Zelensky's Unnoticed Revolution
There are so many things I could write about Volodymyr Zelensky. I could devote an entire book to tracing his improbable ascent and transformation from television comedian to wartime president, examining the way he reenergized if not redefined Ukrainian national identity, analyzing his diplomatic agility in holding together a fragile Western coalition, presenting his moral virtues and unsurpassed statesmanship. Yet even if I were to address all this and more, I still feel that my words would fall short. Therefore, I will not attempt it.
As to why I admire him, I could not give a better answer than New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who wrote in an op-ed two months after the Russian invasion that “the question almost answers itself.” Quoting from his excellent and penetrating piece that is as relevant and as true today as it was then:
We admire Zelensky because he models what a man should be: impressive without being imposing; confident without being cocksure; intelligent without pretending to be infallible; sincere rather than cynical; courageous not because he is fearless but because he advances with a clear conscience.
Because I hope that future professional historians will do a much better job than I in presenting Zelensky’s achievements and because there is nothing more I can add to Stephens’s op-ed to express my admiration, I have instead chosen to focus today on one aspect of Zelensky’s greatness that I have not yet seen anybody else adequately refer to. On this solemn four-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I consider this to be my modest contribution to honoring the heroic Ukrainian people through their leader.
What I am about to address confronts us daily, yet precisely because it has become so “natural” and “normal,” we fail to see it. It now feels to us ordinary and hardly registers. Yet it is a truth that has a name and must be addressed and described:
Zelensky has ushered in a revolution in the way a leader communicates with his people.
What he has been doing every single day, unabated, for the past four years has never before happened in history. This revolution began on the second day of the invasion when he recorded his first historic selfie-style video, with his key officials standing beside him in front of the presidential building, vowing to defend their country. Just when the world’s media were trying to guess the reaction of the Ukrainian government and the whereabouts of the nation’s leadership, there appeared out of nowhere on Zelensky’s social media accounts this 32-second-long video that shocked the world. It was not the message per se that was revolutionary – the previous day had already seen an official declaration of martial law and general mobilization that signaled Ukraine would fight. No, it was not just the content, but how it was created and delivered. Here he was, for the first time in the history of humanity, the leader of a country holding a mobile phone in a completely unrehearsed, amateurish, casual manner, delivering to his people the most momentous message they would hear in their lifetime: We are here, we are not fleeing, we stand with you, and we will fight alongside you. I have watched this video innumerable times. If you notice carefully, at the beginning, Zelensky’s face is serious, but by the middle, he starts to assume a stoic smile that contains confidence and assurance and radiates hope for the future. It is the smile of a man who has fully embraced his tragic destiny.
Since that portentous moment, Zelensky has been addressing his people with a video message every day, sometimes multiple times within the same day. In the overwhelming majority of cases, his style is similar to the very first video: improvised, direct, as if addressing his friends. His video messages, sometimes filmed from his desk, sometimes from outside locations or even from the battlefield, address a variety of things: important decisions that were made that day, meetings he has had and their significance, the latest developments of the war, but also his opinions and justifications concerning all these. During these four years, of course, not every single day is full of significant events worth sharing. But this is exactly where Zelensky’s true revolution resides. When he has nothing important to announce, he transforms his messages into something else that, again, was never before done by any leader: He simply recounts what he did throughout the day, in effect sharing his daily program! Do you realize how revolutionary this is? Every single day, he reports to his people what he has done. Every Ukrainian – or any observer worldwide – knows exactly where he was and what he did throughout the day. The leader no longer descends from balconies or marble podiums but rather looks into a handheld lens and speaks in the first person. Authority is no longer staged at a ceremonial distance; it is exercised at eye level – for both the leader and his audience. In this new reality, the leader is not an occasional orator but a daily witness; not an abstract office but a visible human being who reports, explains, reassures, and endures alongside his people. The screen – traditionally a medium of entertainment – has become a conduit of civic intimacy. What began as an improvised selfie video in a darkened Kyiv street has gradually matured into a sustained practice of accountability, transforming communication from episodic proclamation into continuous presence.
We often speak about governmental transparency as an ideal to which all countries ought to strive. Yet here we have a leader who is so ruthlessly transparent that we know what he does almost every single hour of the day. A leader who practices daily accountability not through bureaucratic reports but through his own unmediated voice. He reports to his people in a fashion similar to a soldier recounting the tasks he has completed to his commanding officer at the end of the day! It is executive transparency, not as verbal policy but as realized daily behavior and habit; not as a slogan, but as lived discipline. It is radical transparency to the Nth degree.
Political analysts and historians often compare Zelensky to Churchill – both have framed their struggle in stark moral terms, have projected calm defiance, used emotional and expressive language. But did you know that Churchill gave only 49 public radio broadcasts throughout the war? Zelensky has given over 1,500! Furthermore, Churchill’s speeches projected a grand, aristocratic, rhetorically baroque style rooted in imperial self-confidence, whereas Zelensky’s daily messages embody a direct, informal style that projects immediacy and personal identification with his people. But even in his major addresses at special anniversaries, Zelensky’s language remains the same, even though his oratorial style may be elevated to more formality and the video production may be more professional – as in the inspiring yearly address on each anniversary of the invasion (click here for this year’s address and here to watch with embedded English subtitles what in my opinion is his best speech to date). Tragically and ironically, he has become a true “Servant of the People” – the title of his pre-war comedy series in which he was the protagonist-president he ended up becoming in real life! What is most remarkable is that we often consider politicians to be dishonest, secretive, inauthentic, pretentious, bad actors; yet paradoxically, the former actor Zelensky has developed the exact opposite of these traits. As if by some divine intervention of fate, he has been transformed from a good actor to someone who never acts, although he is the embodiment of Wise Action.
It’s as if the stage trained him, but history stripped him of performance!
Zelensky’s unnoticed and unspoken-of revolution is redefining modern political discourse in real time. By replacing convention and officialdom with the immediate and spontaneous, he has altered forever the language of leadership as well as its mode of presentation. Whether future leaders will emulate this model or if it will remain bound to the exceptional circumstances of war remains to be seen. But the precedent has been set. Expectations have shifted.
Zelensky has narrowed the distance between ruler and ruled and has transformed the style and form of their communication. The world cannot go back.
Slava Ukraini!
For more Tuesday Letters on Substack, click here.
For more content, visit nicoshadjicostis.com.
Enjoying my Tuesday Letters? Check out my books, available at Amazon.com and your local bookstore by special order.
If you are not already a subscriber and you liked this essay, you may subscribe below to receive the bi-weekly Tuesday Letter.