"Servant of the people" Volodymyr Zelensky: How a simple Ukrainian comedian became the favorite of the presidential election

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

At first, he played the role of the President of Ukraine in the cinema, and now, perhaps, he will really become him. In any case, showman Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to preliminary data from the National exit poll, won the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine. And if no revolutionary events take place in the coming days - Poroshenko will not return Donbass, Lugansk and Crimea in one day, and Ukraine will not enter the EU, then Zelensky is guaranteed to enter the second round. Although it should be admitted that the main political trump cards of this candidate are good intentions and charisma.

Vladimir Zelensky was born in 1978 in Krivoy Rog. His parents are already retired today, and at that time his mother worked as an engineer, and his father was the head of the computer technology and energy department at an economic university.

Vladimir himself studied at an English special school and dreamed of becoming a diplomat. When he was 16 years old, he successfully passed the TOEFL, the English language test for admission to foreign universities. And he was even given a grant to study in Israel, but his father turned out to be against this idea, and the talented guy entered the law faculty of the Economic Institute in Krivoy Rog.

It all started with KVN

In his student years, Vladimir Zelensky began to play in KVN and organized a miniature theater "Homeless". At the same time, he received an invitation to the Zaporozhye - Kryvyi Rih - Transit team. A little later, Kvartal 95 appeared, which Zelensky still produces and heads. Therefore, he is a successful person and not very poor. But he promises to hand over all cases if he becomes president.

By the way, at the beginning of a career in the Higher League of KVN, it was Zelensky's team that was the only one that won against teams from Russia. Since 1999, this team has constantly toured the CIS, but at some point, fatigue has accumulated. And then Alexander Maslyakov made a gorgeous proposal to Zelensky - to dissolve the team, and to remain at KVN himself as an editor. But Zelensky returned to Kiev. Then there was a joint work with the Russian TV channel "STS" and the Ukrainian company "Studio 1 + 1" - several interesting show programs were created. In 2005, the Ukrainian channel Inter launched the Evening Quarter, where Zelensky was both an author, an ideologist, a director, and a leading actor. And this is not his only project - there was also work in the cinema and on stage.

Zelensky and the presidents

But even in those days, Zelensky was hard to call far from politics. … For example, he spoke to all the presidents of Ukraine, part of the Russian presidents, the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Poland. And after speaking for Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in Kiev, Medvedev said: “You have good jokes, sharp ones. But we don’t have to joke like that.”

All the presidents of Ukraine, without exception, also reacted ambiguously to Zelensky's jokes. Once, playing President Kuchma, Zelensky with the words "Today we paid off with Russia for gas" went down into the hall in his underpants. To which Kuchma retorted: "My panties are better!" Rumor has it that Yushchenko laughed at the humorist's speeches only at the sign of his wife, and Yanukovych was always offended and even tried to come to an agreement with the humorist's sharp tongue "in an amicable way." Viktor Fedorovich estimated his loyalty to himself at $ 100 million, but, according to Zelensky himself, he considered that he considered the reputation costs higher.

The humorist did not have a relationship with Poroshenko either. He offered Zelensky Ukrainian Hollywood, but in return demanded to join his party. The showman did not make such a sacrifice.

"Servant of the people" Volodymyr Zelensky

"League of Laughter", "Evening Kiev", TV series "Matchmakers", which lasted for six seasons. But still, most of all, the audience remembered the series "Servant of the People". According to the scenario, the most ordinary history teacher, thanks to a video on the Internet, ended up in the chair of the President of Ukraine, and for the next two seasons, President Goloborodko, performed by Zelensky, is trying, as the people say, "to answer for the bazaar" - to fulfill his election promise that the president will live like a simple teacher, and a simple teacher is like a president.

Rumors that Zelenskiy would run for office began to spread in 2017. But the actor himself did not comment on them for a long time and only on the New Year's air of the "Evening Quarter" announced the decision. And now the voters do not have an exact answer - either the actor played too much, or the series was the beginning of the election campaign. Oligarch Kolomoisky, on whose channel Zelensky works, said in an interview with Gordon that, in his opinion, this was not a spontaneous decision.

Today Zelenskiy is surrounded by consultants on a wide range of issues - from foreign policy to the economy. He promises to fight corruption, remove oligarchs from power, attract foreign investment and ensure that taxes are paid honestly - that is, the president stands for all good and promises to eradicate all bad. Just like in the movies.