Ivan Mazepa

Timeline

1. 1656–1674Warsaw · Polish–Lithuanian CommonwealthBorn c. 1639 in Mazepyntsi. He studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the Jesuit college in Warsaw, and as a page of John II Casimir traveled to the Netherlands and elsewhere to study artillery. From 1669 he served the right-bank hetman Petro Doroshenko, taking part in the war against Poland and on embassies to Crimea and the Ottomans; in 1674, while on a mission, he was intercepted by the Zaporozhian side and defected to Samoylovych on the left bank.
2. 1674–1687Baturyn · HetmanateAfter moving to the left bank he quickly won Samoylovych's trust, made several embassies to Moscow, and took part in the Battle of Chyhyryn in 1677–1678. In 1682 he was promoted to general osaul, becoming a central figure in the left-bank Cossack military and political establishment, paving the way for his later replacement of Samoylovych.
3. 1687–1700Rada on the Kolomak River · Left BankAfter the failure of the first Crimean campaign in 1687, Golitsyn led the Rada in deposing Samoylovych; Mazepa was elected hetman and signed the Kolomak Articles: the Cossack register was to be maintained, but foreign policy had to go through the tsar, and he assumed obligations to wage war against Crimea. In 1689 he switched his support to Peter against Sophia, thereafter ruling for many years as Moscow's agent on the left bank, and by the end of the century was the central figure of Ukrainian Cossack autonomy.