How Ukrainian President Zelensky Drew Inspiration From American Heroes

AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

On Tuesday, for the first time in history, a foreign leader was allowed to address both Houses of the British Parliament via video chat. It was the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. In the 10-minute speech, Zelensky promised to “fight on the forests, on the shores, in the streets,” nodding to Winston Churchill’s famous refrain as Britain faced the Nazi onslaught during World War II. Throughout his remarks, the thing that has allowed Zelensky to rise to heroic status in the eyes of much of the West was on full display; namely, his innate ability to find common historical threads that unite his dire fight against Russia with other instances of nations throwing off oppressors and invaders in order to be free. In his words, actions, and dreams of democracy for Ukraine, Zelensky channels other great leaders throughout history who have defied the odds and dared to dream of a brighter future for their people.

Even Zelensky’s enemies, like Russian news channel Zvezda Television, are beginning to comprehend that the invasion of Ukraine will strengthen and not weaken the country’s identity. “There are no regions desiring to be independent”, a Zvezda commentator emphasized, referring to Moscow’s concept of a divided Ukraine. “We see Ukraine unified.” While some in the West have chided Zelensky’s unwillingness to compromise as a fool’s errand, it has united the Ukrainian people in opposition to Russia in a way that a more conciliatory tone would not have.

Indeed, the devastating Russian war against Ukraine has the potential to become a foundation myth of the modern Ukrainian state, and the president-artist Zelensky will carve out its final form and shape. 

Zelensky has dreamed about a Ukraine that embodies many of the same ideals that guided the American founders to establish the United States – a land of the free, with liberties enjoyed by all, as he emphasized during his campaign.

A part of that dream was delivering Ukrainians from pervasive corruption that has gripped the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In his political manifesto, Zelensky compares corruption in Ukraine to Abraham Lincoln’s view on slavery, arguing that the millions of Ukrainians who are financing the luxurious lifestyle of the elites are in some sense slaves. Corruption itself, like slavery, was a disease that divided Ukrainians against one another, and must be rooted out and destroyed.

While Zelensky makes no mention of him directly, Zelensky’s story and philosophy also bears striking similarity with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Ukraine’s future president was born in Kryvyi Rih, a city in the most industrialized region of the country. He grew up in a Jewish family of political dissidents who, even though they were not involved in public life, ingrained in their son basic principles and taught him Ukraine’s true history that Soviet schools would not. “They imparted in me fundamentals,” Zelensky said of his parents. “I feel pain when I see lies and untruth, therefore I perceive lies as an injustice.”

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the semi-independent, affluent, and controlling clusters that directed the Soviet machine transformed into the oligarchic system of interest groups, preserving the status quo – the source of systemic corruption.

Much like an American president who once confronted Russian aggression and expansionism, Zelensky began his career in the entertainment business. Zelensky’s entrance into the political scene followed a long period of what appeared at first glance like a typical career of a satirical show host in Russia and Ukraine. Similarly, Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood actor before entering politics, which would serve him well throughout the remainder of his life. Much as Reagan could charm any audience with a well-timed joke or amusing anecdote, Zelensky used humor as his medium to reach people. Both were comfortable on center stage.

During his presidential campaign, when Zelensky was asked about his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said he would resort to humor. “It will be forced laughter, but still laughter,” Zelensky concluded, adding that Putin “has eyes, but he has no vision.” It was clear then that Zelensky would not back down to Russia – and neither did President Reagan. By standing firmly in the face of the Soviet Union, Reagan won the Cold War through ideological superiority as much as military might. Now, Zelensky may be on the cusp of accomplishing something similar, even if his country is overwhelmed militarily, as he has united the West in support of his cause and against Russian aggression.

One of Zelensky’s biggest hits as a director and actor came in the series “The Servant of the People” from 2016 in which Zelensky, incredibly, plays an unlikely hero who becomes President of Ukraine – something that would actually happen three years later. In the series, Zelensky plays a history teacher named Vasily Goloborodko, who was not eager for the presidency but interpreted his election as a calling to turn things around in Ukraine. On inauguration day, he chooses a taxi over a limousine, and a humble teachers club over Parliament. Fighting for small and efficient government, he cuts bureaucratic jobs (again reminiscent of Reagan) and challenges lawmakers with a question that must be addressed if a new Ukraine is to emerge: why did they transform from “servants of the people” into servants of the oligarchs?

Admittedly, Zelensky’s casting of himself as president now appears to have been at least somewhat self-serving. However, through Zelensky’s character in the show, audiences see the ideal of a humble servant-leader embodied by America’s first and perhaps greatest president, George Washington.

Like Goloborodko, Washington never asked for power. When the discussion of titles came up, Washington opted for the simple “Mr. President.” He rejected early designs for the White House out of fear that it would seem too opulent, and that the people would view their leader too much like an elected king.

Zelensky has never explicitly said that he had Washington in mind when he was making the show. But the concept of a national leader being beholden to both other branches of government and the people is one of the great cultural contributions that the United States has made to the rest of the world, and is undoubtedly reflected in “The Servant of the People.” One can argue about to what extent Zelensky himself has been able to live up to Goloborodko’s character as president, and how well he has actually rooted out corruption, but in articulating this ideal for the Ukrainian people, of a country where leaders are truly servants of the people, Zelensky has given them something to fight for.

In his inaugural address in the show, President Goloborodko puts down his prepared remarks and says, “but I know what is the test of life: One needs to behave in such a manner that one would not be ashamed to look into the eyes of one’s children.” 

Ukraine’s president has surely, at least, passed this test. No matter the outcome of this war, when history looks back on it, Volodymyr Zelensky will be one of the heroes, someone who stood for what is right, defending his home against all odds.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, theologian, and researcher.