Museum of Hetmanship, Kiev

The Museum of Hetmanship (or Hetmanstvo) was inaugurated on March 11th, 1993 by the Representative of Ukrainian President in Kiev. The museum is the result of an assiduous effort by the “Ivan Mazepa” Foundation aimed at revealing the previously “hidden” chapters of the Ukrainian history. Each of Ukraine's three main hetmans (governors) have separate expositions, highlighting their lives and deeds in substantial detail. Over 6,000 exhibits have been gathered to tell the story of Ivan Mazepa (1689 -1709), Paul Skoropadsky (1917 -1918) and Phylyp Orlik (April – December 1918), all of whom were previously denounced as “traitors of the Ukrainian people” for their nationalistic views and attempts to revolt against the authority of Moscow.

The most complete collection is the one dedicated to Paul Skoropadsky. It features documents, pictures and personal items, most of which were donated by Skoropadasky’s daughter. The collection dedicated to Ivan Mazepa is made up of large paintings, engravings, pictures of the churches built under the hetman's rule all over Ukraine, as well as Mazepa’s personal weapons. The permanent exhibit of Bogdan Khmelnitsky shows him as a complex political figure with nationalistic views.

The Museum of Hetmanship is a historic treasure in its own right. The building was constructed in the 17th century and is known as “the house of Ivan Mazepa”, even though Mazepa himself never lived there. The building survived the fire of 1811 and remains one of the oldest edifices in the city.