Ivan Mazepa
In 1823, Ryleev wrote a poem surrounding the famed meeting of Tsar Peter I and Hetman Ivan Mazepa at Ostrogozhsk in 1696.  Ivan Mazepa famously led the Ukrainian Cossacks in revolt against Peter I and joined forces with King Charles XII of Sweden. Ryleev did not avoid politically contentious topics or areas of history. In 1823 he began crafting yet another poetic novel surrounding Ivan Mazepa, this time the protagonist was his ambitious nephew Andrii Voinarovsky, who joined his uncle's uprisng but on his way to the Ottoman Empire was imprisoned by Russian agents in the SS Peter and Paul Fortress and died in Yakutsk after being in exile for 16 years.