Where Is Ivan Mazepa’s Grave?

Not so long ago a number of Ukrainian periodicals mentioned the transfer of Ivan Mazepa’s remains to the town of Baturyn, former capital of the Cossack Hetmanate. This was controversial information. Some sources reported transfer of Hetman Mazepa’s remains, others said only earth from his grave was brought. The action’s initiator, writer Bohdan Sushynsky, claims that Mazepa’s bones were actually reburied. At any rate, he is quoted by the weekly Literaturna Ukrayina as saying that “The burial site was ascertained. I am asked whether his bones or other remains were discovered and I say yes, and I insist that the Hetman’s remains are now in his native land, the land from which we all originate and where we will finally return. See this? It’s the original document attesting to the transfer of Mazepa’s remains, signed and sealed by the magistrate. It will remain in this museum forever.” Regrettably, the text does not make it clear who established the Hetman’s burial site and when, who dug it up, or who identified the bones. There is only a vague reference to a team of unidentified Romanian scientists.

The ceremony in Baturyn was not the first attempt to return Ivan Mazepa’s remains to Ukraine. The Central Rada also planned it, but the national liberation struggle proved an insurmountable obstacle. After Ukraine became independent the idea was again brought forth by the All-Ukraine Society of Political Prisoners and Victims of Repression. In May 1992 it resolved to dispatch a special expedition to Romania composed of these authors: a historian, archaeologist, and anthropologist. The society’s initiative was supported by presidium of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences. It passed a special resolution and made appropriate allocations. Part of this money was in the form of donations from organizations, enterprises, and private citizens. Yevhen Proniuk, chairman of the society, and Vasyl Romaniuk, member of the board (he would soon be ordained Patriarch Volodymyr at the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate), took active part in the arrangements.

The expedition to Romania in the summer of 1993 was preceded by an extensive research project, which is still underway. It has been established beyond reasonable doubt that Ivan Mazepa was first buried at Varnytsia, a village near the town of Bendery, once an encampment of Swedish King Charles XII, where the Ukrainian community of the Transnistria region recently unveiled a memorial. Eventually, the Hetman’s comrades-in-arms decided to transfer his remains to the then Moldavian capital of Iasi. Evidence of this is found in a document called “From the Faithful Leadership of the Zaporizhzhian Host to His Royal Highness the King of Sweden.” It reads, in part, “We mourn the ignominious burial of the illustrious Hetman Mazepa and that the revered remains of the man whose heroic deeds are glorified the world over were interned at that simple village. Hence, the Zaporizhzhian Host requests permission from His Royal Highness the King of Sweden to transfer the Hetman’s remains to the glorious city of Iasi in a more proper ceremony and rest them at the so-called Holiy Monastery.” Eventually, however, the Cossacks aborted the project, because Moldavia was then ruled by Dimitrie Cantemir, Peter I’s ally who would hand the remains over to the enemy. Instead, it was decided to transfer the Hetman’s remains to the Monastery of St. George in Galati on the Danube. The place was chosen because the monastery was subordinated to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher under the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Yet the Hetman’s remains knew no peace in their new repose either. In 1771, Galati was seized by the Turks who vandalized the burial site at the Cathedral of St. George. According to Moldavian chronicler Nicolae Costine and Polish Jesuit Franciszek Gosciecki, failing to find any valuables there, the Turks tossed the remains into the Danube. Ilko Borshchak, a noted historian, claims that on learning of this blasphemous act, Mazepa’s followers “immediately launched a search for Mazepa’s body. On finding it, they replaced it in the original casket which they restored, except the headboard which they left shattered as a reminder of the atrocity.” Wishing to leave the grave well tended, the Hetman’s nephew Andriy Voinarovsky bequeathed the monastery a thousand thalers.

Years passed. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Greek monks no longer remembered who lay in that vault, under a marble gravestone. Preparing the site for the internment of boyar Dimitrie Direkci Pasha, they stumbled on Mazepa’s bones, placed them aside, respecting unknown remains, and buried the boyar in the Hetman’s vault. Several years later, the Moldavian government prohibited burials inside religious structures and Direkci Pasha’s relatives had the remains (with those of Ivan Mazepa) transferred to a new vault. According to Romanian writer and historian Cogalniceanu, the vault was on the right side of the entrance to the church.

The question is whether the remains of Ivan Mazepa were in that last vault. Regrettably, no one can answer this unequivocally. All further evidence of the Hetman’s reburials is extremely controversial. One of the versions has it that Mazepa’s grave was dug up and vandalized by Russian soldiers in 1877. “On his way home from the Russo- Turkish War, General Skobelev remembered that the celebrated Hetman Mazepa was buried thereabouts,” M. Lazorsky writes in his book, “so he ordered a couple of smart sergeant majors to find that grave held sacred by our people. They found it quickly. The coffin was thrown out from St. George’s Church and blasphemously shattered. The bones were dumped and funeral attire burned...”

An analysis of written sources points to the strong likelihood of Ivan Mazepa’s burial at the Monastery of St. George. The monastery was ruined by “the Stalinist Communists” (as the Mayor of Galati put it when we talked to him) in the early 1960s. The site of the church is now a lonely grassy knoll not far from the Danube. It keeps the secret of Mazepa’s grave and there is hope that the remains still exist, despite all controversial evidence to the contrary.

Our visual examination of the hillock, carried out in the presence of local museum officials and university instructors, showed that the vault with the Hetman’s remains — or at least what was left of the structure — could still be there. Locating the burial site requires an archaeological-architectural study focused on St. George’s Church, after pinpointing its foundations. This study will ascertain the whereabouts of the western entrance by which the vault was erected.

Every stage of the project — digging up the ruins, clearing the foundations, locating the burial vault, etc. — must be accompanied by meticulous record keeping, using graphics and cameras. One must also bear in mind the vault may contain the remains of Direkci Pasha and even bones belonging to other people. Identifying Ivan Mazepa’s remains is a very complicated procedure involving a thorough anthropological-genetic study of what is left of the skeleton, using the latest molecular biological techniques, the ones effectively employed when unearthing the remains of the last Russian royal family shot by the Bolsheviks. The reader should be reminded that there is the grave of Ivan Mazepa’s mother in Kyiv. This offers a unique opportunity for genetic tests. Identified, Mazepa’s remains must be certified by a special commission made up of expert historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and geneticists.

In the meantime, the organizers of the Baturyn action naively refer to a statement issued by the magistrate of Galati. No statement can substitute for the comprehensive work involved in the search for Ivan Mazepa’s grave and identification of his remains. We are confident that Ukrainian society does not need fresh myths and false evidence, even if prompted by the best intentions and sincere desire to serve the idea of national revival.

Of course, the idea of creating a Hetman Gallery in Baturyn, commemorating them with special memorials, deserves all possible praise. As for Ivan Mazepa’s remains, or at least some earth taken from his grave, rather than from the place where this grave is supposed to be, we are still to witness this event. We do hope that a grand Pantheon of Heroes and Builders of the Ukrainian State will eventually appear by the revived Cathedral of St. Michael in Kyiv.