President Zelensky is not only a showman and politician. He is also a political phenomenon through which history revealed something very important about Ukrainian society. This book is dedicated to Ukraine under the presidency of Volodymyr Zelensky. It consists of columns, originally written for the Kennan Institute’s expert blog Focus Ukraine. Put together, these columns constitute a chronicle of a society surviving oligarchy, pandemic, and war with dignity and resilience – in spite of all the challenges of recent and current history.



Mykhailo Minakov is a senior advisor at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute and a philosopher and scholar working in the areas of political philosophy, social theory, international development, and history of modernity. He is also the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Ideology and Politics Journal, of the Kennan Focus Ukraine blog, and of the philosophical web portal Koinè. Minakov is the author of seven books, co-author of another six books, and of numerous articles in philosophy, political analysis, and history. Mikhail has over twenty years of experience in research and teaching in the universities of Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. John Lloyd is Contributing Editor of the Financial Times, and Associate Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford.



Here is Ukraine’s recent political history viewed as it unfolded, often unpredictably, through the eyes of one of the best scholars of Ukrainian politics, society, and culture. Focused on leaders, state policies, public opinion, and international relations, this is a compelling story of uncertainty and possibility evolving into a story of disappointment and then catastrophe mixed with resilience and hope. This is political history rich in contingencies, personalities, ideas, and emotions. Mark D. Steinberg, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



A chronicle of a society surviving oligarchy, pandemic, and war with dignity and resilience.