Voltaire on Mazepa and Early Eighteenth-Century Ukraine

Abstract

This study offers a comparison of Voltaire’s treatments of Ivan Mazepa and his Ukrainian Cossack homeland in two of his best known historical works: his History of Charles XII, King of Sweden and his History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great. It also discusses Voltaire's use of written and oral sources and his historical method in general. Voltaire's attitude towards the Ukrainian rebel “Hetman” or ruler, Mazepa, and Ukrainian independence in general, was basically positive in his earlier work on Charles, but was much more guarded, indeed negative, in his History of the Russian Empire, which was a work commissioned by the Russian court that greatly praised the reforms of the iron-willed Tsar. However, in extensive revisions of his book on Charles, done simultaneously with his work on Russia, Voltaire did not change his generally positive view of Mazepa and Ukrainian independence, and so, his true attitude remains somewhat difficult to determine. Voltaire's work on Charles in particular was very influential throughout Europe during the Romantic period and was the ultimate source of Byron's poem on Mazepa, and after him, many other works of literature, painting and music that treated the Mazepa theme.