Ivan Mazepa is a renowned Ukrainian leader who made significant contributions to the flourishing of Ukrainian culture and the Cossack state in the late 17th century. Because of his desire for Ukraine's freedom from Muscovy, Mazepa aligned himself with the Swedish king Charles XII in a war against the Russian tsar Peter I, ultimately losing the decisive battle near Poltava in seventeen o nine

However, in the 19th century, Mazepa became a prominent cultural figure. George Gordon Byron, Victor Hugo, Juliusz Słowacki, Franz Liszt, and Eugène Delacroix created poems, musical compositions, and paintings depicting him as a young man, a political and sexual rebel. This portrayal of Mazepa gained popularity globally, reaching as far as South Africa and the United States.

We delved into this story with Tony Voss, a South African university professor, Professor Emeritus and research associate of the University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban, and Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa

Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, the chief editor of UkraineWorld, and the president of PEN Ukraine.

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This article was produced in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, Ukraine's major cultural and public diplomacy institution, and NGO Cultural Diplomacy Foundation.