Isaak Mazepa

Isaak Prokhorovych Mazepa (; 16 August 1884 – 18 March 1952) was a Ukrainian politician. He was the Head of the Government of Ukrainian People's Republic from August 1919 to May 1920, and one of the central figures of the 1917 Ukrainian revolution.

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 and Friedrich Engels, and received a reputation of a Social Democrat. 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.

From 1905, Mazepa was a member of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party, and from 1906 a member of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (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 1915, Mazepa moved to Katerynoslav (now Dnipro, 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. 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.

In 1923, he moved to Czechoslovakia. 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).

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.