Although often considered one of Pushkin's lesser works and critiqued as unabashedly imperialistic, a number of critics have praised the poem for its depth of characterization and its ability to synthesize disparate genres.

Part I opens by setting the scene in the estate of the nobleman Vasily Kochubei, and describing the beauty of his daughter Maria.

However, they are quickly discovered, and are forced to elope, which brings shame on the family and leaves their parents scared.

Mazepa pretends that his physical health is failing, so as to lull the Tsar's vigilance, while King Charles XII of Sweden is preparing for battle against Peter I. Peter I and his cavalry arrive and defeat the Swedish army and the Ukrainian rebels.

In a memorable passage, Maria no longer recognizes him, because she sees him for what he truly is: a ridiculous and horrible old man.

The poem closes with a reflection by the narrator a century later, claiming that while Mazepa is now forgotten, Peter I, the battle’s hero, has created an enormous monument for himself.

[2] 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.

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 Kondraty Ryleyev which praises Mazepa.

[7] This view is echoed by Svetlana Evdokimova (1999), who contrasts what she sees as unabashed patriotism of Poltava with the richer, more ambiguous portrayal of Peter I and Empire in The Bronze Horseman (1833).

Bondi argues that Pushkin successfully pulls together historical and personal themes and the poem is a valuable meditation on the place of the Russian state among European powers.