Writing the biography of Volodymyr Zelensky, the supreme entertainer-statesman of the 21st century, would be a tough proposition at the best of times. These are possibly the worst of times, now that Ukraine faces a war to destruction with no end in sight.
The difficulty lies in Zelensky’s strengths in manipulating audiences, with more than a touch of conjuror skills in misdirection. Simon Shuster, for some 10 years Time magazine’s man in Ukraine, does his best to get at the personality behind the trademark scrubby beard and the combat fatigue jersey. The Showman does the job admirably in telling this modern parable of clown who played Hamlet — or more respectfully, and accurately, the jester-satirist of Russian and Ukraine prime-time TV morphed into president and war leader.
His instinct as showman for timing and communication at the most human level has been the making of him as leader and saviour of his nation. But for his performance, brilliant innovation by professional and amateur fighters, and sheer Russian incompetence, Kyiv surely would have fallen within days of Russia’s invasion in late February 2022. Yet Zelensky had only been catapulted from showbiz into the presidency three years before in 2019. He was a successful media businessman as well as entertainer, with a rich variety of contacts among the oligarchs and influencers in Kyiv and Moscow, where most of his productions were based. He grew up in the rundown industrial town of Kryvyi Ri, in a Jewish family who spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian.
The breakthrough came with his comedy soap Servant of the People, a huge hit in Russia and Ukraine, about to go into a third series when politics came calling in 2019. It was the story of the good bloke who is forced to run the country.
The satire of current Ukraine and Russian affairs bit hard, so much so that the production team persuaded him to run; and he won by a landslide.
Zelensky's confidence carries more than a whiff of hubris, Shuster suggests, which can annoy commanders and subordinates
The Zelensky leadership story in war and peace reads like an extended improv sketch — perhaps too much so for the critics. Instinctively, he feels the vibe of his audience — evoking the Bastille storming of 1789 for the French, the key victory at Saratoga in 1777 in the Independence War for the American Congress, Churchill’s “Finest Hour” of 1940 for the Westminster parliament. Interestingly, he tells Shuster he prefers George Orwell and Charlie Chaplin to Churchill as his Brit heroes.
The confidence carries more than a whiff of hubris, Shuster suggests, which can annoy commanders and subordinates. In the field among the hundreds of thousands of troops under bombardment across a thousand kilometres of front this winter, the defence chief General Valery Zaluzhny seems a far more popular figure.
Zelensky is criticised still for poor military judgments, and insisting on them. He underestimated the seriousness of the Russian threat up to the last moments before the invasion. Later he pressed commanders to counter-attack in the summer of 2022 before they and their troops were ready. He is also marked down for needlessly cutting off channels for talks and negotiations, even while sounding off his most belligerent rhetoric.
The great and enduring achievement is keeping the arms and aid flowing from the West, and keeping Ukraine in the headlines.
And then came October 7 and the Gaza killings. Ukraine slides steadily down and out of the world news bulletins, and its war for survival now is as tough as ever. The audit of the fighting of 2023, and the failed so-called summer offensive, is beyond the remit of this book. The state of forces and the plight of the people and the national economy only a get the lightest appraisal.
How the duopoly of the Two Zeds, Zelensky and Zaluzhny, handle the next is the big issue left by this book. It is a cascade of questions, starting with how new weapons, missiles and F-16 fighters can affect the main battle lines – specifically whether the Ukrainians can get local air dominance over the front. Second, can the people survive the onslaught of missiles and drones on their cities and infrastructure? Recruits are still needed by the tens of thousands for the army, still not fully modernised from its rusty old Soviet model.
Finally, can independent Ukraine survive and thrive with the second coming of a Trump presidency? Much will depend on the rest of the West, Europe and Britain, to build a multi-year strategy for war and peace. development and security for Ukraine.
For this, as this excellent book shows, the Zelensky-Zaluzhny combo is the best leadership game in town for Ukraine for now and the foreseeable future.
The Showman (The Inside Story of the Invasion that Shook the World, and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky) by Simon Shuster (William Collins, £22) will be published on January 23
