Ivan Mazepa - Early Life

Early Life

Mazepa was likely born March 20, 1639 in Mazepyntsi, near Bila Tserkva, Kiev Voivodeship, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (today - Drozdy rural council, Bila Tserkva Raion), into a noble Ruthenian-Lithuanian family. His mother was Maryna Mokievska (1624-1707) (since 1674-75 as a monk Maria Magdalena), and his father was Stefan Adam Mazepa (?-1666). Mokievska was from a family of a Cossack officer who fought along with Bohdan Khmelnytsky. She gave birth to two children - Ivan and Oleksandra. Stepan Mazepa was an Otaman of Bila Tserkva (1654), a Cossack representative of the King of Rzecz Pospolita, a Czernihów Podczaszy (Cup-bearer of Chernihiv, 1662).

Ivan Mazepa was educated first in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, then at a Jesuit college in Warsaw. As a page was sent to study "gunnery" in Deventer (Dutch Republic) in 1656-1659, during the time of which Mazepa traveled across the Western Europe. From 1659 he served at the court of the Polish king, John II Casimir on numerous diplomatic missions to Ukraine. His service at the Polish Royal court earned him reputation of being catholicized "Lyakh" which later was effectively used by the Russian Imperial government to discredit Mazepa. During that time has arose the legend of his affair with Madam Falbowska that inspired number of European Romantics, among which were Franz Liszt, Victor Hugo, and many others.

In 1663 Mazepa returned home as his father fell ill. After the death of his father in 1665 he inherited the title of the Czernihów cupbearer. In 1669–1673 Mazepa served under Hetman Petro Doroshenko as a squadron commander at the Hetman Guard, particularly during his 1672 campaign in Halychyna, and as a chancellor on diplomatic missions to Poland, Crimea, and Ottoman Empire. In 1674–1681 Mazepa served as a "courtier" of Doroshenko's rival Hetman Ivan Samoylovych after was taken hostage on the way to Crimea by Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko in 1674. In 1677-78 Mazepa participated in the Chyhyryn campaigns during which Yuri Khmelnytsky with the support from the Ottoman Empire tried to regain power in Ukraine. A young educated Mazepa quickly rose through the Cossack ranks and in 1682–1686, he served as a General-Yesaul.