Late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny believed he would die in prison, excerpts from his memoirs reveal.
Navalny is a staunch opponent of President Vladimir Putin and has campaigned relentlessly against official corruption in Russia. He died in February in a remote Arctic prison, serving a 19-year sentence on multiple charges, including running a terrorist group, which he said was politically motivated.
The New Yorker and The Times published excerpts from his book, Patriot, published on October 22.
Navalny was jailed in 2021 after returning from Germany, where he recovered from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, and was sentenced to three prison terms. Russian officials have vehemently denied any link between the poisoning and Navalny's death.
The Patriot was announced in April by publisher Alfred A. Knopf, who called it Navalny's “final letter to the world.” According to Knopf, Navalny began working on the book while recovering from poisoning and continued to write in and out of prison in Russia.
On March 22, he wrote: “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here. There will be no one to say goodbye … All the anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I will never see my grandchildren.
Although he accepted his fate, Navalny's memoir reveals a firm stance against official corruption in Russia.
On March 22, Navalny wrote: “My attitude in this situation is certainly not mindless inaction. I will try to do everything I can from here to end the dictatorship (or, more modestly, to contribute to its end).”
In a piece published on 17 January 2024, a month before his death, Navalny answered a question posed by his fellow prisoners and prison guards: “Why did you come back?”
He wrote: “I do not want to give up or betray my country. If your beliefs mean something, you should be willing to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary.
In addition to capturing the loneliness and challenges of imprisonment, Navalny's writing is also notable for its humor. The late dissident describes a race with his lawyers over the length of a new prison sentence: “Olga calculated between 11 and 15 years. Vadim surprised everyone with his accurate prediction of 12 years and six months. I guessed for seven to eight years and won.
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He also marveled at the absurdity of being made to sit for hours “on a wooden bench under Putin's portrait” as a “disciplinary measure”.
He describes the discomfort of fasting, being freezing cold all the time, saying, “I still don't have a six-pack.”
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a statement released by the publisher in April that the book was “a testament not only to Alexei's life, but also to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship.” It's about never losing sight of the right and truly important values.”
He said the memoir had been translated into 11 languages and would be published in Russian “for sure”.
