During a visit to the home village of Hetman Mazepa today, Yushchenko called for the rehabilitation of the historic Cossack leader’s reputation.

The legacy of Hetman Mazepa has always been controversial, with Ukrainians and Russians dividing strongly over the issue. In Russian mythology, Mazepa was a terrible villain — a betrayer of his rightful tsar in the war against Poland and Sweden. In Ukrainian histories, on the other hand, Mazepa was a proto-nationalist. For example, according to Mykhailo Hrushevsky and others, Mazepa took a brave stand for Cossack-Ukrainian rights, rebelling against the tsar and fighting for Ukrainian autonomy.

Some relevant background on the issue: Mazepa and the Cossack Hetmanate was originally allied with Russia during the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. During the war, Tsar Peter of Russia continually called the Cossacks away from their homeland to fight Sweden and Poland on distant Baltic battlefields. Not only were Cossack trips poorly equipped and managed during these battles, but such deployments left their Ukrainian homelands open to raids from Tatars and Poles.

Faced with an invasion by Poles in 1709, Mazepa changed sides. He (rather justly) declared that the Russians had abrogated the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which had united the Cossack Hetmanate to Russia. It’s interesting to speculate what might have happened had Mazepa’s rebellion succeeded. But we’ll never know — the Russians crushed the Swedes, Cossacks and Poles at the Battle of Poltava, and Mazepa’s supporters were ruthlessly suppressed.

In following centuries, Russian nationalists turned Mazepa’s name into a curse, using it to damn anyone expressing pro-Ukrainian sentiments. “Mazepynets” became synonymous with traitor or Quisling. So it’s culturally significant that Yushchenko made this pilgrimage to Mazepa’s home village. . .