynsky, the Baroque-style stone belltower was erected near Saint Sophia and the main entrance gateway was built on the side of present-day Volodymyrska Street. It is known that Mazepa spent 50,000 gold coins to restore the cathedral and 5,000 ducats, for gilding its domes.
The main church in Saint Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery is the most precious architectural monument that was restored at Mazepa’s expense in Kyiv.
Could Mazepa ignore the cradle of the Ukrainian Cossacks—the Zaporozhian Sich, which always was a stronghold in defending the Ukrainian nation? Mazepa allocated money for the restoration of the Church of the Intercession, whose beauty pleased the eye of everyone who saw it. It is said to be one of the most attractive buildings of the time, built by Mazepa.
For Mazepa Baturyn was the city with special energy and enchanting Polissian beauty. In the city surrounded by the Seim River’s rapid waters and protected by high steep slopes, Mazepa turned his gaze toward the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, St. Nicholas Church, the Church of Resurrection, and the Church of the Intercession. In times of Mazepa’s hetmasnhip the city turned into the center of Left-Bank Orthodoxy.
During the 21 years of his rule Mazepa founded the construction of 12 and the restoration of 20 churches in Ukraine. Was there any other personality in Ukrainian history in the times of the Hetmanate? Mazepa wanted Kyiv to remain second Jerusalem—the center of the Ukrainian Orthodox faith and culture. He did his utmost to reach this goal, because he knew that the church is, above all, the soul of the nation, a true and living soul that revives the people and makes it into a real nation. Under the Soviet totalitarian regime the churches built at Mazepa’s expense were the first ones to be blown up, for they were the centers of free Ukrainian community that was formed in times of the Hetmanate.
Mazepa entered Ukrainian history as a fearless, wise, and intelligent person. For some he was a traitor, while for others, a hero; some love him, whereas others hate him; he seemed to be a saint to some and a cursed man to others. For me Mazepa is a national hero and a patriot—a prime example to be forever followed.
