Alexander Pushkin’s Poltava is named after the decisive battle of the Great Northern War, a twenty-year conflict between Russia and Sweden that led to the emergence of Russia as a European power. The poem centers around the Ukrainian Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, his forbidden love affair with Maria Kochubey, and his betrayal of Tsar Peter the Great in the months leading up to the titular battle. While Pushkin considered it his most mature work yet, the reception of Poltava was mixed, and it remains one of his lesser-known narrative poems. Scholars have praised the poem for its characterization and synthesis of literary genres, but also criticized its imperialist overtones and unabashed glorification of Peter, which was perhaps Pushkin’s attempt to restore his reputation as a loyal subject of Tsar Nicholas.