"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."

A Prayer for Hetman Mazepa

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.