The chance that summoned Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the major turning point in history had done this before. After he was summoned, the tale pauses to admire the skill of this man and his will to shape his own image and tell his own story.
Sometimes, a man stands up against an empire, embarrassing and inflicting pain on it, while they both go down in history. The man may fail the test if he were to choose the easy way out, which is resignation or surrender. He may seize the right moment, like a skilled hunter who strikes at the right time, scoring victory, even in defeat and even if the prey were to run away.
I once interviewed Hazem Jawad, the man who led the Baath party to power in Iraq in 1963. He asked me if I was aware that the aura around Saddam Hussein had emerged by chance. He recalled how leading members of the party, led by Fuad al-Rikabi, had in 1959 decided to assassinate Abdul Karim Qasim. The hit team and time and place to strike were chosen.
Shortly before the date, a member of the team opted out and a calm and resolute man of a few words was chosen to replace him. His name was Saddam Hussein. He took part in the attack and was injured. After the failed attempt, he fled to a party hideout. It was said that he used a razor blade to remove the bullet in his leg. He eventually made it to Syria and later to Egypt. It was just a matter of chance, but the incident cemented Saddam's image in the party and he would later use it during his rise to power.
When Zelenskyy was born in 1978, a 26-year-old man called Vladimir Putin was completing his KGB training. He was learning to live under an alias and how to write in invisible ink. He was being trained on misinformation and how to evade pursuers. In all likelihood, the young Soviet never dreamed of grander things than being promoted in the agency that was tasked with stealing the West's secrets and recruiting or exposing spies. It never crossed his mind that the great empire will break apart and that the republics that were confined in the Soviet cage would scramble to shed their image and express their devotion to the West.
When Ukraine jumped off the Soviet train, Zelenskyy was a boy of 13 who loved to mimic actors and make his friends laugh. During that time, chance would have it that Angela Merkel would make her way to the Chancellery after East Germany threw itself in the lap of the mother nation.
From Dresden, Putin witnessed the collapse of the Berlin Wall. He was a main cog in the regime that had been frayed by old age in the 1980s.
Zelenskyy thought nothing of this. He loved acting and playing the clown. He never once felt that history was preparing to summon him and that he must prepare to lead at crucial junctures. There was nothing that led to believe that fate would summon these two men to a duel in a bloody ring. The outcome of the duel will not only impact the image of these two men and their countries, but the security of the world and its balances and economy.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, Putin was preoccupied with tending to the wounds of the "Russian spirit" and rebuilding the dignity of the "Red Army". During that time, Zelenskyy had formed a successful team to produce a television show called "Kvartal 95".
When the master of the Kremlin was secretly plotting his vengeance against those who led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Lenin's empire, Zelenskyy was busy building his entertainment career. When Putin began to manipulate western leaders and mock their fall due to the malaise of democracies and social media pressure, Zelenskyy was dreaming of nothing more than making the shift from stage to screen.
Even when Putin grew increasingly sure that the spirit of the nation had summoned him and tasked him with a sacred historic mission, Zelenskyy was busy increasing viewership ratings. When Putin reclaimed Crimea in 2014, the world knew nothing of Zelenskyy and didn't have to.
When the master of the Kremlin sent his troops to Syria the next year, Zelenskyy was captivating audiences in his role in the first season of "Servant of the People." In it, he plays the role of a simple high school history teacher who gradually climbs the social ladder to become president after railing against corruption. After that success, Zelenskyy chose to jump into politics in 2018. The next year, the screens and social media would help him get elected president. The president also improved his Ukrainian given that he was born in a Ukrainian region where the dominant language is Russian.
Joining NATO was not a pressing goal for the president, who said that such a move must be preceded by a referendum. It was challenging for him to tend to separatist wounds on the map because the solution passed through Moscow.
The chance that led Zelenskyy to the presidential palace landed him in a very dangerous juncture. The majority of the world believed that the Russian maneuvers were only aimed at intimidation to extract concession. Not many believed Washington's warnings that an "invasion was imminent". But the tsar did it. He landed himself, his country and the world in the most complicated crisis since World War II.
After the launch of the Russian attack, only one man could have saved Europe and the world from the ghosts of the second world war. He could have saved the tsar, his image and his country. Zelenskyy needed fear to grip him body and soul so he could surrender to Moscow's conditions or vacate the scene for another who would sign something of a surrender. Maybe he could have saved the tsar had he been killed in the first days of the invasion or had the army succeeded in carrying out the Russian solution as Putin had wanted. But he didn't. He surprised his citizens and the world.
In his khaki shirt, he appeared before western leaders, declaring that he "needed ammunition, not a ride." The Jewish president mocked Putin's claim that he was fighting Nazis. He embarrassed the White House and all western leaders. He left Putin's image in the flames that he lit amid the footage of burnt houses and streams of refugees.
Zelenskyy earned the legitimate right to resist and he has turned into a hero before many of his citizens. His statements remind the West of their responsibilities and the danger that is lurking against his country's neighbors. Zelenskyy has come out to fire shots at the "Vladimir the Great", who in turn is viewed as a hero by many in his country.
Chance summoned him, and he answered its call and showed up for his date with history. He will be there when history speaks of the man who sat on Peter the Great's throne and launched the major coup against the world that assassinated the Soviet Union and moved its pawns towards containing the land of Stalin.
