On 25 October 1714, Charles XII set out on his famous ride across Europe. Riding at breakneck speed and incognito, he covered the distance between the Ottoman outpost at Pitesti and the Swedish fortress in Straslund in an incredible thirteen days and four and a half hours.
The King’s dramatic return to his homeland caused a sensation throughout Europe. But, in Bender, his departure, although not unexpected, placed the Ukrainian and Polish emigres in a quandry: what were they to do now and where were they to go?
Even as the Swedes prepared to leave, some of the Mazepists, led by Horlenko, Maksymovych and Lomykovskyi, decided that it was tirfte to capitulate.
Through the mediation of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, this group, numbering about thirty members of the starshyna, received the Tsar’s permission to return to Ukraine.1 But, if the returnees thought that permission to return meant that Peter Γs anger with them had subsided, they were sadly mistaken. Soon after their arrival in the Hetmanate, the former emigres were rounded up, sent to Moscow for lengthy interrogations and, without exception, sentenced to life-long exile.For the several thousand Zaporozhians in Bender there was no question of being allowed to return to Ukraine. No matter hovτ much they disliked the prospect, the only alternative open to them was to return to their newly established Sich at Oleshki. And since the new Sich was on Tatar territory, they had to accept—temporarily, according to Orlyk’s consolations—the overlordship of the Khan. In view of his great trust in and commitment to the Swedish King, what Orlyk chose to do was almost predictable: he, his large family and about a dozen of the starshyna, the most notable of which were his brother-in-law, Hryhor Hertsyk, Fedir Myrovych and Fedir Nakhymovskyi, followed Charles XII to Sweden.2 Fi-
nally, there was one Mazepist who looked to the future with great expectations. Well provided for, Voinarovskyi set off for Vienna to commence a free-spending tour of European capitals. Thus, by the end of 1714, the Bender period in the history of the first Ukrainian political emigration was over.