How Hetman Mazepa Became a Global Cultural Figure

Explaining Ukraine

Ivan Mazepa is a renowned Ukrainian leader who made significant contributions to the flourishing of Ukrainian culture and the Cossack state in the late 17th century. Because of his desire for Ukraine's freedom from Muscovy, Mazepa aligned himself with the Swedish king Charles XII in a war against the Russian tsar Peter I, ultimately losing the decisive battle near Poltava in seventeen o nine However, in the 19th century, Mazepa became a prominent cultural figure. George Gordon Byron, Victor Hugo, Juliusz Słowacki, Franz Liszt, and Eugène Delacroix created poems, musical compositions, and paintings depicting him as a young man, a political and sexual rebel. This portrayal of Mazepa gained popularity globally, reaching as far as South Africa and the United States. We delved into this story with Tony Voss, a South African university professor, Professor Emeritus and research associate of the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, and Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, the chief editor of UkraineWorld, and the president of PEN Ukraine. Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, a multilingual media outlet focused on Ukraine. UkraineWorld is run by Internews Ukraine, one of Ukraine's largest media NGOs. You can support our work at www.patreon.com/ukraineworld. Your support is crucial as our media increasingly relies on crowdfunding. You can also support our volunteer trips to the front-line areas, where we provide assistance to both soldiers and civilians - mainly by bringing cars for soldiers and books for civilians. You can support our trips via PayPal at [email protected]. This article was produced in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, Ukraine's major cultural and public diplomacy institution, and NGO Cultural Diplomacy Foundation.