Mazepa, Ivan Stepanovich (1645–1709)

Ukrainian soldier and warlord. He was hetman (Cossack leader) of the Ukraine from 1687. He tried, with Polish and, later, Swedish help to gain independence from Russia but was defeated, with Charles XII of Sweden, at the battle of Poltava (1709). Mazepa fled to Turkey, where he died.

In his youth he was a page at the court of John Casimir of Poland, and later was in the service of the hetmans in the Ukraine. Although Mazepa was a liberal patron of the Church, his attempts to favour the richer Cossacks under his rule led to opposition from the majority of the Cossacks and the peasants. When Charles XII invaded the Ukraine in 1708, however, Mazepa was supported in his revolt by the Zaporozh'ye Cossacks.