The Times Magazine - UK (2022-05-28)

The Times Magazine 23

meant all government-funded sports and civic

activities disappeared. Into the void stepped an

organised gang structure based entirely on

neighbourhood identity. Gang groups would

literally run to cause trouble, before running

away again.

“There was no culture, no theatres, no

opera houses, no sports. There was only

fighting,” says competitive strongman

champion Kucher, who likens the beguny

to football hooligans.

A former gang leader, Andriy, tells me that

beguny groups even had uniforms to make the

organised fighting easier to manage. “It was

like Gangs of New York,” he says. A code

governed how battle occurred. “No matter

what the odds, even if it’s 10-1, you must fight;

it’s the Kryvyi Rih spirit. Not to fight is to be

disgraced,” says Andriy. The gangs are long

gone, but the culture remains even for those

who didn’t wear gang colours. “If you say

something in Kryvyi Rih, you must follow

through, no matter what,” says Kucher.

In March, Zelensky gave a subtle wink

via social media to those in his home town.

Addressing rumours he had fled Kyiv, Zelensky

said, “I didn’t run away. I am in Kyiv. I don’t

have time to run right now.” With a wry smile,

he finished, “Death to people who run.”

It’s hard to imagine now but the city

had been experiencing renewal, with the

government investing in infrastructure and

amenities. Underneath a towering, brand-new

flagpole flying an enormous Ukrainian flag, a

new school was under way. Nearby, construction

has been paused on a new sports stadium. The

roads into Kryvyi Rih are much improved.

Sergiy Popovich, deputy leader of

Ukrainian grassroots party Power of the

People, says the city has always had incredible

resilience and slowly things are moving in

the right direction. “Our uniqueness is

that we are fast, decisive and we adjust to

the obstacles. We know how to unite in the

tough times.” It’s this approach, he says, that

Zelensky can draw on.

Born to a computer scientist father and

engineer mother, both Jews, Zelensky grew

up during the dying years of the Soviet Union.

Like many in the city, his first language

is Russian. In Ukraine’s first years as an

independent nation he earned a place

studying law at Kryvyi Rih Economic

Institute, the local campus of Kyiv National

Economic University. But it was his talent as

a performer that was clear to fellow secondary

school pupil Irina Shport. Among a high-calibre

cohort, “He was always No 1.” Although she

never thought Zelensky would become

president, Shport is delighted he did. “He is

motivated, interested in people, helpful, but

at the same time fair.”

One of the few creative outlets in Soviet

times was the live television comedy KVN

(Klub vesyólykh i nakhódchivykh or Club

of the Funny and Inventive People, a sort

of forerunner to Britain’s Got Talent). After

the collapse of the USSR it continued to be

shown across the Russian-speaking world.

At 17, Zelensky joined the local team named

for his neighbourhood, Kvartal 95, where he

quickly became a star. KVN was renowned

for free political speech, attracting the

sharpest activists of the day who honed their

skills in the unstructured format of the show.

Gene Goziker, 43, who was also in a KVN

team, says that Zelensky was the best. Captain

challenges, where leaders of the team would

have only 30 seconds to freestyle content,

proved Zelensky could dominate the biggest

stage under pressure.

“That’s why [Vladimir] Putin won’t face

him head-to-head. Zelensky is too fast and

too smart. Putin needs his script and his

photographers,” says Goziker.

In 2000 Zelensky graduated in law,

but he never practised. Instead, his success

on KVN grew. He captained teams that

dominated the major league, in the process

building a reputation across Ukraine and

beyond. And in 2003, he co-founded the

TV production company Kvartal 95.

That same year he married Olena

Kiyashko, whom he had known through

school and university. Their first child,

Oleksandra, was born in 2004, and son

‘CHARACTER COMES FROM

WHERE YOU GROW UP.

KRYVYI RIH IS IN HIS

HEART; IT’S WHO HE IS’

An abandoned Soviet-era school in Kryvyi Rih

Kryvyi Rih lies in the country’s industrial heartland

UKRAINE

Kyiv

Kharkiv

Luhansk

Donetsk

Mariupol

Kherson

Mykolaiv

Odesa

Crimea

BLACK SEA

DONBAS

Kryvyi Rih

Russian military control

Russian advances