The last episode and the epilogue don’t fail to stress that Zelensky is now among the world’s most admired leaders and that his past mistakes haven’t prevented him from becoming,in Rudenko’s words,“a leader who knows the value of every human life”.

The Australian biography,despite its quite bombastic title,is something completely different. It would perhaps make sense if the book carried a subtitle like “Contemporary Ukraine 101”. Readers interested not only,or not primarily,in Zelensky’s secrets,but also looking for an introduction to Ukrainian history and wary of academic books should start with Urban and McLeod’s shorter text.

Russian-American author Rebekah Koffler’s foreword makes clear that this book,which she quite rightly defines as “a balanced account,” has been conceived for the Western reader who is most likely unaware of many of the intricacies of Ukrainian history and politics. The book features plenty of informative material on Ukraine’s history,including lengthy transcripts of speeches by Zelensky to the EU parliament and the US congress,and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s response to Zelensky.

One of the 16 chapters – tellingly not the “episodes” of Rudenko’s book – is devoted to the various rounds of sanctions adopted by the West in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Another explains the Budapest Memorandum of 1994,which should have protected Ukraine’s sovereignty in exchange for its surrender of a mighty nuclear arsenal,but that has clearly proved useless.

One of the last chapters,after a useful timeline of Ukraine and one of the USSR,is basically a handy glossary of the institutions involved in the many alliances that have regulated European politics from the 20th century to the present,from the Warsaw Pact to the EU. However,all this means that those already acquainted with the basics of Ukrainian history and eager to get to know Zelensky better might be a bit disappointed and should instead turn to Rudenko’s all-encompassing knowledge of the man who’s likely to be remembered as the person of 2022.

The two books share a similar disregard for chronology,with pages devoted to Zelensky’s childhood somewhere in the middle. Among the most striking differences is their respective treatment of Zelensky’s Jewish heritage. While this significant element of Zelensky’s biography is only mentioned in passing in Rudenko’s book,Urban and McLeod consider the fact that a Jew could be elected Ukraine’s president in a landslide to be a sign of the country’s modernity and one more proof of the absurdity of Vladimir Putin’s claims that Ukrainians are Nazis – claims that he uses as a justification for his war crimes.

So while Rudenko’s book is a biography of Zelensky that is also rich in detail about his friends and colleagues,Urban and McLeod’s could be described as a handy biography of Ukraine,a country that since February 2022 has shown remarkable unity and dedication to preserving its history and its future. What both books agree on is that Zelensky is one participant,if an important and effective one,in the collective effort of millions of people committed to defending their country.

Zelensky:A Biography bySerhii Rudenko;trans.,Michael M. Naydan and Alla Perminova is published byPolity Press,$45.

Zelensky:The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero Who Defied Putin and United the World byAndrew L. Urban and Chris McLeod is published byWilkinson Publishing,$24.99.

Alessandro Achilli is senior assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures
at the University of Cagliari. He lectured in Ukrainian studies at Monash University.

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