How Zelensky Has Changed Ukraine

In the fog of war and amid Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's wartime leadership-inspiring as it has been-one should not forget how politics in Ukraine functioned for decades before Russia's full-scale invasion. The dangers to democracy in Ukraine even from a Ukrainian victory include the resurgence of one of the most important political features of independent Ukraine prior to Zelensky, the partially staged democratic elections. The Ukrainian politicians who did have the authoritarian ambitions periodically forced people to vote for them through economic pressure; consequently, many Ukrainians thought that they were treated as extras on a stage and were not agents of their political destiny. All of these manipulations have touched not only election outcomes but also what democratic institutions could mean for the Ukrainians who were under such pressure. The danger of a return to political theater in Ukraine in the aftermath of victory does not flow only from the threat of Russian occupation and the so-called "referenda" engineered by the Kremlin at gunpoint. There is economic precariousness brought about by war and privations.1

Yet Ukrainian politics no longer looks the same as it did even five years ago, and at every level of Ukrainian society, Zelensky took part in changes to which his prior career as an actor and comedian had positioned him, precisely because of and not in spite of his closeness with the Ukrainian audience. To understand the nature and the importance of the transformation in Ukrainian politics since he burst onto the political scene, it is necessary not only to look at Zelensky's wartime leadership but also at work before that. Until now, international audiences have seen Zelensky through the narrow lens of the wartime leader who commands respect because of his courage in the face of grave danger. To one who did not know him, or his story, it may have seemed that Zelensky had transcended his former calling-as comic and showman. That would be a misunderstanding of Zelensky. The people of Ukraine have long known him for fearless and articulate responses to injustice, for evident and profound patriotism. As a showman, the trained lawyer Zelensky led from the stage. His current heroism keeps expressing an integrity that Ukrainians recognized well before the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion.

Political Theater Before Zelensky

In 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president in a landslide, receiving 73 percent of the nationwide vote with a largely internet-based campaign. Till the election of Zelensky, Ukrainian politics were dominated by grand political theatre: one part of society was being mobilized in some pseudo-democratic institution such as elections or protests by crowds for hire by certain politicians. Under some of the previous administrations, at least, electoral pressure and manipulation in Ukraine generally emanated from the center-through the presidential administration-but they relied on the cooperation of regional political machines and many people's reliance on local leaders for access to public goods such as energy, education, and healthcare. The politicians presided over complex systems of patronage that reached down to the lowest layers of government and made so many people participate in electoral politics not out of ideas but because they could ill afford to cross local party bosses or their employers-or to refuse payment in cash or in kind to support incumbents. In some rural areas and company towns, party officials threatened people's livelihoods if they did not turn out to vote for the right candidate or party.

Zelensky's Comedy State

Biographical sketches of Zelensky always include a passing mention of his career as showman and satirical actor, usually in reference to his situation comedy Servant of the People (2015–19). Yet what Zelensky does now-as a wartime president, one who speaks not just to the world but to the daily briefings for his comrades-relies on two decades of direct contact with Ukrainians, who knew him longer than Russians have known Vladimir Putin. Starting in the 1990s, Zelensky was a regular fixture on Ukrainian television in improvisational comedy competitions that were broadcast throughout the post-soviet world. Starting in 2003, his troupe, Kvartal-95, performed their own musical revues on television. For many Ukrainians, Zelensky and his troupe provided a sense of continuity, a sense of calm over the course of the tumultuous twenty-first century. The while presidential administrations came and went, while mass protests emerged then ebbed and ebbed, Zelensky and his improv troupe remained there. Trademark of satirical actor Zelensky had been clear exposition of real-life situations so well known to Ukrainians, readiness always to call things by their names, to call out the politicians however hazardous it may have been.