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Selenskyj: Die aktuelle Biografie. Die ungewöhnliche Geschichte des ukrainischen Präsidenten
Diese neue Biografie gibt einen aktuellen Überblick über das außergewöhnliche Leben des ukrainischen Präsidenten. Basierend auf Recherchen in Russland und der Ukraine sowie Hunderten von Interviews und Nachrichtenartikeln, bietet sie genau das richtige Maß an Kontext und Insider-Informationen - auch für jene, die mit der Ukraine nicht so vertraut sind.
Die ungewöhnliche Lebensgeschichte von Wolodymyr Selenskyj ist spannend wie ein Roman: Mit zwanzig Jahren war er Komiker und Bühnenstar, mit dreißig Chef eines Multimillionen-Dollar-Unternehmens, und mit vierzig Hauptdarsteller in der Erfolgsserie „Diener des Volkes“ als genau der ukrainische Präsident, zu dem er 2019 gewählt wurde.
Heute führt Selenskyj sein Land im Krieg gegen Russland - eine Ikone des Mutes und der Unnachgiebigkeit, ein Held, den ganz Europa verehrt und der zusammen mit seinem Volk für den Friedensnobelpreis nominiert wurde.
Die ungewöhnliche Lebensgeschichte von Wolodymyr Selenskyj ist spannend wie ein Roman: Mit zwanzig Jahren war er Komiker und Bühnenstar, mit dreißig Chef eines Multimillionen-Dollar-Unternehmens, und mit vierzig Hauptdarsteller in der Erfolgsserie „Diener des Volkes“ als genau der ukrainische Präsident, zu dem er 2019 gewählt wurde.
Heute führt Selenskyj sein Land im Krieg gegen Russland - eine Ikone des Mutes und der Unnachgiebigkeit, ein Held, den ganz Europa verehrt und der zusammen mit seinem Volk für den Friedensnobelpreis nominiert wurde.
192 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published June 24, 2022
8 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Steven Derix
3 books1 followerSteven Derix is journalist voor NRC Handelsblad. Samen met collega Dolf de Groot schreef hij in 2013 Bloedbroeders. De ondergang van de Rabobankploeg, waarin de dopingfraude van Michael Boogerd werd onthuld. Van 2014 tot 2020 was hij voor NRC correspondent voor Rusland, Oekraïne en Wit-Rusland.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
dnf-no-hard-feelings
March 13, 2023Ich gebe offiziell auf. Ich hasse dieses Buch. Es fühlt sich an, als hätte ein Kind in der 5. Klasse eine Strafarbeit zu dem Thema schreiben müssen.
"Und dann ... und dann ... und dann ... dann hat er das getan ... und dann ist das passiert ..."
Ich halte keine 174 Seiten davon aus. Ich bin fertig.
"Und dann ... und dann ... und dann ... dann hat er das getan ... und dann ist das passiert ..."
Ich halte keine 174 Seiten davon aus. Ich bin fertig.
May 5, 2023
Interesting to read about Zelensky’s background and ascent to power. However, a bit to glorified of a portrait at times.
January 19, 2023
Goed boek. Geeft veel inzicht in de carrière van Zelensky voor zijn presidentschap, zijn sterke en zwakke kanten van zijn presidentschap voor de oorlog (onder meer de vreemde financiële zaken) en zijn imponerende optreden in de oorlog. Knap op een rij gezet in 200 bladzijden.
September 9, 2024
Interessante biografie
June 23, 2023
Richard Derix is a journalist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
I have read many short biographies which felt a bit liked shameless rush jobs. Fortunately, I did not feel that was the case with this book. This was a masterclass in how to write, a concise, detailed, well researched warts and all political biography. In a sense I felt readily ready to forgive the author for not making this biography of greater length. That is because Zelensky’s story is still being written and his life and many of his countrymen still hang in the balance.
Much of this book, rightly focuses on Zelensky’s career as an up and coming comedian/entertainer. Zelensky’s background as a Russian speaking Ukrainian allowed him to easily slip into the world of KVN entertainment. KVN was essentially a giant Soviet Union wide comedy talent show that made the transition to the early post-Soviet era. The author patiently described KVN comedy culture and described how it differed from comedy trends in Western Europe. KVN was often very slapstick and active, often relying on making people laugh by dance routines and funny facial expressions. In Zelensky’s case he took it to one extreme years later and pretended to play Tschaikovsy on the piano with his penis. The centre of the KVN world was Moscow meaning that for much of Zelensky’s early career he toured much of Russia and saw little of his home country for much of the time. Eventually Zelensky formed a comedy troupe, named after the neighbourhood where he grew up with friends from there; Kvartal 95.
Zelensky threw himself into Kvartal 95, writing much of it’s material (nearly all of it early on) and working 80 hour weeks to push it from it’s humble beginnings to become something bigger. Much of the time Kvartal 95 lived on a shoe string budget, with the members and their partners living in the same apartment for years. Zelensky had a modest wedding reception in a bowling alley and only went on his first holiday abroad around 2006. As time went on Kvartal 95’s comedy became a lot more politically minded, starting with routines that focused on ordinary people trying to live their regular lives with much of what was seen as dysfunctional in Ukraine. This eventually broadened into the main performers including Zelensky impersonating Presidents and political figures of the day.
Zelensky became more aware of the growing pains of his still young nation, especially as Kvartal 95 settled in Kyiv and started to enter the TV and film business under the business of Studio Kvartal 95. All Presidents tried to walk a tight rope between the West and Russia, particularly after the “election” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The second President Kuchma, in a bid to revive a struggling economy privatised many state companies leading to the rise of an Oligarch class as influential and problematic as the same class in Russia. Corruption permeated almost every level of government and security institutions. Meanwhile, a language and cultural divide between pro-West European Ukrainians who spoke Ukrainian and those who lived in the East and spoke Russian. Zelensky, being a Russian speaker was very sensitive to Western Ukrainian lawmakers making laws against speaking the Russian language. Zelensky only in recent years became proficient in Ukrainian. While early on he blamed Ukrainian politicians for sowing division, the events that transpired in 2014 made him realise that the real puppet master sat in the Kremlin.
The Euromaiden demonstrations, that came to a head in 2014, which forced Russian supported Ukrainian President Yanukovych to thread led in rapid succession to Eastern Ukrainian counter demonstrations and the setting up of the “republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. These were rapidly supported by a Russian military intervention which was too vast to be disguised. Kvartal 95 held performances to support Ukrainian troops on the frontline during the Donbass War, effecting Zelensky personally. After many years he started to feel strongly about being Ukrainian.
Studio Kvartal 95’s most directly political series “Servant of the People” in the end became life imitating art for Zelensky, the star of the series. The series itself featured him playing an everyman history teacher whose rant against Ukrainian politicians is recorded by a student and ends up going viral, ending up in him becoming President. In 2019 Zelensky announced he would run for President against the incumbent Petro Poreshenko. Zelensky won by a historic margin.
Considering the great attention the book concentrated on Zelensky’s comedy career, I was afraid that his more unknown (outside of Ukraine at least) political career pre-invasion would get short shrift from the author. Fortunately, I was wrong and what the author offered was a warts and all accounts of Zelensky’s turbulent first term in peace time. What was the problem? It can be summed up as a lack of preparation. Servants of the People was barely a political party at all with barely a manifesto, with policies thrown in by supporter interaction via special events and social media. Many who stood were well meaning friends and supporters of Zelensky. Others were well meaning activists seeing the chance to rid Ukraine of many of it’s long term problems. However, too many were shameless opportunists who were never really fully on board with the project.
But Zelensky’s main problem seemed to be that he was in a hurry and the ends justified the means as far as he was concerned. Unexpected resignations or sackings became the order of the day among much of the government and it’s agencies, however many of those who left could arguably have helped Zelenksy achieved his vision of reform. All of this disruption took on a life of it’s own, with many resigning either because they were fed up of being suspected of being in someone’s pocket or because resignations elsewhere made their ability to do their jobs impossible. Gradually, losing patience Zelensky relied on centralising more power into the Presidency in order to get things done. This did not go unnoticed by many Human Rights concerns who aired their concerns. However, this all was made worse by the Constitutional Court striking down a requirement for civil servants (many of whom were notoriously corrupt) to declare their financial interests. Far from deterred Zelensky used Presidential Powers via the National Security and Defence Council to try and reverse this by decree.
The author rightly pointed out that Zelensky would justify this in the context of Russia trying to destabilise Ukraine. Putin’s Russia had indeed been trying to destabilise Ukraine for years and had been in and undeclared war with it since 2014. Zelensky’s soon became to realise that his early sentiments about the divisions between East and West Ukraine were wrong, the real disruptor was Russia and the war had to be ended for Ukraine to survive as a country. His first instinct was attempted reconciliation through a controversial prisoner swap that let a key suspect in the MH17 plane shoot down escape, a price he thought worth paying for peace. But peace didn’t come. At Zelensky and Putin’s only meeting the latter barely reacted to him being there. After that Putin turned down all invitations for another meeting with him even as the time until the war started came perilously close. However, this part of Zelensky’s career also hinted at an innate confidence to throw caution to the wind to get his country out of a bind. So-called Wagnergate was an abortive Ukrainian Intelligence operation to lure and capture several Wagner mercenaries in order to interrogate them about their activities in the Donbass. If it had succeeded, would the invasion plans have been deployed sooner.
I greatly appreciate this book for not hero worshipping it’s subject or doing a hatchet job. The way I read it, the author laid out the case that Zelensky was not a dictator in making, but perhaps resorted to Presidential authority so quickly out of frustration and impatience for the lack of progress of reform. But he also played the price of not taking the time to methodically build a more political movement. Instead, he tried to build it from his celebrity and the general malaise and cynicism felt by much of the Ukrainian public towards their disappointing political class. In this way he could be described as suffering from problems experienced by most populists. But the author makes clear that while Zelensky could be impulsive he always put the work in and there were few things he did by half measures. A prolific smoker before, he quitted as soon as his daughter came back from school crying because she thought he might die of cancer. His life on the road left him very out of shape until he hired a personal trainer, giving him the soldier-like physique he has today to wear the clothes of his armed forces today. He also took care of those who worked with him in Kvartal 95 and Studio Kvartal 95, with the latter supporting his close colleagues to get mortgages on their first houses.
Euromaiden and the invasion have changed him in many ways. He is more thoughtful, reflective but puts his performative skills to use to inspire his country to fight off the ongoing invasion. But times of frustration, such as the Western allies refusal to implement a no-fly zone, gave the world a glimpse of the old impulsive Zelensky when he frankly showed his frustration. In this way I think it can be safely be said that the old person is still there with the war leader. I wish the old performer the best of luck during the performance of his life.
I have read many short biographies which felt a bit liked shameless rush jobs. Fortunately, I did not feel that was the case with this book. This was a masterclass in how to write, a concise, detailed, well researched warts and all political biography. In a sense I felt readily ready to forgive the author for not making this biography of greater length. That is because Zelensky’s story is still being written and his life and many of his countrymen still hang in the balance.
Much of this book, rightly focuses on Zelensky’s career as an up and coming comedian/entertainer. Zelensky’s background as a Russian speaking Ukrainian allowed him to easily slip into the world of KVN entertainment. KVN was essentially a giant Soviet Union wide comedy talent show that made the transition to the early post-Soviet era. The author patiently described KVN comedy culture and described how it differed from comedy trends in Western Europe. KVN was often very slapstick and active, often relying on making people laugh by dance routines and funny facial expressions. In Zelensky’s case he took it to one extreme years later and pretended to play Tschaikovsy on the piano with his penis. The centre of the KVN world was Moscow meaning that for much of Zelensky’s early career he toured much of Russia and saw little of his home country for much of the time. Eventually Zelensky formed a comedy troupe, named after the neighbourhood where he grew up with friends from there; Kvartal 95.
Zelensky threw himself into Kvartal 95, writing much of it’s material (nearly all of it early on) and working 80 hour weeks to push it from it’s humble beginnings to become something bigger. Much of the time Kvartal 95 lived on a shoe string budget, with the members and their partners living in the same apartment for years. Zelensky had a modest wedding reception in a bowling alley and only went on his first holiday abroad around 2006. As time went on Kvartal 95’s comedy became a lot more politically minded, starting with routines that focused on ordinary people trying to live their regular lives with much of what was seen as dysfunctional in Ukraine. This eventually broadened into the main performers including Zelensky impersonating Presidents and political figures of the day.
Zelensky became more aware of the growing pains of his still young nation, especially as Kvartal 95 settled in Kyiv and started to enter the TV and film business under the business of Studio Kvartal 95. All Presidents tried to walk a tight rope between the West and Russia, particularly after the “election” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The second President Kuchma, in a bid to revive a struggling economy privatised many state companies leading to the rise of an Oligarch class as influential and problematic as the same class in Russia. Corruption permeated almost every level of government and security institutions. Meanwhile, a language and cultural divide between pro-West European Ukrainians who spoke Ukrainian and those who lived in the East and spoke Russian. Zelensky, being a Russian speaker was very sensitive to Western Ukrainian lawmakers making laws against speaking the Russian language. Zelensky only in recent years became proficient in Ukrainian. While early on he blamed Ukrainian politicians for sowing division, the events that transpired in 2014 made him realise that the real puppet master sat in the Kremlin.
The Euromaiden demonstrations, that came to a head in 2014, which forced Russian supported Ukrainian President Yanukovych to thread led in rapid succession to Eastern Ukrainian counter demonstrations and the setting up of the “republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk. These were rapidly supported by a Russian military intervention which was too vast to be disguised. Kvartal 95 held performances to support Ukrainian troops on the frontline during the Donbass War, effecting Zelensky personally. After many years he started to feel strongly about being Ukrainian.
Studio Kvartal 95’s most directly political series “Servant of the People” in the end became life imitating art for Zelensky, the star of the series. The series itself featured him playing an everyman history teacher whose rant against Ukrainian politicians is recorded by a student and ends up going viral, ending up in him becoming President. In 2019 Zelensky announced he would run for President against the incumbent Petro Poreshenko. Zelensky won by a historic margin.
Considering the great attention the book concentrated on Zelensky’s comedy career, I was afraid that his more unknown (outside of Ukraine at least) political career pre-invasion would get short shrift from the author. Fortunately, I was wrong and what the author offered was a warts and all accounts of Zelensky’s turbulent first term in peace time. What was the problem? It can be summed up as a lack of preparation. Servants of the People was barely a political party at all with barely a manifesto, with policies thrown in by supporter interaction via special events and social media. Many who stood were well meaning friends and supporters of Zelensky. Others were well meaning activists seeing the chance to rid Ukraine of many of it’s long term problems. However, too many were shameless opportunists who were never really fully on board with the project.
But Zelensky’s main problem seemed to be that he was in a hurry and the ends justified the means as far as he was concerned. Unexpected resignations or sackings became the order of the day among much of the government and it’s agencies, however many of those who left could arguably have helped Zelenksy achieved his vision of reform. All of this disruption took on a life of it’s own, with many resigning either because they were fed up of being suspected of being in someone’s pocket or because resignations elsewhere made their ability to do their jobs impossible. Gradually, losing patience Zelensky relied on centralising more power into the Presidency in order to get things done. This did not go unnoticed by many Human Rights concerns who aired their concerns. However, this all was made worse by the Constitutional Court striking down a requirement for civil servants (many of whom were notoriously corrupt) to declare their financial interests. Far from deterred Zelensky used Presidential Powers via the National Security and Defence Council to try and reverse this by decree.
The author rightly pointed out that Zelensky would justify this in the context of Russia trying to destabilise Ukraine. Putin’s Russia had indeed been trying to destabilise Ukraine for years and had been in and undeclared war with it since 2014. Zelensky’s soon became to realise that his early sentiments about the divisions between East and West Ukraine were wrong, the real disruptor was Russia and the war had to be ended for Ukraine to survive as a country. His first instinct was attempted reconciliation through a controversial prisoner swap that let a key suspect in the MH17 plane shoot down escape, a price he thought worth paying for peace. But peace didn’t come. At Zelensky and Putin’s only meeting the latter barely reacted to him being there. After that Putin turned down all invitations for another meeting with him even as the time until the war started came perilously close. However, this part of Zelensky’s career also hinted at an innate confidence to throw caution to the wind to get his country out of a bind. So-called Wagnergate was an abortive Ukrainian Intelligence operation to lure and capture several Wagner mercenaries in order to interrogate them about their activities in the Donbass. If it had succeeded, would the invasion plans have been deployed sooner.
I greatly appreciate this book for not hero worshipping it’s subject or doing a hatchet job. The way I read it, the author laid out the case that Zelensky was not a dictator in making, but perhaps resorted to Presidential authority so quickly out of frustration and impatience for the lack of progress of reform. But he also played the price of not taking the time to methodically build a more political movement. Instead, he tried to build it from his celebrity and the general malaise and cynicism felt by much of the Ukrainian public towards their disappointing political class. In this way he could be described as suffering from problems experienced by most populists. But the author makes clear that while Zelensky could be impulsive he always put the work in and there were few things he did by half measures. A prolific smoker before, he quitted as soon as his daughter came back from school crying because she thought he might die of cancer. His life on the road left him very out of shape until he hired a personal trainer, giving him the soldier-like physique he has today to wear the clothes of his armed forces today. He also took care of those who worked with him in Kvartal 95 and Studio Kvartal 95, with the latter supporting his close colleagues to get mortgages on their first houses.
Euromaiden and the invasion have changed him in many ways. He is more thoughtful, reflective but puts his performative skills to use to inspire his country to fight off the ongoing invasion. But times of frustration, such as the Western allies refusal to implement a no-fly zone, gave the world a glimpse of the old impulsive Zelensky when he frankly showed his frustration. In this way I think it can be safely be said that the old person is still there with the war leader. I wish the old performer the best of luck during the performance of his life.
June 23, 2023
Goede, bondige bio met af en toe een kritische blik.
October 25, 2022
Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Like most people with souls who aren't for some reason desperately pickme-ing all over the internet for putin, I quickly came to deeply admire and esteem President Zelenskyy after the re-invasion began, so I've read a lot about him over the past eight months. I knew that while he was elected in a landslide, there were a lot of problems and discord between then and last February, and that his popularity in the country had decreased a lot. I also knew that people in Ukraine and elsewhere were worried about how he'd respond if russia invaded, and have read some articles from 2021 and earlier that basically said "The country would be fucked because this guy wouldn't know what to do and would flee immediately."
LOLLLLLLLLLL hindsight's a bitch, ain't it? Turns out, Zelenskyy was exactly the right person to face this crisis and has proved it consistently every single day.
But I did appreciate this book for going into some depth about how things went kind of off the rails during the first few years of his presidency. Some of that was due to outside forces and other people's bullshit, but some of it was Zelenskyy's doing, and the author is honest about that. I also really liked learning more about his early days in the entertainment industry and his conversion from russian-speaking Soviet citizen to UKRAINE OR BUST, BITCHES. You really get a sense of how much the nation means to him on a very personal level, and it's a refreshing flip side to the usual kind of nationalism we see, which is steeped in hatred and xenophobia and policies of isolation. Zelenskyy's nationalism is about boosting his own people up and bringing their country in line with other modern Western nations, with broadening their diplomatic relations and showing what an incredible place Ukraine is.
There were a few times where I wish there was a bit more explanation of things--the authors sometimes seemed to forget that people outside of Ukraine wouldn't necessarily understand the nitty gritty of their political systems and how certain things functioned. It ends on June 3, the 100th day of the war, and I realize they had to cut themselves off in order to get this to press, but I do wish there was more about those first few months of the war.
But overall this is a great look at Zelenskyy himself as well as an abridged history of Ukraine. And as expected since the man is a comedian after all, there are a few moments which made me laugh out loud, and that was very much appreciated.
Слава Україні! Разом до перемоги!
Like most people with souls who aren't for some reason desperately pickme-ing all over the internet for putin, I quickly came to deeply admire and esteem President Zelenskyy after the re-invasion began, so I've read a lot about him over the past eight months. I knew that while he was elected in a landslide, there were a lot of problems and discord between then and last February, and that his popularity in the country had decreased a lot. I also knew that people in Ukraine and elsewhere were worried about how he'd respond if russia invaded, and have read some articles from 2021 and earlier that basically said "The country would be fucked because this guy wouldn't know what to do and would flee immediately."
LOLLLLLLLLLL hindsight's a bitch, ain't it? Turns out, Zelenskyy was exactly the right person to face this crisis and has proved it consistently every single day.
But I did appreciate this book for going into some depth about how things went kind of off the rails during the first few years of his presidency. Some of that was due to outside forces and other people's bullshit, but some of it was Zelenskyy's doing, and the author is honest about that. I also really liked learning more about his early days in the entertainment industry and his conversion from russian-speaking Soviet citizen to UKRAINE OR BUST, BITCHES. You really get a sense of how much the nation means to him on a very personal level, and it's a refreshing flip side to the usual kind of nationalism we see, which is steeped in hatred and xenophobia and policies of isolation. Zelenskyy's nationalism is about boosting his own people up and bringing their country in line with other modern Western nations, with broadening their diplomatic relations and showing what an incredible place Ukraine is.
There were a few times where I wish there was a bit more explanation of things--the authors sometimes seemed to forget that people outside of Ukraine wouldn't necessarily understand the nitty gritty of their political systems and how certain things functioned. It ends on June 3, the 100th day of the war, and I realize they had to cut themselves off in order to get this to press, but I do wish there was more about those first few months of the war.
But overall this is a great look at Zelenskyy himself as well as an abridged history of Ukraine. And as expected since the man is a comedian after all, there are a few moments which made me laugh out loud, and that was very much appreciated.
Слава Україні! Разом до перемоги!
July 11, 2024
Boken handler (som undertittlen antyder) dels Ukrainas politiske utvikling siden landet igjen fikk sin uavhengighet, dels Zelenskyjs personlige utvikling og kunstneriske karriere inntil de to faller sammen. Zelenskyj er født og oppvokset i Kryvyj Rih, en by grunnlagt av ukrainerne i 1600-tallet, men totalt ødelagt av tyskerne under 2. verdenskrig og gjenoppbygget som en typisk sovjetisk industriby. Selv om byen hadde færre etniske russere enn jøder (dvs. svært få russere), så var russisk det dominerende sprog i byen. Han tog juridisk embeteksamen ved universitetet i Kyïv. Men han gjorde karriere som komiker og filmskaper. Han var russiskpråklig og opptrådde både i Ukraina og russland og hans flim og tv-serier ble vist både i hjemlandet og i russland. Men under en turné langs frontlinjen i Donbas så han hvordan russerne behandlet lokqalbefolkningen og han så de ukrainske soldater heroiske forsvarskamp under håpløse forhold. Der ble den hittil kosmopolitiske skuespiller for alvor ukrainsk.
I 2018 grunnla han partiet Folkets tjener og i presidentvalget 2019 vant han med 73,23% over den sittende presidents 24,45%. Han var valgt på et antikorrupsjonsprogram og for å få avsluttet krigen med russland. Men han hadde undervurdert omfanget av korrupsjonen i landet. F.eks. ble hans forslag om at oligarkerne skulle opplyse alle eiendomme og inntekter i et offentlig register, men det ble underkjent av Kontitusjonsdomstolen (hvor dommerne var kjøpt og betalt av oligarkerne), og putin viste seg ikke å være interessert i fred med mindre Ukraina ville underkaste seg kremls vilje. Zelenskyj var mer forsiktig en den tidligere president i tilnærmingen til EU og Nato, men nu har putin virkelig tvunget Ukraina i armene på både EU og Nato, for det er her den eneste hjelpen mot russisk imperialisme finnes.
I 2018 grunnla han partiet Folkets tjener og i presidentvalget 2019 vant han med 73,23% over den sittende presidents 24,45%. Han var valgt på et antikorrupsjonsprogram og for å få avsluttet krigen med russland. Men han hadde undervurdert omfanget av korrupsjonen i landet. F.eks. ble hans forslag om at oligarkerne skulle opplyse alle eiendomme og inntekter i et offentlig register, men det ble underkjent av Kontitusjonsdomstolen (hvor dommerne var kjøpt og betalt av oligarkerne), og putin viste seg ikke å være interessert i fred med mindre Ukraina ville underkaste seg kremls vilje. Zelenskyj var mer forsiktig en den tidligere president i tilnærmingen til EU og Nato, men nu har putin virkelig tvunget Ukraina i armene på både EU og Nato, for det er her den eneste hjelpen mot russisk imperialisme finnes.
November 14, 2025
This book presents a quick (190 page) biography of Volodymyr Zelensky up to 30 June 2022. It's not based on direct interviews with Zelensky himself but rather relies on third party sources. From the perspective of someone with no knowledge of Ukrainian affairs or Zelensky's history it's a fair read and sheds light on his pre-presedential life, together with a potted history of modern Ukranian political history.
It paints Zelensky as less-than-perfect, shining a dim light into flaws and occurrences that otherwise have not been generally discussed. But it does so in a half-hearted fashion, as if his standing up to Putin somehow absolves him from closer scrutiny. It's a flaw throughout the book, the whole narrative has the feel of a rushed job, a feeling not diminished by the typographical and grammatical errors scattered throughout. Perhaps it is a result of the original being published in Dutch and the translation being rushed, or an inattentive editor, I'm unsure. It makes what should be a reasonably easy read that much more difficult, in particular the strange and at times confusing punctuation that only serves to obfuscate, rather than clarify, meaning. In the end I was slightly dissatisfied with the book, feeling as if it was a very light examination of a central figure in 2020's European history.
If you want simple, flawed coverage of Zelensky this book is for you. If you want a deeper dive then look elsewhere.
It paints Zelensky as less-than-perfect, shining a dim light into flaws and occurrences that otherwise have not been generally discussed. But it does so in a half-hearted fashion, as if his standing up to Putin somehow absolves him from closer scrutiny. It's a flaw throughout the book, the whole narrative has the feel of a rushed job, a feeling not diminished by the typographical and grammatical errors scattered throughout. Perhaps it is a result of the original being published in Dutch and the translation being rushed, or an inattentive editor, I'm unsure. It makes what should be a reasonably easy read that much more difficult, in particular the strange and at times confusing punctuation that only serves to obfuscate, rather than clarify, meaning. In the end I was slightly dissatisfied with the book, feeling as if it was a very light examination of a central figure in 2020's European history.
If you want simple, flawed coverage of Zelensky this book is for you. If you want a deeper dive then look elsewhere.
November 14, 2025
Knap geschreven. Compact en toch uitgebreid. Helaas eindigt het boek in 2022, toen er een moment van optimisme was nadat de Russen succesvol bij Kiev waren tegengehouden. De laatste jaren echter lijkt er politiek intern en extern zo veel gebeurd dat het ook met boek nog steeds moeilijk oriënteren is op Oekraïne en met name ook de positie die Zelensky ondertussen inneemt. Is hij (nog) steeds de corruptiebestrijder waarvoor hij in 2019 is gekozen tot president of is zijn, zo te zien, steeds verder toegenomen centrale macht ondertussen toch ook gecorrumpeerd? Wordt er vooruitgang geboekt richting een democratische rechtsstaat en met corruptiebestrijding of beweegt het land achterwaarts? En wat is inmiddels rol van de VS, met Trump aan de touwtjes, en West-Europa? Recente berichten in de media doen het ergste vermoeden, waardoor ik me sterk afvraag hoe nu verder.
February 18, 2023
Nadat ik Will uitgeluisterd had kwam dit boek op mijn netvlies, een stuk korter maar heel erg interessant vond ik. Het verteld uitgebreid over de tijd voordat Zelensky president werd en tipt ook nog even geschiedenis mee over het conflict tussen de diverse voormalige Russische staten. Men denkt altijd dat Zelensky enkel een acteur was voordat hij president werd maar dat was maar een van de rollen die hij in zijn vorige leven had. Overigens is de serie waarin hij speelde nog steeds bij Netflix te zien. Prettig voorgelezen door Mathijs Deen.
April 15, 2023
Het boek is meer een persoonsomschrijving waarbij ik het gevoel heb dat de laatste hoofdstukken afgeraffeld zijn. Hier en daar licht kritisch over Zelensky zelf, maar de huidige oorlog wordt niet kritisch belicht en is vooral een herhaling van de Westerse propaganda. 'Propaganda' in de objectieve zin van het woord, elke zijde van een oorlog kent immers zijn eigen waarheid. De persoonlijkheid van Zelensky komt in die beschrijving ook een stuk minder terug, waar ik dat eerder wel meer heb ervaren, het is meer een beschrijving van de gang van zaken.
May 1, 2023
Heel behapbare en uitgebreide info over de huidige Oekraïense president waarbij een beeld wordt geschetst van zijn achtergrond en drijfveren om Oekraïne als natie te leiden naar een zelfstandige, zelfvoorzienende staat. Leest heel vlot, alleen lijkt de historische gebeurtenis nog te recent en actueel om dit ten volle als naslagwerk te beschouwen, wat later zeker wel kan gebeuren bij het staken van het conflict!
July 24, 2022
Degelijke, boeiende en zeer leesbare biografie van Zelensky. Zijn leven wordt geschetst voor het decor van de binnenlandse politiek in Oekraïne. Je krijgt on verwachte inkijken omdat zoveel getuigen aan het woord komen.
December 13, 2022
Solider Einstieg in das Leben und Wirken Selenskyjs, allerdings hauptsächlich kalt vom Schreibtisch aus mit alten Interviews und Zeitungsartikeln zusammenrecherchiert. Daher leider kaum Primärquellen und insgesamt eher saloppe Quellenarbeit.
September 1, 2023
OK. A surface-level story-like crash course into Zelensky and contemporary Ukrainian politics. Great for someone with little knowledge about the topic or Zelensky but might not satisfy the intellectual curiosity of someone well read in Ukrainian and Russian history/politics.
July 18, 2024
Really interesting as I knew very little about the country since the break up of the Soviet Union . Also a good way to
Understand the man who is leading the country in a time when both it and the west are fighting to remain free.
Understand the man who is leading the country in a time when both it and the west are fighting to remain free.
July 17, 2022
Zeer informatief en leest makkelijk weg (journalisten). Geeft behoorlijk wat inzicht in de aanloop naar de oorlog in Oekraine.
December 13, 2024
Prima leesbaar en heb weer wat nieuwe feitjes geleerd. Is direct al achterhaald, maar dat is het risico met dit soort biografieën.
October 9, 2024
Zeer leesbaar. Kort (135 pag) maar krachtig. Deze bio gaat over het leven van Zelensky voordat de Russen binnenvielen in februari 2022. Kort na de inval stopt het boek.
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