Populism never leads to an economic miracle. The rhetoric of sweet promises is aimed only at coming to power. The ideas of populism do not improve the mechanisms of government operation; they do not increase budget revenues. On the contrary, these ideas often become the cause of new problems for the state and its citizens.
Countries that have had the misfortune of falling under the rule of populists suffer from this affliction based on the strength of their economy and state institutions. The weaker and poorer the country, the more severe the consequences. Typically, they manifest as high inflation, increased poverty, and even suppression of civil liberties.
Nowadays, populism is not limited to the borders of Latin America and Africa. In Eastern Europe, there is a country where the rise to power of an incompetent showman-populist triggered a chain of events that led to the greatest war on the continent since Hitler, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of refugees. As you might have guessed, this refers to Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky.
The election of a comedian as president was the logical outcome of years of oligarchic influence on politics and the mass media. However, Zelensky was far from the first attempt by big business to reap political dividends. I hope this book will help you better understand how the oligarchs managed to defeat systemic politicians and why the victory of a populist once again did not lead to prosperity.
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Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was born on January 25, 1978, in the city of Kryvyi Rih to a family of a lecturer at Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute, Oleksandr Semenovych, and an engineer, Rimma Volodymyrivna. Unlike the future president’s father, who was mainly known in the city for his teaching activities, Zelensky’s grandfather was quite famous in Kryvyi Rih. Semyon Ivanovych Zelensky worked for a long time as the deputy chief of the criminal search department of the city police and retired with the rank of colonel. According to local residents, he actively participated in suppressing street protests in 1963. Officially, 4 civilians were killed in Kryvyi Rih, unofficially – 7 people died.
When Volodymyr Zelensky was three years old, he moved with his family to Mongolia, where his father got a job debugging electronic equipment at a mining and processing plant in the city of Erdenet. Four years later, the Zelenskys returned to Kryvyi Rih, and Volodya went to the second grade of local school №95.
During his school years, Zelensky showed great interest in theater, music, and the English language. A special passion of his was KVN (Club of the Funny and Inventive, Klub Vesyolykh i Nakhodchivykh) – a Soviet television show where several teams of students compete in humorous responses and perform pre-prepared sketches on stage.
For a time, comedy shows were just a hobby. Volodymyr envisioned his future in moving to Israel. In 2019, before the presidential elections, in an interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon, Zelensky shared that at the age of 16, he won a grant for free education in Israel but never left. His father was categorically against his son’s departure. The conflict escalated to the extent that Volodymyr had to run away from home. As a sign of protest, he lived for several days with his school friend Oleksandr Pikalov. However, eventually, the son complied with his father’s decision, and Israel was forgotten.
After finishing school in 1995, Volodymyr Zelensky enrolled in the law faculty of the local institute where his father worked. There is very little information about the future president’s academic achievements during his student years. But it’s unlikely anyone would claim that Volodymyr graduated as a good lawyer. He spent most of his student time not on studying the criminal law, but on comedy sketches. From the first year, Zelensky began to perform actively in KVN, and the next year, he moved to a professional level. He was invited to the team “Zaporizhzhia – Kryvyi Rih – Transit,” where Volodymyr started with dance numbers and later became one of the leaders of this creative collective.
Joining such a level KVN team was a significant success. It was no longer provincial amateur performance in a local university. Zelensky started traveling to Moscow and Sochi for television shootings. Every three to four months, he was regularly shown on Russian television, which at the time was broadcasted, including in Ukraine. And most importantly, millions of people remembered his face.
In 1997, the team “Zaporizhzhia – Kryvyi Rih – Transit” reached the finals of the KVN Premier League and shared first place with the team “New Armenians.” After such success, Zelensky made a risky but correct decision. He left the Zaporizhzhia team and founded his own KVN team. It was named “Kvartal 95,” after the district of Kryvyi Rih where Volodymyr went to school.
Since Zelensky’s jokes were liked by the audience, the perennial host of KVN, Alexander Maslyakov, allowed the new team to perform directly in the Premier League, without the need to spend an extra year winning regional games.
Volodymyr Zelensky was not mistaken. His charisma started to bring profit. From 1998 to 2003, members of “Kvartal 95” spent most of their time in Moscow, where the show was recorded for television, or on tours in different cities of Russia, Ukraine, and other former USSR countries.
In 2003, Maslyakov offered Zelensky to stay in Moscow as an author and editor of the television program. The future president thought it over and made, perhaps, the wisest decision in his life – he declined the tempting offer and left KVN. His face and jokes were known to tens of millions of people. The prospect of remaining an employee and giving a large part of the income to Maslyakov was not too appealing. Zelensky was confident that he could monetize his popularity without anyone’s help.
After breaking up with KVN, the “Kvartal 95” team moved to Kyiv, where Zelensky signed a contract with the “1+1” TV channel, which at the time was owned by Olexandr Rodnyansky and his cousin, German citizen Boris Fuksman. The contract terms stipulated that “Kvartal 95” would create a series of concerts including their best comedy sketches, and the channel would air them in prime time. Fortunately, the program’s ratings were high, and the management of “1+1” offered Zelensky cooperation on a permanent basis.
In 2004, the “Kvartal 95” team participated in the pre-election campaign in support of the presidential candidate of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. As it turned out, this decision negatively affected further cooperation between Zelensky and the “1+1” channel. The fact is that during the second round of elections, massive falsifications occurred in favor of Yanukovych. This led to the so-called “Orange Revolution.” A day after the election results were announced, the streets of Kyiv were blocked by hundreds of thousands of protesters from all over Ukraine. After two weeks of street confrontation, the Supreme Court annulled the results of the second round. As a result of an additional third round of elections, the leader of the democratic opposition, Viktor Yushchenko, became the President of Ukraine.
The owner of the channel, Rodnyansky, overdid it with support for Yanukovych, and it almost ruined Zelensky’s television career. During the election campaign, the “1+1” channel actively participated in discrediting Yushchenko. This was reflected not only in news stories but also in the Sunday analytical program of Vyacheslav Pikhovshek “Epicenter.” And on weekdays, after the evening news broadcast TSN, a real five minutes of hate began: a short TV program “Prote,” during which Dmytro Korchynsky and Dmytro Dzhangirov alternately convinced viewers why Yushchenko’s victory was bad, and Yanukovych’s victory would only benefit Ukrainians.
The start of the revolution greatly frightened Rodnyansky and Fuksman. They had bet a lot on Yanukovych’s victory and now were seriously afraid of losing their broadcasting license. And on November 25, 2004, under the pressure of street marches and rallies, the Supreme Court of Ukraine issued a ban on the Central Election Commission publishing the results of the second round of elections. It was a victory for the opposition. Now everyone understood that the next decision of the Supreme Court would annul the results and appoint a repeat vote.
The news from the Supreme Court building led to an astonishing transformation of Ukrainian television journalism. Just a few hours after the court’s decision to ban the publication of election results, the team of the “1+1” channel, led by Rodnyansky, suddenly saw the light and rose up against censorship. Before the evening news broadcast on November 25, the journalists, together with the channel’s management, released a statement and a video about the need to adhere to impartiality and journalistic standards.
How did this affect the cooperation with Volodymyr Zelensky’s company? Very simply. To assure the new president of their loyalty to the ideals of democracy, the management of “1+1” closed all programs with Zelensky and his “Kvartal 95.” After all, the young comedian not only participated in the campaign for Yanukovych but also allowed himself harsh jokes about opposition leaders. Obviously, Rodnyansky was afraid of revenge from the new authorities, so he played it safe and expelled not only Pikhovshek, Dzhangirov, and Korchynsky from the channel, but also Zelensky.
The following months showed that the fears of the “1+1” management were exaggerated. President Yushchenko had no intention of closing the channel that had slandered him before the elections. And they had no problems with their broadcasting license. As a consequence, unpunished evil returned in the future. Fifteen years after the events of 2004, the “1+1” channel once again used its influence on the audience to spread black PR, now against President Poroshenko. For example, in March 2019, the program “Ukrainian Sensations” on the “1+1” channel claimed that Poroshenko had killed his brother in his youth. Although this was an outright lie, the channel’s editors were not bothered by it.
After ending cooperation with “1+1,” Zelensky moved to another nationalwide TV channel – “Inter.” There, the future president not only joked from the stage but also launched a cooking show with his participation “Mr. Cook.” His face could also be seen in the adventure TV show “Fort Boyard” and several other projects.
As the head of the media company “Studio Kvartal 95,” Volodymyr Zelensky proved to be a fairly good manager. His comedy programs consistently showed high ratings, and in 2007 he managed to expand his business into film production. Over 10 years as a producer, Zelensky released more than 20 entertainment TV series and 12 movies. All of them were shot in Russian and primarily targeted the Russian market.
In November 2010, Zelensky became the general producer of the “Inter” TV channel. He did not influence the news broadcasts (others handled that) and was not interested in politics. His task was high ratings, with which Volodymyr successfully coped. He worked as a top manager of the “Inter” channel for two years. In 2012, he and “Kvartal” returned to “1+1.” The new owner of the channel, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, offered Zelensky a more favorable cooperation option.