Historical Sources and Inspiration
Ivan Mazepa, Vasily Kochubei, and Kochubei's daughter Maria (Matryona) are historical figures. According to historians, it is true that Mazepa had a romantic interest in Maria and she went to live in his home, but whether they were involved in a relationship is unclear. In reality, Mazepa and Maria did not elope: Kochubei removed her from Mazepa's home and sent her to a convent.
It is true that Kochubei denounced Mazepa to Peter in 1706 for conspiring against him with Charles XII of Sweden, but it is unclear if Kochubei had evidence of this alleged conspiracy. However, in 1708 Charles and Mazepa did sign a secret treaty, and they did fight against Peter I in the battle of Poltava.
As Pushkin's Foreword makes clear, he had read a number of sympathetic treatments of Ivan Mazepa and was seeking to respond to them. He was responding both to Byron's Mazeppa and to a poem Voinarovskii by the Russian Decembrist poet Konstantin Ryleev which praises Mazepa.
Read more about this topic: Poltava (poem)
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