Very little that is good happens in any war, without definitive and strong leadership. A commander cannot be everywhere on the battlefield, but with the aid of modern media and communications equipment, he or she can be present with troops by sight or sound, and this can make a great difference in a difficult situation with outcome uncertain.
Because it was part of my work for many years, I immediately tune to listen to the spoken voice of a leader, as several conclusions may be made thereby. President Zelensky, formerly seeming a gentle, accommodating man who trained as a lawyer but loved to entertain others, capable of genuinely laughing at himself and whose company was enjoyed.
With no noticeable political ambitions, he was catapulted almost from acclaim to the Ukrainian Presidency by an electorate which had firmly and loudly declined the old order of things including subservience to Moscow, and whose cultural identity was proud and clear: Ukrainians are a nation unto themselves, who will defend against all comers.
Zelensky’s voice, in the agonizing months of war under Russian attack this year, changes from a jovial, engaging tone to the low, barking rasp of a field general knowing his back and his army are against the wall and it’s fight or die. His intensity is palpable, and real; one cannot mistake this man for an indifferent leader, which he is not.
His fate and his family’s are so closely tied to the nation he leads that when he speaks, all the force of a desperate urge to survive with his family and his nation, is discerned. Throughout history, bold leaders, with the exception of Moses, have been gifted with good, tough, vocal chords and used them well to rally troops.
When called to service from a fiery bush, Moses protested to God that he was not a gifted orator, of which the Almighty was well aware, and a solution was found in his older brother Aaron, who came to the desert many years after Moses’ exile, to find him. Aaron could stand before Pharaoh or the Israeli people and talk a convincing tale which showed that the destiny of Abraham’s children was to be free, and the road to freedom lay across the Red Sea through the desert beyond.
Moses would do the leading, and his Biblical speeches to Pharaoh were short and to the point: Let us go, or misfortune follows. After it did, the Israelis were let go, and none of ancient or modern history has been the same, since. Volodymyr Zelensky, as one of Father Abraham’s more talented children, plays a role in the gallant defense of his country that even Moses would admire: He has not quit.
Candidly expecting to be killed on the first night of the Russian assault, he has rallied tremendously and so have his constituents, old and young, refugee and soldier. His voice is by turns strong and soft with urgent meaning in each word, and some of the most hardened warriors in his command have said they are privileged to serve under him.
Zelensky is an elected civilian leader, not a soldier, and the greatest task of any elected head of state is to bridge the credibility gap from a world of reason and diplomacy to the harsh and gritty conditions of a field camp. He and his fighters have made Ukraine a lesson for the ages, on a par with the commanders of Roncesvalle and Tours. To risk all for the sake of protecting what one most loves, whether country, family, or freedom, is the hero’s definition.
By contrast, I am struck by the practiced eloquence of his angry adversary, a self-appointed head of the Russian peoples, apparently for life. Never known for bravery, Vladimir Putin rather has always chosen surreptitious means of attack, leaving enough of a signature on his list of serial poisonings and murders that survivors, such as Alexei Navalny, understand well that their adversary – or friend – is behind a number of their near-death experiences, and nothing is off limits: Navalny nearly died but recovered, from poison planted in his underwear.
Antonov, an apparently less malevolent associate of Putin’s, was dealt a warning he could not mistake, when his old friend in the Kremlin again sent forth his poisoning expert and discouraged him from trying to broker a peace with Ukraine when Putin wished simply to destroy it. This time, near death was in a simple cup of tea, enough to warn off Antonov or anyone else seeking to bring reasoned calm to the situation and recover his yachts, which are still, like Putin’s sequestered by international law to be held for a time, sold, or dispersed to other interested parties.
And Putin can talk – no mystery that, so could the proverbial snake (satan) in the garden of Eden, beguiling Eve with the thought that maybe she might get away with something, just this once. Utilizing similar subtle and overt methods of satanic wisdom, Putin has so beguiled the Russian people that they now believe and hang upon his broadcast words, thinking that resurrected Nazis hide in every bush in Ukraine and the sky is falling, so we must do something: Let’s destroy the place.
The victory parade in Moscow this month was planned to be Putin’s coronation of glory, positioning him as the true and only “czar” fit to carry Russia forward and stand up against the encroaching West: The U.S., of course, and all our allies . . . though just what on earth the Western Alliance and NATO could possibly want in a half-developed country still emerging from Medieval thought patterns, is a mystery to us.
Putin is practiced and good at this game, and he has obviously had some coaching, since a more introverted and habitually private man has never successfully led the Russian people anywhere. His tones are ringing and his vowels well-formed for emphasis, though as a non-speaker of Slavic languages, I imagine he might as well be saying “the grass is green, the sky is blue, I’m killing Ukrainians, why don’t you.”
Yes, he is a good orator on occasion, but the hilarious sight of him meeting with his generals at the start of this war, seated a full 20 feet away from them, sticks in the mind and makes one wonder if we are seeing merely a frightened boy, wary of disease, wanting dire revenge on a nameless enemy but unwilling to risk anything at all of himself.
I truly believe that Putin never has realized that he has created a hilarious sight gag, for that telling TV tape will stick around to be laughed at long after he is dust. This last is crucial: normal, decent humanity cannot bring itself to torture old ladies or to destroy dozens of children and their parents, unless they are seen as “things”! Someone aware of what it means to be a human person cannot do these atrocities unless he lives only in that part of his awareness that sees the helpless as “objects de terroir” – simply scum to be shot, kicked aside and killed.
And as Pope Francis has opined, “Putin’s altar boy” in the form of a corrupt archbishop, has blessed every blast of destruction thrown against helpless noncombatants in Mariupol and declared with emphasis that God is pleased.
I must agree with President Biden and also President Bush. Putin no longer has a soul. Though for some time western leaders thought and hoped he might. (Nothing could be worse than Stalin, was the reasoning). But yes. There is something worse than that: The spectacle of a man who woos all Russia into following him, corrupts the clergy and knows it is a lie, that he is not the man they wish for, and who – with different choices – might have done good in the world.
Then there is President Zelensky, unprepared for leadership but choosing to step up in dire circumstances, playing to a larger audience that he ever expected to see. The world is watching. One of these will surely be among the immortals of national literature, 1000 years on.
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
