Kostobobriv
Kostobobriv ( uk, Костобобрів; russian: link=no, Костобобров) is a village in Novhorod-Siverskyi Raion (district) of Chernihiv Oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. It belongs to Semenivka urban hromada, one of the hromadas ...
– 18 March 1952,
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
) was a Ukrainian politician. He was a Head of the Government of Ukrainian People’s Republic from August 1919 to May 1920, and one of the central figures of the Ukrainian revolution (1917-1921).
Early life and education
Isaak Mazepa was born on 16 August 1884 in Kostobobriv village, Chernihiv province, Russian Empire. His father, Prokhor Mazepa, was a burgher of Cossack origin. He send his son to study at the Novgorod-Siversky Bursa, and later at the Chernihiv Theological Seminary, where Mazepa first got acquainted with the works of
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels" '' However Mazepa did not want to become a priest and began to prepare for admission to the Faculty of Natural Sciences of
St. Petersburg University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter t ...
. In 1904, he entered St. Petersburg University.
From 1905, Mazepa was a member of the
Revolutionary Ukrainian Party
The Revolutionary Ukrainian Party ( uk, Революційна Партія України) was a Ukrainian political party in the Russian Empire founded on 11 February 1900 by the Kharkiv student secret society Hromada.
History
The rise of the ...
, and from 1906 a member of the
Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party ( uk, Украї́нська соціа́л-демократи́чна робітни́ча па́ртія, ''Ukrayínsʹka sotsiál-demokratýchna robitnýcha pártiya''), also known as Esdeky and SDP ...
(USDRP). As the most active member of the party, he was delegated to Kyiv in 1907 to participate in an illegal congress of the USDRP from the St. Petersburg organization. In 1910, Mazepa graduated from St. Petersburg University.
Work
In 1911-1915, he worked as an agronomist in
zemstvo
A ''zemstvo'' ( rus, земство, p=ˈzʲɛmstvə, plural ''zemstva'' – rus, земства) was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexande ...
institutions of the Nizhny Novgorod province. In 1915, Mazepa moved to Katerynoslav (now
Dnipro
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
, Ukraine) working in the provincial food committee. At the same time, he established contacts with the local illegal USDRP organization, which launched extensive anti-war propaganda.
Revolutionary activity
After the
February Revolution of 1917
The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...
in Russia Mazepa was a member of the Katerynoslav City Duma and the Katerynoslav Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Deputies, and in April 1918 he headed the Katerynoslav Provincial Revolutionary Council. In October 1918 he was arrested for editing a newspaper ''Nashe Slovo'', but soon was released. In January 1919, Mazepa was a deputy of the Labor Congress of Ukraine, and from April 1919 he was the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic in the government of
Borys Martos
Borys Mykolayovych Martos ( Ukrainian: Борис Миколайович Мартос) (May 20, 1879 – September 19, 1977) was a Ukrainian politician, pedagogue, and economist.
Biography
Martos was born in Hradyzk, Poltava Governorate, R ...
.
From August 27, 1919 to May 25, 1920 Mazepa was a Chairman of the
Council of People's Ministers
The Council of People's Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Рада Народних Міністрів УНР) was the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Its duties and functions were outlined in the Chapter V of the Constitu ...
of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In May-June 1920, he was a Minister of Land Affairs of the UPR. He took part in the
First Winter Campaign
The First Winter Campaign was a campaign by the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) against Bolshevik forces in Ukraine during the Ukrainian-Soviet War. It began on December 6, 1919, and lasted until May 6, 1920. The main task of the Wi ...
1919-20 within the Winter Campaigns of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1919-20 and 1921.
In exile
From 1920 Mazepa lived in exile in Lviv, where he edited the USDRP newspaper ''The'' ''Free Ukraine'' and the magazine ''Socialist Though''t.
In 1923, he moved to
. From 1927 he was an associate professor at the Ukrainian Academy of Economics in Podebrady and worked at the Ukrainian Institute of Sociology. During the interwar period he was one of the leading figures of the USDRP Foreign Delegation. He defended Ukrainian interests at many social democratic conferences, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Labour and Socialist Internationals.
As Soviet collectivisation efforts ramped up in the early 1930s, he encouraged landowning Ukrainian peasants to work against regional authorities in bids to keep their land. As a result, hoarding and burning of crops increased, and local farm managers were increasingly being targeted in assassinations. These widespread killings led to a shortage of experienced agricultural leaders, which caused many farms to see significant decreases in efficiency and crop yield. In 1934 and in the aftermath of the 1930-1933 Soviet Famine, he published an article that boasted the success of the efforts against Stalin's bid to eliminate the landowning class.
After the wife's death, Mazepa decided to move to Austria and Germany. From October 1946 he was a professor at the Ukrainian Technical and Economic Institute in Munich. In 1948, he was one of the co-organizers of the Ukrainian National Council in exile and was elected the first chairman of the Executive Body of the UN Council (until January 1952). In 1950 Mazepa became the founder of the Ukrainian Socialist Party.
Mazepa is the author of controversial and disputed works/articles like ''Bolshevism and the Occupation of Ukraine'' (1922), ''The Foundations of Our Revival'' (1946).
Isaak Mazepa died on 18 March 1952 in Augsburg, Germany.
Personal life
Being a student of St. Petersburg University Mazepa was acquainted with a student of the Medical Women’s Institute Natalia Singalevich, also a member of the USDRP. Soon they got married, and in 1910 their daughter Halyna Mazepa was born. She became an artist. In 1945 Mazepa’s wife Natalia Singalevich and two of their grandchildren tragically died during a raid on Prague by American aircraft.
Works (selected)
* ''Bolshevism and the occupation of Ukraine'', Lviv, 1922. - 156 p.
* ''The created state (the struggle of 1919)'', Collection of memory of Symon Petliura (1879-1926), Prague, 1930. - P. 16-76.
* ''From my St. Petersburg memories'', Dnipro, 1938. - P. 17-25
* ''Foundations of our revival'', New Ulm: ed. Prometheus, 1946
* ''Ukraine in the fire and storm of the revolution of 1917–1921'' .- Vol. I: Central Council - Hetmanate, Directory. Prague: "Breakthrough" , 1942; New Ulm: "Prometheus", 1950-210 p.
Isaak
Isaac was one of the patriarchs of the Abrahamic faiths.
Isaac may also refer to:
* Isaac (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname of Isaac and its variants
Organizations
* International Societ ...