On April 20, 2019, at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, more than 20,000 spectators gathered, and the scene was full of people and cheers. However, this is not a grand sporting event, but just a debate game.
Zelenskiy
But why is an ordinary debate competition held in the Olympic Stadium? And why can it attract so many viewers to watch?
This is because the parties to the debate share an extraordinary identity.
One of them is a well-known comedian in Ukraine, while the other is the current president of Ukraine.
It's unbelievable that a president would hold a debate contest with comedians. So, what's going on here?
Comedian-turned-presidential candidate
Zelenskiy was born on January 25, 1978, to a well-to-do family in the city of Krivorog in central Ukraine.
Zelenskiy's father was a university professor at a prestigious local school of economics, and his mother was a mine engineer. Both belonged to the high-income class in Ukraine, which also allowed Zelenskiy to enjoy a very wealthy childhood.
Since his father was a university professor, Zelenskiy received a better education from an early age than the average person. After graduating from high school, Zelenskiy was admitted to the Kyiv University of Economics with honors to study law.
Becoming a lawyer has always been a dream of Zelenskiy from childhood to adulthood, and he worked hard for many years with the help of his father, and eventually he successfully entered a prestigious university to pursue his ideal major.
However, after going to college, because of an opportunity, his life path changed.
Image from the web
Because of his lively and outgoing personality, Zelenskiy enjoyed socializing with people, which led him to sign up for many club activities after entering the university.
Among the many community activities, Zelenskiy's most frequent participation is in the drama club, which often needs to perform on stage.
In the beginning, Zelenskiy had no acting experience, so he could only work on screenwriting. Later, after some training with the members of the society, zelenskiy took the stage of performance for the first time in the second semester of his freshman year.
To the surprise of the members of the theater club, Zelenskiy, who debuted on stage, did not disrupt the rhythm due to nervousness and anxiety like some other novices. On the contrary, his control of the stage is like that of a professional actor, and he performs with ease and without any fear of the stage.
In addition to the passionate performance, Zelenskiy's script was also quite well received, and it did not take long to attract a large number of fans on campus to watch. This has also sparked interest from a local group focused on the creation of entertainment programs.
At the age of 19, Zelenskiy joined the group, called 95 Quarter, and followed the group to perform in Eastern European countries.
95 quarters combined
Four years later, Zelenskiy and the rest of the group founded a studio and officially entered the film and television production industry.
In 2005, due to his excellent creative level and ability to control the field, Zelenskiy was invited to the TV station to take on the position of screenwriter and host of a program.
This also led Zelenskiy to become famous in the Ukrainian television industry.
For the next decade, as the programs he created were broadcast one after another on television. Zelenskiy's name has also spread to every household in Ukraine.
Servant of the people
However, what really made him popular was the TV series starring in 2015 - "Servant of the People".
The play tells the story of how Zelenskiy's history teacher became the president of a country by chance, and then formed his own team to fight against the oligarchs who controlled the lifeblood of the country.
As soon as this comedy full of political irony was broadcast, it attracted a hot pursuit in Ukraine, and Zelenskiy, as the producer and star of the show, naturally attracted a lot of attention. It also made him a "national comedian" of Ukraine.
However, the fire of "Servant of the People" also had a lot to do with the situation in Ukraine at that time.
At that time, Ukraine, just a year after the end of the Wudong crisis, the people of the whole country were very dissatisfied with the decision-making of the top level of the government, and the media successively exposed the corruption problem of many officials, which made the people complain for a while.
"Servant of the People" is full of satires of the evidence at that time, which is very much in line with the tastes of ordinary people, so it is natural to regard it as a masterpiece.
As the producer of the show, Zelenskiy was also deeply dissatisfied with the evidence at the time. So, in 2019, Zelenskiy announced his participation in a new round of presidential campaign, transforming from a comedian to a presidential candidate.
In fact, except for Zelenskiy, every Ukrainian may have a great ambition to serve the country in his heart. Just because of the historical development of this country, there are really some twists and turns.
A tortuous development
Many people may think that ukraine's feud with Russia has only erupted in the last decade, but in fact, this feud can be traced back to the Kievan Rus' period more than 1,000 years ago.
In the 9th century, due to the rise of international trade, a large number of merchants emerged from the Baltic Sea to the Nieber trade routes in Byzantium. At that time, a large area of land centered on Kiev became the foothold of merchants of various nationalities in the surrounding area.
Later, due to the expansion of the East Slavic tribes, the area was gradually occupied by the Slavs, and Later Kievan Rus' was established here.
It was not until the 13th century that the mighty Mongol cavalry invaded Eastern Europe and captured Kiev in 1240, and Kievan Rus' was ruled by the Mongol Golden Horde for more than a hundred years.
During this period, the Slavs of the whole region were divided into three ethnic groups, one to the east, merging into the Russian nation, some north to form Belarusians, and those who remained here became Ukrainians.
Later, after the fall of the Mongols, Ukraine was invaded by Germans and Turks, and later survived for a time under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland.
Seeing that its own nation was too weak and always bullied by outsiders, Ukraine threw itself into the powerful Tsarist Russia in the east, and in 1654 signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav with it, becoming a vassal state of Tsarist Russia, hoping to be protected under its command.
However, the greedy Tsarist government only wanted to gain some benefits from Ukraine, and had no intention of being their umbrella, so in the three hundred years of devotion to Tsarist Russia, Ukrainians were also exploited and bullied by the Russians.
It also made them understand that only by going out and building their own country can they live with dignity by working hard and fighting.
However, due to the huge gap in strength between the two sides, during the period of Tsarist Rule, Although Ukraine launched several independent revolutions, they all ended in failure.
It was not until the october revolution that Lenin led the Bolshevik party to overthrow the decadent Tsarist government and establish the soviet union, a huge industrial state. At this time, Ukraine saw a glimmer of independence.
At the same time as the fall of Tsarist Russia, Ukraine took the opportunity to declare independence.
However, because of the united front, Ukraine still joined the Soviet Union and became a socialist member.
But even under the Soviet era, Ukraine was not treated fairly. During World War II, Ukrainian men were pushed to the front line of the Soviet-German battlefield as a shield for the Soviet army, and many people died in vain. Even many people at that time wanted to surrender to the Germans and turn around and attack the Soviets.
It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that Ukraine, as the second largest member, finally succeeded in independence. But even after getting rid of the Soviet Union, for the next thirty years there were constant contradictions and conflicts with its successor, Russia, on geopolitical and military issues.
This tortuous historical trajectory of more than a thousand years has also made Ukrainians fantasize all the time that one day a hero beloved by the people can appear and lead them to a rich and powerful life.
Zelenskiy became a hope for them.
Successfully elected president
When Zelenskiy announced his candidacy, most people did not favor the actor, who had never had political experience, after all, the 68 candidates who announced their participation in the election that year were almost all local officials with rich political experience.
Among them, the most promising candidates are the current president Poroshenko, who is still in his first term, and Tymoshenko, known as the "Iron Lady of Ukraine".
Poroshenko
However, to everyone's surprise, after the end of the first round of the campaign, Zelenskiy became a dark horse with a 25% support rating far ahead of other campaign opponents. This also stunned the media who had not been optimistic about him before.
However, in fact, this result is not completely empty.
Back in 2018, a local newspaper conducted an informal poll that showed that zelenskiy would be willing to vote for him if he ran for president.
One is because he has a very high popularity in Ukraine as a comedy star, and the other is that the people at that time have lost confidence in politicians, and people like Zelenskiy, who have never had political experience, are more trustworthy.
After the results of the first round of voting, only Zelenskiy and the current president Poroshenko were left on the field. At this time, Zelenskiy made another bold decision. He invited Poroshenko to a campaign debate with him at the Olympic Stadium to tell the difference. Poroshenko immediately accepted the invitation.
After the debate began, Poroshenko, as a veteran politician, still followed the same set of official words as before, although it was watertight, but it did not arouse the feedback from the people's hearts.
Zelenskiy, who has been in the media industry for many years, is very aware of the real demands of the people's hearts, so in full view of everyone, he saw Zelenskiy "pounce" on the ground, and then said: He kneels to all the soldiers who have not returned from the front, but also to all the parents who have not waited for the return of their children, the wives who have not waited for the return of their husbands, and the children who have not waited for the return of their fathers.
This remark instantly hit the hearts of all Ukrainian people who watched the live broadcast of the debate, and many people shed tears on the spot.
And this debate also ended with Zelenskiy's kneeling, and everyone knew that the election was completely divided.
After the second round of voting, Zelenskiy was elected president of Ukraine with 73% approval and was sworn in at the inauguration ceremony of the president in The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on May 20.
After Zelenskiy came to power, he did not live up to popular expectations, cracked down on political corruption, and reformed the judicial system.
Seeing this series of political achievements, the Ukrainian people feel that the comedian they have chosen is the savior who led them to prosperity.
However, over time, Zelenskiy's political experience has revealed a "double-edged sword" effect.
During Zelenskiy's tenure, he vigorously promoted the Western-style democracy he pursued and moved closer to Europe. This also aggravated ukraine's already unstable East-West contradictions, and eventually led to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian problem.
Now, seeing the situation become like this, I don't know how Zelensky felt in the face of the shock of 20,000 spectators.
Putin
I also hope that he can learn something from the lessons of the Russian-Ukrainian incident, after all, compared with economic development, maintaining national stability and ensuring the safety of people's lives is the cornerstone of national development.