For Sweden, Ukraine and Russia, the Battle of Poltava had diametrically opposite consequences, and thus each nation developed a different views and interpretations of the event. Immediately after the battle, the Moscow authorities, represented by Tsar Peter the 1st, began to create their own vision of the event and its historical significance. In letters sent from the battlefield on June 27, 1709, to his inner circle, primarily to his heir, Alexei, Peter I called the victory “impossible,” and “absolutely unexpected” In other words, Peter I perceived this victory as a result he would never hope for. But later it became necessary for Peter to further detalize reasons of the victory of the Moscow army, both for himself and, more important, for Europeans. The Moscow tsar set in motion a powerful propaganda machine. Letters, documents, altered battleplans, engravings, paintings, medals and medallions, historical works began to be produced en masse. All this was to convince contemporaries and descendants in the greatness and importance of the event. For more than three hundred years, the Battle of Poltava has been subject to various assessments and interpretations that formed the basis of the myth about it.
Peter the 1st ordered a series of medals and medallions related to the victory at Poltava from famous foreign masters Franz Muller, Solomon Guen, and others to provide propaganda for his military victories.
Engravings also became one of the means of conveying information, as it made possible to obtain a large number of prints of the same image. The best available foreign engravers, Peter Picart and Andrian Schonebeck, as well as local artists, brothers Ivan and Oleksii Zubov, were commissioned to create thematic subjects. The images of the medals and engravings were allegorical in nature: Peter the 1st compared himself to the greatest generals of the ancient world, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.
The Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709, commenced in totally unpredictable scenario, but the Moscow tsar consistently convinced Europe that the victory was achieved thanks to his military genius. He personally altered the original battleplans and the `Book of Mars (1713)` (Books of Mars were texts about military actions in Moscow stardom back then). It claimed that the victory was won with “almost no losses and in small numbers,” and gave false information about the size of the enemy forces. This information formed the basis of all subsequent historical `research` on the Battle of Poltava.
Peter the 1st claimed the victory over the Swedish army as the grace of God. Theophan Prokopovych, prefect of the Kyiv Collegium and ideologist of the Moscow tsar, in his “Word of Praise” delivered on July 24, 1709, in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv in the presence of the tsar, compared Peter I to the biblical hero Sampson, who tore open the lion’s mouth in a fight with him. The allegory proved to be successful, as the Battle of Poltava took place on St. Sampson’s Day according to the church calendar, and the traditional symbol of Sweden was the lion. Feofan Prokopovych called Peter the 1st “the father of our homeland,” who `saved his native land from mortal danger`, ignoring the fact that the tsar actually was the one who started the war.
While the “heroic Poltava myth” at first served to shape the ideology of the Russian Empire, when the Bolsheviks came to power, the topic of the Battle of Poltava lost its relevance. Tsarist monuments were demolished throughout the country. In the 1930s, the victory of 1709 became relevant again due to active implementation of the thesis about `common heroic past of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian people`.
The Soviet myth of the events of the Great Northern War in Ukraine included the concepts of “people’s war” and “partisan war against the Swedish invaders,” which were combined with the “class struggle of the people against Mazepa’s exploitations.” Emphasis was placed on the Ukrainian people’s loyalty to the union with the Russian people and Russia. On September 23, 1950, the Museum of the History of the Battle of Poltava was opened in Poltava. In Soviet times, the museum was assigned the role of an active propagandist for communist ideology.
In 2009, the 300-year anniversary was approaching. Ukrainians mostly focused on honoring the memory of all those who died on the battlefield. The position of the official Russian delegation was manifested in ignoring the laying of flowers at the monuments to the fallen Ukrainian Cossacks and Swedes by their compatriots.
For Sweden, the defeat at Poltava by Peter the 1st’s troops meant the end of the Swedish military state, but it marked the beginning of the ‘era of liberties’ – eventually leading to the creation of a welfare state, the so-called ‘Swedish model’ – which has become the subject of research and, to some extent, imitation around the world. Sweden was the first country in the world to adopt the Press Freedom Act in 1766.
The stability of Swedish life has contributed to the preservation of unique documents on the country’s history. Moreover, the Swedish archives contain a large number of historical sources related to Ukraine’s past, including the data, gathered by «Cosacica» foundation.
Swedish military historians were first to explore the territory of the Poltava battlefield. In 1897, Swedish Army Major Klaus Grill visited the site and initiated the erection of a monument to his fallen compatriots in Poltava. In 1911, the historical sites were visited by lieutenants of the Swedish General Staff Carl Benedik and Frei Rüdeberg. The result of this expedition was the creation of maps of the Swedish General Staff (95 pieces) published by Karl Benedik in 1918 and the four-volume edition “Charles XII on the Battlefield”.
This work was continued by the International Archaeological Expedition, which worked for two field seasons (2007-2008). It was headed by a well-known military archaeologist, Dr. Bo Knarström from the Swedish National Monument Preservation Service.
Since 1998, our reserve has been cooperating with the Swedish Military History Society (SMB), headed by Per-Anders Lundström, with retired Brigadier General Einar Liet as honorary chairman. The current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustav, is an honorary member of the society. Over the 25 years of cooperation, the museum’s exposition has been significantly replenished with items that significantly expand it’s Swedish part.
According to the leading Ukrainian historian Oleksandr Ogloblyn, “…the subsequent history of Ukraine has clearly shown that this huge defeat of the Cossack state and the Ukrainian statehood idea, which occurred in 1708-1709, was at the same time the beginning of the further development of Ukrainians” Ukrainian national life did not die with the fall of the Hetmanate, but continued to exist in various patriotic environments. Among the most prominent works of Ukrainian progressive thinkers of the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries are: Semen Divovich’s ‘Conversation between Great Russia and Little Russia (1762)’ and Vasyl Kapnist’s ‘Ode to Slavery (1782)’ as a protest against the abolition of Ukraine’s state autonomy by the Russian government. “Both Mykola Gogol and Taras Shevchenko also had their part in development of Ukrainian culture. In their works, both reflected on the role of Hetman Ivan Mazepa in the history of Ukraine. The Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society played an important role in the development of national historical science.
In 1908-1909, the notes of the Scientific Society published in-depth studies by Mykhajlo Hrushevsky, Stepan Tomasziwski, Alfred Jensen, and other members of the Scientific Society on the history of Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. In contrast to the Russian Empire’s pompous celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava, nationally conscious scholars, artists, the public, and youth organizations celebrated the anniversary of Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s military and political actions and his alliance with King Charles XII of Sweden. In 1909, they published protests against the celebration in the Rada and Dilo newspapers. Special envelopes, postcards, and postage stamps dedicated to Hetman Ivan Mazepa and his era were published.
The imperial approach to assessing the history of the Hetmanate was also preserved by Soviet ideology. Under totalitarian conditions, some members of the national elite were forced to leave Ukraine and work abroad. Starting in the 1920s, they spread through research centers, the most famous of which are the Ukrainian Free University, the Ukrainian Scientific Institute, the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, and the Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University. Leading historians of the diaspora have collected a lot of factual material about Hetman Ivan Mazepa: they have established the date of his birth and burial place, and studied the issue of an authentic portrait of the famous figure. The researchers highlighted the multifaceted activities of the hetman, in particular as a patron of education and culture, and the core principles of domestic and foreign policy pursued by the leader of the Hetmanate. The reasons for the break with Moscow and the conclusion of the Ukrainian-Swedish alliance were proven according the source base.
Ivan Mazepa’s name is represented on the world map, and monuments and memorials in his honor exist both in Ukraine and abroad. Almost every Ukrainian city has a street named after Ivan Mazepa. Since restoration its independence, the Ukrainian state has honored and immortalized pages of its history. By a decree of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko of March 25, 2009, the Ivan Mazepa Cross, a state award of Ukraine, was established. The Hetman’s image appears on the ten-hryvnia banknote, and the National Bank of Ukraine has issued silver commemorative coins dedicated to the Mazepa era and the Ukrainian-Swedish military and political alliances. Ukrposhta has prepared a series of themed postage stamps and envelopes. On May 6, 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy decrees that the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is named after Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
In independent Ukraine, contemporary historians continue the work of their predecessors. They have prepared many interesting, informative, scientific, popular science publications. Among them is the two-volume publication `Hetman`, dedicated to Ivan Mazepa and his era, which was written by well-known researchers Olha Kovalevska, Oleksii Kresin, Serhii Pavlenko, Oleksii Sokyrko, Viacheslav Stanislavskyi, and Volodymyr Panchenko.
The hall’s exposition uses paintings, archival documents, rare prints, and photographs to show the process of emergence and formation of radically opposing views on the Battle of Poltava. The painting “Apotheosis of Ivan Mazepa” by contemporary Poltava artist Ihor Hrechanovskyi is an attempt to show the multifaceted activities of the Ukrainian statesman, who for many became a symbol of defiance and a fighter for the independence of his homeland.
The information project “Mazepa’s subordinates – true fighters for Cossack independence” was created with the financial support of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine.