A former showman, Volodymyr Zelensky took the theater out of Ukrainian electoral politics by using genuine communication, not pressure, to garner votes. Comedy as a tool of democratic resilience and contestation has remained central to his leadership. In his previous career, Zelensky promoted an expansive vision of Ukrainian political nationhood that elevated local identities. As president, he continued decentralizing reforms. These reforms may hold the key to protecting democracy in postwar Ukraine, where risks may include the reappearance of the partially staged democratic elections that were a key element of politics in independent Ukraine prior to Zelensky.
In the fog of war and amid Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s inspiring wartime leadership, it is important not to forget how politics in Ukraine worked for decades before Russia’s full-scale invasion. Even in victory, the risks for democracy in Ukraine may include the reappearance of the partially staged democratic elections that were a key element of politics in independent Ukraine prior to Zelensky: Ukrainian politicians with authoritarian ambitions periodically used economic pressure to compel people to vote for them, leading many Ukrainians to feel that they were being treated like background players on a stage, not agents of their own political destinies. These manipulations affected not only electoral outcomes, but also the meaning of democratic institutions for Ukrainians who were subject to such pressure. The danger of a return to political theater in Ukraine after victory emanates not only from the threat of Russian occupation and the Kremlin’s “referendum” at gunpoint, but also from the economic precocity of war and its deprivations.1
Yet Ukrainian politics no longer looks as it did even five years ago, and Zelensky has participated in changes at every level of Ukrainian society—changes he was positioned to lead precisely because of, not in spite of, his previous career as an actor and comedian, where he was known for his close connection with Ukrainian audiences. To understand the nature and significance of the transformation in Ukrainian politics since his arrival on the political stage, it is helpful to examine not only Zelensky’s wartime leadership, but also his previous work. International audiences have viewed Zelensky through the narrow lens of the wartime leader who commands respect because of his courage in the face of grave danger. For those who do not know him or his story, it could seem as if Zelensky had risen above his former calling as comic and showman. But that misunderstands Zelensky. Many Ukrainians have long known him for his fearless and eloquent responses to injustice, and for his evident and profound patriotism. In his career as a showman, Zelensky, trained as a lawyer, led from the stage. His present heroism continues to express an integrity that Ukrainians recognized long before the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion.
Political Theater Before Zelensky
In 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president in a landslide, earning 73 percent of the nationwide vote with a largely internet-based campaign. Before Zelensky’s election, the system that had dominated Ukrainian politics depended on large-scale political theater, as some politicians mobilized parts of Ukrainian society staged democratic institutions, from elections to demonstrations by crowds-for-hire. Under certain previous administrations, electoral pressure and manipulation in Ukraine generally originated in the center, from the presidential administration, but they depended 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. Politicians presided over complex patronage systems that extended into the lowest levels of government, prompting many people to participate in electoral politics not for the sake of ideas, but because they could not afford to alienate.
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). But Zelensky’s current work as a wartime president who not only actively speaks with the world, but also briefs his compatriots daily, draws upon decades of direct engagement with Ukrainians, who have known him for longer than Russians have known Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky was a regular fixture on Ukrainian television starting in the 1990s in improvisational comedy competitions broadcast throughout the post-Soviet world, and starting in 2003 his troupe, Kvartal-95, performed their own musical revues on television. For many Ukrainians, Zelensky and his troupe became a symbol of continuity and calm in the twenty-first century amid years of political turmoil. Presidential administrations and mass protests came and went, but Zelensky and his troupe were always there.
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