Book Discussion | Tairova-Yakovleva | Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire

The Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research is initiating a series of book discussions and launches of recent publications in Ukrainian studies. It will concentrate on books in English and Ukrainian sponsored by the Centre, including its Program for the Study of Modern Ukrainian History and Society in Lviv. The organizers are Frank Sysyn, director of the Centre, Yaroslav Hrytsak, director of the Program, and Marko Stech, director of CIUS Press. The first session will be an interview conducted by Zenon Kohut, head of the Cossack Ukraine project at CIUS, and Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva of St.Petersburg University. The session, which will include questions and discussion from the audience, will be devoted to Dr. Tairova-Yakovleva’s recent English-language monograph on Ivan Mazepa.

Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva’s Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire is the first English-language biography of Ivan Mazepa in sixty years. A translation and revision of her 2007 Russian-language monograph, this book presents an updated perspective on the life of Mazepa, based on many new sources, including Mazepa’s archive, thought lost for centuries until it was rediscovered by Tairova in 2004. This engaging study also reveals an original picture of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetman state during a historical moment of critical importance for Ukraine and for the Russian Empire.

Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire has been published as volume 11 of the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research Monograph Series at the CIUS. This book was co-published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press.

One of the famous European statesmen of the late 17th and early 18th century, Hetman Ivan Mazepa ruled the Ukrainian Hetman state from 1687 to 1709. Mazepa was a firm supporter of a pan-Ukrainian Cossack polity, and his main goal as hetman was to unite all Ukrainian territories in a unitary state that would be modeled on existing European states but would retain the features of the traditional Cossack order. Initially, an ally of Tsar Peter I, Mazepa forged an anti-Muscovite alliance with Charles XII of Sweden, but the combined Swedish-Cossack army was defeated by the Muscovite army at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Although there have been controversial assessments of Mazepa, he has remained a symbol of Ukrainian independence.

Tatiana Tairova-Yakovleva’s Ivan Mazepa and the Russian Empire is on sale at a 30% discount on the CIUS Press website prior to and during this event. 

Click to purchase the book