Tell Better Stories

Zelenskyy's history of leadership

Lately I’ve been reading about Annalee Newitz’s suggestion to tell better stories in response to psychological warfare. “There's a lot of theories about how to deal with disinformation and propaganda,” Newitz said in a recent discussion. “One theory is that we meet it head on and we debunk it. There's a lot of evidence that that doesn't work, and so what I propose is that we basically change the subject and we say we're going to tell new stories; instead of trying to debunk the story that's wrong, we're going to tell a truthful story, or we're going to tell a story that presents the facts very differently.”

So I’m going to share a truthful story that I believe is significant right now. President Zelenskyy’s background — a research journey that has helped to keep me focused for nearly three years — has been told many times already in multiple formats and with different perspectives. My summary here regrettably lacks the full depth that it deserves. Zelenskyy is such an accomplished person that most biographies end up leaving something out. This brief version will highlight some of the ways he has demonstrated leadership throughout his life.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy was born January 25, 1978 in Kryvyi Rih. Located in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the area is known for its mining industry and turbulent past. Zelenskyy is the only child of Rimma, a retired engineer, and Oleksandr, a professor of computer science. In the mid-1980s, Oleksandr took a job in Erdenet, Mongolia, and the family lived there for a few years until Rimma and her son returned to their hometown in Ukraine.

At school, Zelenskyy was involved in sports, music, and drama. His parents wanted to keep him busy and away from the youth gangs that plagued the city. He studied in a special English class and passed a proficiency exam when he was 16. It was around this time that he became interested in KVK (Клуб веселих і кмітливих, known as KVN in Russian and roughly translated to Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful), a long-running, Soviet-era game show where teams compete with skits, songs, and improvisation.

After graduating from high school, Zelenskyy enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics. He joined a student theatre and was also invited to be part of the KVK team “Zaporizhzhia - Kryvyi Rih - Transit” (Transit for short) in 1996. Zelenskyy’s initial role in the team was as a choreographer and background player, but he soon had regular speaking parts. Transit only reached the semi-finals of the Major League that year, but they went on to a tie championship in 1997. (Some suspect this was a deliberate attempt to keep a Ukrainian team from holding the title on their own.)

Screenshot of Zelenskyy in 1997

The next season, Zelenskyy debuted a new group, which he formed with some of the members of Transit and a few more of his friends from school. They were initially called “the team from Kryvyi Rih,” but later named “95th Quarter” after the neighborhood in Kryvyi Rih where many of them had grown up. Zelenskyy was the undisputed team captain.

The 95th Quarter spent the next few years playing in the Ukrainian League of KVK. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy graduated from university with honors, and after a short internship, he chose to forgo a career in law to pursue his creative work. To supplement what little they received from competitions, the team made money writing screenplays and by performing at corporate parties. Zelenskyy began acting in television shows, thanks in part to his KVK connections.

In 2003, Zelenskyy and the 95th Quarter left KVK and permanently relocated to Kyiv. Zelenskyy co-founded Studio Quarter 95 (Kvartal 95) with Boris and Serhiy Shefir, both of whom had been part of Transit. The fledgling business continued to write scripts, and Zelenskyy found more work on television. With this income and a loan from the bank, they were able to produce their first four independent concerts — a variety of music and humor, similar to their performances on KVK.

They premiered what has been their longest-running show, Evening Quarter, in February 2005. Zelenskyy, who took the role of artistic director at his company, set the tone for the next decade of his busy career with multiple on-screen credits, including as the winner of Ukraine’s first season of Dancing with the Stars. Between writing and filming, Zelenskyy and the other Kvartal 95 performers partnered with charities, hosted award shows, and launched new projects. Part of each year was dedicated to touring, at home and often abroad.

In September 2008, Kvartal 95 began filming their first big-screen movie, Love in the Big City, which was set and filmed in New York City. They would go on to write and produce nine other major films with Zelenskyy as a lead cast member. A few of the movies set box office records in Ukraine. The team was always hard at work, doing everything from voice acting to commercials and annual holiday TV specials.

Zelenskyy on a movie set in 2010

Zelenskyy became the General Producer at Inter, one of the biggest TV channels in Ukraine, in the fall of 2010. He left the position for a few months, returned in 2011, and left again for good in the summer of 2012. During this time, he began a new talk show and was involved as a writer, producer, actor, judge and/or host in nearly two dozen other programs. Kvartal 95 had worked exclusively with the Inter channel since 2005, but after Zelenskyy quit his management position, the studio moved to the 1+1 channel. A couple of years later, Zelenskyy hinted that he had been threatened with censorship while at Inter.

In the summer of 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity and the outbreak of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Kvartal 95 performed for the Ukrainian forces near the front lines. They were some of the first entertainers to travel to what was known as the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone. In the following years, they donated money, visited wounded soldiers during their tours, and invited military families to attend their concerts for free.

All this time, Zelenskyy had been vocally neutral about his political inclinations, not wanting to be perceived as being controlled or influenced by anyone. (This allowed Kvartal 95 to satirize everyone, which they did.) As the war continued, though, and the newest government’s promised reforms stalled, Zelenskyy’s disappointment was evident.

Early in 2015, Kvartal 95 started production on a new show called Servant of the People. This was based on an idea they had envisioned many years earlier and was a natural addition to their politics-heavy comedy. Zelenskyy played the starring role as a teacher who becomes the president of Ukraine. The show premiered in November and was the highest-rated television program of the season. It received international recognition, though Zelenskyy and his company were already some of the most sought-after celebrities in Ukraine.

By 2018, Zelenskyy had expanded his repertoire to include a sports vlog and film directing. Studio Kvartal 95 had also branched out into numerous subsidiaries, covering concert management, film production, and animation. There was persistent conjecture about the possibility of Zelenskyy participating in the upcoming presidential elections. When he formally announced his candidacy on New Year’s Eve, he only had moderate support in opinion polls. As the first round of voting approached, however, he became the clear favorite. In April 2019, he won the first round with 30% and advanced to the second round, where he received a record-breaking 73.2% of the votes.

Zelenskyy was inaugurated as the 6th President of Ukraine on May 20, 2019. Having vowed to shake up the system, he began making changes immediately, dissolving the Verkhovna Rada (necessitating early parliamentary elections) and submitting several bills aimed at fighting corruption. His other priorities were finding a peaceful solution to the ongoing war and making vast improvements to Ukraine’s infrastructure. Despite challenges like the global COVID-19 pandemic – which started barely a year into his term – scandals within his party, and constant efforts by his opposition to discredit him, he continued to be one of the most popular politicians in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy, early presidency

In the months leading up to the full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy was faced with trying to prevent economic collapse amid Russian attempts to destabilize Ukrainian society. When the attacks began on February 24, 2022, many Western leaders assumed he would want to go somewhere safer, but Zelenskyy famously chose to stay in Kyiv. Since then, he has traveled throughout Ukraine to visit frontline communities and has been all over the world to request assistance, keeping his country’s struggle in the public eye.

It’s a common perception, particularly in Western media, to see Zelenskyy as someone who suddenly found his strength as a leader that fateful evening when he declared that “the President is here” days after Russia’s attack. On the contrary, his history proves otherwise. In all of his endeavors – school, entertainment, business, politics – he has found his way to the forefront. It’s not as dramatic of a narrative, but it shows that Zelenskyy was always more than just a comedian.

Stories can be a powerful tool in an age of rampant misinformation. This one happens to be a compelling tale of success from humble beginnings. It’s the story of hard work, ingenuity, and a charming main character who has been a consistent proponent of inclusive civic pride. More importantly, it offers an example of something we all need right now – someone who leads not through fear or hate, but with integrity and strong moral convictions. Perhaps by telling this story, it will inspire more of the same.

---

You might also enjoy: