Memoirs of Alexei Navalny, a testament to his endurance

2024-10-22 22:08:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

In a memoir published eight months after he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny never lost faith in the value of suffering for his cause, while also wishing he could have written a different kind of book.

"It is a mixture of scraps and a traditional story followed by a prison diary," writes the book 'Patrioti', which was published on Tuesday.

"I don't want my book to be another prison diary. Personally, I find them interesting to read, but as a genre there has been enough".

The last 200 pages of Mr. Navalny's 479-page book resemble the characteristics of some other prison diaries of Russian literary classics, such as the author Alexander Solzhenitsyn's A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It highlights the boredom, isolation, drudgery, suffering and absurdity of prison life as it explores many aspects, from 19th century French literature to the singer Billie Eilish. But the book 'Patriot' is also presented as a testament to the dissident's extraordinary battle against despair, while the Russian authorities gradually strengthened the repressive measures against him. Mr Navalny even offers advice on facing the worst and maintaining hope.

"The most important thing is not to torture yourself with anger, hatred and revenge fantasy, but to move immediately to acceptance. This can be difficult," he writes. "The process that takes place in your mind is not at all simple, but if you find yourself in a bad situation, you should try this. It works, as long as you've thought everything through."

In recent years, Mr Navalny had become an international symbol of resistance. A law graduate, he started out as an anti-corruption campaigner but soon turned into a politician with aspirations for public office and eventually became the main challenger to Russia's long-term President Vladimir Putin.

His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, oversaw the completion of the book. In an interview, she told the BBC she would run for president if she ever returned to Russia - an unlikely move with President Putin in power, Ms Navalnaya admitted. She has been sentenced in absentia in Russia on charges of being part of an extremist group. President Putin "needs to be in a Russian prison, to feel everything that not only my husband felt, but all the prisoners in Russia," Ms. Navalnaya said during an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes."

Ms Navalnaya has vowed to continue her late husband's fight. She has regularly given video speeches to her supporters and met with Western leaders and senior officials, defending Russians who oppose President Putin and his war in Ukraine. She had two children with her late husband, who writes in his book of his immediate attraction to her and their enduring bond, portraying Ms Navalnaya as a kindred spirit who "could discuss matters with me more difficult, without a lot of drama and anxiety".

During the first section of his book, Mr Navalny reflects on the fall of the Soviet Union, his disillusionment with 1990s Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, his early anti-corruption crusades, his entry into public life and the discovery that he had no needed to look far to find a politician "who would undertake all kinds of necessary, interesting projects and who would cooperate directly with the Russian people".

"I wanted and waited, and one day I realized that I could be that person myself," he writes.

His vision of a "beautiful Russia of the future," where leaders are freely and fairly elected, official corruption is curbed, and democratic institutions function -- as well as his strong charisma and sarcastic humor -- won him the support of wide throughout the country. He was joined by young and energetic activists – a team that resembled an "innovative company" rather than a clandestine revolutionary operation, according to his memoirs. "From the outside we looked like a bunch of liberals from Moscow," he wrote, as they released colorful, professionally produced videos exposing official corruption. The videos were watched by millions on YouTube and prompted mass rallies even as authorities stepped up crackdowns on dissent.

The authorities reacted to Mr Navalny's growing popularity by bringing numerous charges against him, his allies and even family members. He was frequently jailed and his entire political infrastructure shut down -- the Anti-Corruption Foundation he founded in 2011, as well as a network of several dozen regional offices.

In 2020, Mr Navalny survived a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin, which denied involvement. He describes the attack in great detail early in the book, confessing, "It's too much and I'm close to death." His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment, and after being treated there for five months, he was returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sentenced to prison, where he would spend the last three years of his life. .

In his memoirs, Mr Navalny recalls telling his wife while still hospitalized in Berlin that "of course" he would return to Russia.

The persecution of him continued in prison, intensifying after Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022 and increased its crackdown on dissent to unprecedented levels. In messages about the possibility of his release from prison, Mr. Navalny described the appalling conditions of solitary confinement, where he was held for months for numerous minor infractions that prison officials relentlessly accused him of, denying him sleep and medical care. , as well as giving him a poor diet. In October 2023, three of his lawyers were arrested and two others were wanted.

In December 2023, the authorities transferred Mr. Navalny to one of the highest-security prisons in the Russian prison system, in a remote city above the Arctic Circle. In February 2024, 47-year-old Navalny died there suddenly; the circumstances and cause of his death still remain a mystery. Yulia Navalnaya and his allies say he was killed by the Kremlin, while authorities argue Mr Navalny died of "natural causes" but have not released any details of what happened.

Tens of thousands of Russians attended his funeral on the outskirts of Moscow in March, a rare message of defiance in a country where any street rallies or even isolated protests often result in immediate arrests and imprisonment. For days afterward, people placed flowers at the grave, and a group visited the grave on Tuesday as well.

"I dream that as many people as possible will read this book, because it seems to me that everyone will learn something new about Alexei. (Everyone) will laugh and cry a little. He was very inspiring: strong and brave, kind and humorous. The best. And the most beloved," said Yulia Navalnaya on the X network.

Mr Navalny's team has said the book will be available in Russian, the language in which he wrote it, but shipping the book to his homeland and neighboring Belarus will not be possible "as we cannot we guarantee the transport, or that there will be no problems at customs".

The Kremlin and Russian state media did not mention the publication of the book, as they did with many other developments related to Mr. Navalny, whose name President Putin and other senior officials almost never mentioned in public./ VOA