I, Hetman Ivan Mazepa have declared this beautiful country an independent state... and for this I've received an eternal curse, an anathema, from the one who raped my land the worst of all — from Moscow Tsar Peter I.
During an interesting era in the history of Eastern Europe when Russia, under Peter the Great, and Sweden, under King Charles XII, struggled for power, Ukraine was the pawn in the middle. In 1709, Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine, which was part of the Russian Empire, signed a pact with the Swedish king promising to support Sweden in its war against Russia provided that Ukraine was given its independence.
Bohdan StupkaHetman Mazepa
Lyudmila EfimenkoLiubov Kochubei
Nikita DzhigurdaKing Charles XII
Viacheslav DovzhenkoTsar Peter I
Viktor DemertashJudge General Kochubei
Serhii RomaniukCossack Leleka
Pylyp IllienkoYoung Mazepa
Les SerdyukHetman Samoilovych
Ostap StupkaChancellor Orlyk
Mikhail GolubovichZaporozhian Leader Sirko
Oleh DrachPrince Vasili Golitsyn
Rayisa NedashkivskaGypsy Sorceress
Kostiantyn StepankovLeader of Free Will
Yurii IllienkoMarshall ZhukovYevhen Pidhornyiguest at the wedding
