Hetman Mazepa’s 22 Years, and Genroku Japan

On July 25, 1687, Ivan Mazepa (Іван Мазепа) was elected hetman (Cossack chief) of the Zaporizhian Host. He held the post for 22 years, until 1709. In Japan, this was the fourth year of Jokyo, and the era name would change to Genroku the following year. Mazepa’s 22 years roughly overlap with the second half of the reign of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun.

Here we place what Mazepa built, what he supported, and how his rule ended alongside events in Japan over the same span, in a single timeline. The two countries had no direct contact with one another. This is a timeline for comparing what was happening in each place across the same stretch of time.

1687: An Election on the Banks of the Kolomak

Under Ivan Samoilovych, then hetman, Mazepa had served as general osaul (генеральний осавул, a senior post assisting the hetman) since 1682. According to the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian History, compiled by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Institute of History (hereafter, the Institute’s encyclopedia; this entry from 2009), when the 1687 Crimean campaign failed, Samoilovych was removed through the intervention of Prince Golitsyn in Moscow, and Mazepa was elected hetman on July 25, 1687, at a camp on the banks of the Kolomak River.

Signed at the same time as this election were the “Kolomak Articles.” The Institute’s encyclopedia describes this as a document that shaped Ukraine’s relationship with Russia and marked a major step in narrowing Ukrainian sovereignty. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU) from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) (this entry updated 2008) likewise calls it “unfavorable articles” imposed by the tsar.

The Man Mazepa

According to IEU, Mazepa studied at the Kyiv Mohyla College and a Jesuit college in Warsaw, and served at the court of the Polish king Jan II Casimir. On the king’s orders he studied artillery at Deventer in the Netherlands in 1656–1659, and also visited Germany, Italy, and France. He later served the hetman Petro Doroshenko, was captured, and moved into the service of Samoilovych.

The Institute’s encyclopedia writes that Mazepa was fluent in Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Latin, and knew German, Italian, Tatar, and some French. He also played instruments, wrote poetry, and collected weapons, books, and art.

Year of Birth, Date of Death

Mazepa’s year of birth and date of death are given differently by source.

• IEU states he was born on March 20, 1639 near Bila Tserkva in Mazepyntsi, and died in Bender on October 2, 1709
• The Institute’s encyclopedia gives the year of birth as “unknown” and the date of death as October 3, new style (September 22, old style), stating “during the night of the 21st to 22nd of September”
• The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, in material marking 2019 as “the 380th anniversary of Mazepa’s birth,” takes the position that he was born in 1639. The same page also states that he died on August 22, 1709

For the year of birth, IEU and the Institute of National Remembrance both give 1639, while the Institute’s encyclopedia does not give a year at all. For the date of death, IEU’s October 2 and the Institute’s encyclopedia’s October 3 (new style) differ by a day, and the Institute of National Remembrance’s August 22 differs from both.

Donations to Churches and Schools

The Institute’s encyclopedia states that Mazepa devoted his efforts to rebuilding Kyiv as an Orthodox capital, and funded the construction of many churches and buildings in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Baturyn, Pereiaslav, Hlukhiv, and the Zaporizhian Sich, among other places. At the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra he built the fortified walls with their towers and gates and the All Saints’ Church above the economic gate (IEU gives 1696–1698), restored the Church of the Trinity above the gate, and had the dome of the Dormition Cathedral gilded.

In education, with Mazepa’s backing, the Kyiv college was formally granted the status of an academy and new buildings were constructed (the Institute’s encyclopedia). This history is covered in the article on the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He was also involved in founding a college in Chernihiv.

His donations reached beyond Ukraine as well. According to IEU, in 1708 Mazepa funded the publication of an Arabic New Testament in Aleppo, Syria, and gave a burial shroud and a chalice of pure gold to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Timeline: Mazepa’s 22 Years, and Genroku-to-Hoei Japan

Year	The Hetman state and Mazepa	Japan
—	—	—
1680	—	Tokugawa Tsunayoshi becomes the fifth shogun (Enpo 8)
1687	Elected hetman on the Kolomak River on July 25; signs the Kolomak Articles	Jokyo 4. In the new year, the strict banning of abandoning foundlings, the sick, and cattle and horses, generally considered the tightening of the policy of compassion for living things
1688	—	Jokyo 5, 9th month, 30th day: era changed to Genroku. Ihara Saikaku’s Nippon Eitaigura
1689	—	Matsuo Basho sets out on his journey “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”
1696–1698	The All Saints’ Church at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra built with Mazepa’s funding	Genroku 9–11
1700	Receives the Order of St. Andrew from Peter I	Genroku 13
1701	—	Genroku 14, 3rd month, 14th day: Asano Naganori, lord of the Ako domain, attacks Kira Yoshinaka within Edo Castle and is ordered to commit seppuku the same day
1702	—	Genroku 15, 12th month, 14th day: former Ako retainers raid Kira’s residence
1703	—	Genroku 16, 2nd month: the ronin who carried out the raid commit seppuku
1704	Advances into Right-Bank Ukraine, bringing both banks of the Dnipro under hetman rule	Genroku 17, 3rd month, 13th day: era changed to Hoei
1707	Receives the title of prince (Fürst) of the Holy Roman Empire	Hoei 4
1708	Funds the publication of an Arabic New Testament in Aleppo. In October, defects to the side of Swedish king Charles XII	Hoei 5
1709	March 28: Ukrainian-Swedish treaty. June 27 (July 8, new style): defeated at the Battle of Poltava. Dies in Bender in the autumn	Hoei 6, Tsunayoshi dies. Under the sixth shogun, Ienobu, the Edict on Compassion for Living Things is abolished

The Same “Year,” Different Calendars

The dates in this timeline are given as each country recorded them in its own calendar. The Hetman state and Russia at the time used the Julian (old-style) calendar, while Japan used the lunisolar traditional Japanese calendar. Genroku 15, 12th month, 14th day, for example, is a date in the traditional Japanese calendar. Calendar differences and conversions are also touched on in the article on the 220 years from the Sich’s founding to its destruction.

On the Edict on Compassion for Living Things, the Kaiteishinban Sekai Daihyakka Jiten (written by Tsukamoto Manabu) states that this is not the name of a single law but a label for a cluster of measures, and that there are various theories about when it began. The 1687 line in the timeline reflects the view the same encyclopedia calls “closest to the accepted account.”

1708: To the Swedish Side

In the course of the Great Northern War, Peter I placed heavier burdens of troops and supplies on the Hetman state and sought to narrow Cossack autonomy. From 1706, Mazepa carried on secret negotiations with the Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński and then with the Swedish king Charles XII, concluding an anti-Moscow alliance in 1708 (IEU). This course of events, and the date of the Battle of Poltava, are covered in the article on the end of Cossack autonomy and the article on the 220 years from the Sich’s founding to its destruction.

The day Mazepa left the capital, Baturyn, is given as October 24, 1708 by the Institute’s encyclopedia and as November 5, new style (October 25, old style) by the Institute of National Remembrance, a discrepancy of one day. On March 28, 1709, Mazepa, Kost Hordiienko, leader of the Zaporizhian Sich, and Charles XII signed a treaty, and Charles XII promised not to make peace until Ukraine and Zaporizhzhia were freed from Moscow’s rule (IEU, the Institute’s encyclopedia).

The Destruction of Baturyn, and the Anathema

In November 1708, Peter I’s army captured Baturyn, the Hetman state’s capital, and massacred its inhabitants. The Institute of National Remembrance dates this event to November 13, new style (November 2, old style), and states that, “according to various sources,” between 11,000 and 14,000 people were killed. IEU states that 6,000 residents were massacred, a large discrepancy between sources.

Around the same time, on Peter I’s order, the Russian Orthodox Church declared an anathema (excommunication and curse) against Mazepa (the Institute’s encyclopedia, the Institute of National Remembrance). IEU states that Peter I branded Mazepa a “traitor” and ordered the anathema against him from both the Russian and Ukrainian churches. The Institute of National Remembrance states that this anathema remains in the Russian Orthodox Church’s liturgical rules to this day. The Institute of National Remembrance also states that Ukrainians who were captured after the Battle of Poltava were tortured and executed.

Whose Word Was “Traitor”?

Mazepa has long been called a “traitor” in Russia. Sources describe the origin of this label as follows.

• IEU states that after Peter I branded Mazepa a traitor, imperial and Soviet propagandists and historians did everything they could to blacken his name. It adds that, whatever the debate over his legacy, Mazepa has continued to serve as a symbol of Ukrainian independence
• In an announcement of June 26, 2019, the Institute of National Remembrance writes that for Russia the Battle of Poltava became the pivot around which a myth depicting Mazepa purely as a “traitor” was built, and explains that Russian historiography has tried to stamp Mazepa and the Ukrainian people with the brand of “traitor”

This word was applied by the side that fought Mazepa in 1708 and was used from the imperial era through the Soviet period. This article, following the wording of Ukrainian encyclopedias and state institutions, does not use it as an evaluative term in the body text.

Mazepa’s name also spread across Europe in a different form. The Institute’s encyclopedia states that Voltaire, Byron, Hugo, Pushkin, and Shevchenko in literature, and Géricault and Delacroix in painting, and Liszt and Tchaikovsky in music, all took up Mazepa as a subject. IEU states that the legend of a young Mazepa being tied to a wild horse and driven off has no factual basis, but notes that it inspired many Romantic works.

Death in Bender, and a Lost Grave

After the defeat at Poltava, Mazepa fled with Charles XII to Bender (in today’s Moldova), then under Ottoman rule, and died there in the autumn of 1709. According to the Institute’s encyclopedia, he was first buried on the outskirts of the nearby village of Varnytsia, and later reinterred in the church of St. George’s Monastery in Galați (in today’s Romania). That church was demolished between the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it is not known where his remains are today. His successor, Pylyp Orlyk, and the agreement concluded at Bender are covered in the article on Orlyk’s “constitution”.

From Banknote to Coin

Mazepa’s portrait has appeared on the face of the National Bank of Ukraine’s 10-hryvnia banknote. In the 2006 design, the reverse shows the Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. According to the National Bank, the 2003–2007 designs of the 10-hryvnia banknote stopped being valid for payment as of March 2, 2026. The 10-hryvnia coin now in circulation (the 2018 design, circulating from June 3, 2020) also bears Mazepa’s portrait and the inscription “ІВАН МАЗЕПА” on its reverse.