More important than that, the Russian government held Mazepa up as an outstanding example of a traitor. The Russians could carefully edit the career of Khmelnitsky and give him certain praise for his signing of the fatal treaty. In Mazepa they had a clear opportunity to vilify the unfortunate leader and to label all Ukrainians who henceforth sought freedom for their country as Mazepintsy, followers of Mazepa, with the definite implication that he was false to the great destiny of the Ukrainians: to be submerged in the great mass of the Empire and to abandon all their traditions and ideals. It is small wonder that the tradition of the hetman has lived on among the Ukrainians, and that they are willing to glorify him. Mazepa represented a last phase in Ukrainian development. Unfortunately, he was unable to solve the problem. The general trend of the seventeenth century had drawn a constantly wider gulf between the officers and the masses of the Kozaks and the civilians. Mazepa knew no way of organizing the country after the disastrous experiences of his predecessors except by adopting an anti-democratic attitude and setting himself up as almost an absolute ruler. His environment and his training had taught him to act by devious paths and he dallied too long before he took the final step. Had he acted earlier and more firmly in connection with the Swedes, he might have achieved his goal. Yet in another sense his doom was necessary. It was not until the constitution drawn up by Orlyk in exile that there emerged a clear idea in the minds of the Kozak leaders as to their relationship with the masses of the Ukrainians. Too long had the Sich and the hetmans sought to remain purely a military body without political implications. The need for organizing a Ukrainian state had seemed to them less immediate than the defending of the military rights of the Kozaks. In their political inexperience, they had neglected again and again opportunities that were really priceless. It was not until it was too late that they grasped the responsibilities of their position and freed themselves from their narrow political outlook.