In July 2026, the Publishing House "Akademperiodyka" of the NAS of Ukraine, in cooperation with the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra," published a richly illustrated catalog "Mazepiana in Museum Collections and Private Collections of Ukraine", prepared based on the materials of the eponymous exhibition by the leading researcher of the scientific research department for the study of the cultural heritage of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, former leading researcher of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Olga Kovalevska. This scientific publication presents the results of research on Mazepiana and the Mazepian movement that contributed to its creation. The work aims to form a general understanding of the scientific, artistic, musical, and military Mazepiana of the 19th — first quarter of the 21st centuries, its stages, content, and influence on the formation of Ukrainian national identity. The publication will be useful to a wide range of admirers of Ukrainian history, art historians, museum workers, collectors, teachers, and students. The author dedicated the book to her brother — a fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, senior researcher of the Department of Political Institutions and Processes of the I.F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Political Sciences Vladyslav Kovalevskyi, who, while performing a combat mission and defending the Independence of Ukraine, went missing near Bakhmut on March 16, 2023.
As the author noted in the preface to the publication, the catalog is the result of thorough processing of materials collected from libraries, museums, and private collections of Ukraine over several months — under conditions of war and under the pressure of related threats both to the exhibits of the National Museum Fund of Ukraine and to items from public and private collections. The exhibition dedicated to the 315th anniversary of the death of Ivan Mazepa, "Mazepiana in Museum Collections and Private Collections of Ukraine," was held from October 2 to November 29, 2024, in the premises of the former library of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and aimed to demonstrate to the public the peculiarities of forming various images of the Hetman as a historical figure and a character in literary and artistic works, as well as the long history and contemporary dimension of the Mazepian movement, embodied by his figure.
From the late 17th century to the present, the image of Ivan Mazepa has been constructed and used in various ways. The ruling circles of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and modern Russia have positioned and continue to position this historical figure as a "traitor" and "perjurer." Since the early 18th century, he was accused of disloyalty to the tsar and intentions to make the Hetmanate an independent state. Throughout the 19th century, "Mazepians" mostly referred to those who remembered their Cossack-officer ancestry, hinted at the linguistic or cultural distinctiveness of the inhabitants of the former Zaporizhian Host territories, and contemplated autonomy projects. Concepts such as "Mazepian spirit" and "Mazepism" appeared, which the Russian authorities used exclusively in a negative sense.
Since the times of the Ukrainian Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, the "Mazepian movement" was formed, whose main meaning was the struggle of Ukrainians for freedom and their own statehood. When the war for an independent Ukraine of 1917–1921 was defeated and many Ukrainian patriots found themselves outside the homeland, in all diaspora centers throughout the 20th century, Ukrainians, regardless of their political preferences, continued to use the name of the Hetman as a symbol of identity and struggle for the restoration of independence. Portraits of Mazepa, attributes of his power, and images of his coat of arms were actively used by conscious Ukrainians to mark various events.
At the beginning of the 21st century, under the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Mazepian movement acquired a new meaning. Today, with the name of the Hetman, Ukrainian soldiers go into battle, defending Ukrainian land, the Ukrainian state, and its people from the invader. Under such conditions, not only literary, artistic, musical, theatrical but also military Mazepiana began to develop, represented by military equipment items bearing the "Kurch" coat of arms, belonging to certain units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine named after Ivan Mazepa.
In this context, an urgent problem became demonstrating to the public how differently imperial and patriotic forces used the image of the Hetman; how some tried to destroy or deliberately distort it, while others preserved it outside Ukraine, passed it on to descendants, and ultimately indirectly contributed to forming the modern vision of the leader of the Zaporizhian Host — a statesman, diplomat, military man, patron, educated person, and, finally, family man. That is, an image that, on the one hand, corresponds to the historical realities of the late 17th — early 18th centuries, and on the other hand, to the modern perceptions of Ukrainian society about one of the outstanding figures of the past.
Mazepiana (mazepiana — is a general term for works of fiction, visual and plastic arts, music, and later historiography, in which the private and public life, political, diplomatic, military, patronage activities, ideas, and intentions of Ivan Mazepa, who led the Hetmanate longer than anyone during its 115 years of existence, were presented in one way or another) began to form during the lifetime of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709). Today, it is preserved in the form of individual exhibits or groups of thematically selected items in many national, state, and public museums, as well as in private collections. The first two categories of institutions include the National Museum of the History of Ukraine (Kyiv), the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kyiv), the Museum of Hetmanship (Kyiv), the National Historical and Cultural Reserve "Hetman Capital" (Baturyn), the National Architectural and Historical Reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" (Chernihiv), the Chernihiv Regional Historical Museum named after V.V. Tarnovsky (Chernihiv), the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Field of the Battle of Poltava" (Poltava), the Bila Tserkva Local History Museum (Bila Tserkva), and others.
Participants of the 2024 exhibition project included the National Historical Library of Ukraine, the Museum of Prominent Figures of Ukrainian Culture of Lesya Ukrainka, Mykola Lysenko, Panas Saksahansky, Mykhailo Starytsky, and the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra." The exhibition also showcased a significant number of items from the collections of the public Museum-Archive of the Press, founded and headed by journalist and now serviceman Vakhtang Kipiani, exhibits from the private collection of Kyiv studies expert Viktor Kyrkevych, and collections of Mazepiana researcher Olga Kovalevska. The uniqueness of the exhibition, which presented 150 exhibits, was that most of these maps, postcards, books, posters, stamps, awards, and distinctions had never before been represented in one space or exhibited in the context of the history of the emergence and development of the Mazepian movement. Each exhibit, despite its undeniable historical value, was not self-sufficient on its own. Instead, their significance was revealed against a broad general historical background. For this purpose, regular curator tours were held weekly throughout the exhibition's duration.
The exhibition consisted of four thematic blocks:
I. "Political Criminal, Romantic Character, and Symbol of the Struggle for Freedom": the image of Mazepa in the Russian Empire, countries of the world, and the Ukrainian People's Republic (19th — early 20th century).
II. "Mazepa — Traitor of the Ukrainian People": the figure of the Hetman in the interpretation of Soviet historiography and art (1920s — late 1980s).
III. "Fighter for Ukraine's Freedom": Mazepa as a symbol of the struggle of the Ukrainian diaspora for the restoration of their own state (1920s — late 1980s).
IV. "Statesman, Diplomat, and Patron": the image of the Hetman in independent Ukraine (early 1990s — first quarter of the 21st century). A separate subsection in the last block presented military Mazepiana, which was greatly influenced by the contemporary Russian-Ukrainian war.
The exhibition's motto — "Vivat Mazepa Hetman et Ucraina Libera" (Long live Hetman Mazepa and free Ukraine) — was borrowed from Lyudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska's drama "Ivan Mazepa." The artistic design of the exhibition was done by Volodymyr Nuzhnyi.
Overall, the exhibition vividly and meaningfully presented both the figure of Hetman Ivan Mazepa and the Mazepian movement, the stages of formation and content of Mazepiana. At the opening event, all project partners, museum colleagues from Baturyn, Chernihiv, Poltava, artists and sculptors whose works include pieces dedicated to the Hetman, as well as writers and journalists interested in the topic, were present. During the three months of the exposition, besides visitors who gathered weekly for curator tours, the exhibition was viewed by servicemen and cadets of specialized educational institutions, wives and children of servicemen, internally displaced persons, students of Kyiv schools, and students of capital universities.
Continued interest in this museum event under martial law once again confirmed the conclusion that the figure of Ivan Mazepa was, is, and remains a symbol of the struggle of Ukrainians for freedom and independence, and Mazepiana is enriched each year with new works.
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Bibliographic Description of the Publication
Kovalevska O. Mazepiana in Museum Collections and Private Collections of Ukraine / Olga Kovalevska. — Kyiv: Akademperiodyka, 2026. — 160 p.: ill.
ISBN 978-966-360-588-3
P.S. The electronic version of the publication is available on the website of the V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.
According to information from the Publishing House "Akademperiodyka" of the NAS of Ukraine,
the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra"
and the text of the preface
