Over the past few days, since it became clear that Volodymyr Zelensky is leading in the presidential race with a significant gap, the attention of the whole world is once again focused on Ukraine. Many people wonder, who has eclipsed the current president by popularity, and has every chance of becoming a new head of Ukrainian. In most foreign media, Volodymyr Zelensky is called a “comedian”. He is a new face on international arena of diplomacy, and it is more curious for everyone to learn about him. Although Volodymyr had a chance to appear on this site much earlier if he has followed another of his dreams, or worked according to specialty obtained at university.
On January 25th, 1978 to the family of Rimma and Oleksandr Zelensky a son was born. The only son was named Volodymyr. Very soon the family of young engineers moved to Mongolia to build a mining and processing plant in the city of Erdenet. First class Volodya finished there. The steppe climate shook Rimma Volodymyrivna’s health, so they had to return to their native Kryvyi Rih. For twenty years, Oleksandr Semenovych lived in two countries, completing the plant. Volodymyr almost never saw him. His mother and grandmother took care of his upbringing. The parents of the presidential candidate still live in Kryvyi Rih, in the famous building “Muraviynyk”, they refuse to move to the capital, as well as to accept help from their son. On the contrary, they try to support and help. The head of the family Oleksandr Zelensky is a professor who heads an academic department of cybernetics and computing hardware at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics. Rimma Vladimirovna retired after forty years work as an engineer.
From early childhood, Volodymyr was the embodiment of the term “hyperactive child”: collection of stamps, ballroom dancing, Greco-Roman wrestling, barbell, playing the piano and guitar, basketball, volleyball. With such a variety of interests (and he managed to be a hooligan as well, his relatives recall), Volodymyr graduated from gymnasium No. 95 with in-depth study of the English language with highest marks. At age 16, Zelensky won a grant for free education in Israel, but he decided to fulfill his father’s wish and did not go anywhere. He entered Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute of Kyiv National Economic University, where he received a law degree. Volodymyr never worked according to his specialty. Dreams of diplomatic career at that stage of life were put aside.
School years in all aspects gave direction to the life of future presidential candidate. Whatever project Zelensky implemented, the heart of his team are school and college friends. He always had the talent to unite and not lose people.
KVN way for Volodymyr has begun during final school year, 11th grade. (ed. KVN is a humour TV show and an international competition where teams (usually college students) compete by giving funny answers to questions and showing prepared sketches, that originated in the Soviet Union in 1961).
Then, along with his classmates, he won the team of teachers. Further, participation in KVN went only in ascending way – ” Young Kryvyi Rih”, “Zaporizhia – Kryvyi Rih – Transit” teams participant, the Higher KVN League and, finally, “Kvartal 95” goes as free, independent, and most importantly successful project.
In 2000s and the next one 2010s decades Zelensky’s career and creative ambitions have expanded to an impressive scale. Actor, director, presenter, producer, screenwriter, and businessman: he did not have a single losing project. If the project was closed several new ones immediately appeared in its place.
Not even Wikipedia has enough space to list them all. To name just a few of them: “Evening Kvartal”, “League of Laughter”, “Fight Club” TV-shows, films “Love in the Big City-1,2,3”, “8 new, – the best and – first dates”, “He and She” (his first work as director), TV series “Svaty” and “Servant of the People”. By the way, the rental of the film “He and She” fully returned financial support from Ukrainian State Film Agency.
In 2006, Zelensky became the winner of “Dancing with the Stars”, and in 2008 – “The Most Beautiful Man of Ukraine” (which was not in any way prevented by the fact of his 166 cm height and a low voice: the cause of worries in childhood).
In personal life Volodymyr Zelensky is lucky and happy as well. He was acquainted with his second half and his future wife, Olena, from school, although the couple began dating at University. In 2003, Volodymyr and Elena got finally married after an eight-year romance, and a year later they had a daughter, Oleksandra, in 2013, a son, Kyryll was born, making a family of four complete. Very little is known about the possible future first lady of Ukraine. She rarely accompanies her husband to events. Olena Zelenska – the author of “95 Kvartal.”
“I was sincere aggressively against the start of this project. Because this is a very difficult project – not even a project, another direction in life. But they probably tried to keep me safe. And the earliest plans when it was all discussed with colleagues and close associates – I can’t say that they were hiding it from me, but they protected me from unnecessary information so that I wouldn’t be nervous beforehand,” she said in interview to ICTV channel.
After some shock, Olena accepted her husband’s decision and now, as always, supports him.
“I understand that this is a difficult role, I can now immerse myself in the flow of information that I have to study, understand, and absorb in order to be a worthy person nearby. But it seems to me that the first lady should not necessarily take on any major role in this situation. It seems to me that this tandem should repeat what is actually happening in the family. We have a leader in our family, I help him and support him as much as I can, but I think it would be a matter of dragging the blanket over absolutely wrong,” admitted Zelenska to the media.
Very soon, Ukraine and the world will find out whether Olena Zelenska’s plan will become reality.
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