Alexei Navalny believed he would die in jail, memoir reveals

The late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny believed he would die in jail, excerpts from his memoir reveal.

Navalny was probably the most distinguished foe of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and relentlessly campaigned in opposition to official corruption in Russia. He died in a distant Arctic jail in February whereas serving a 19-year sentence on a number of expenses, together with working an extremist group, which he stated have been politically motivated.

The New Yorker and the Instances have printed extracts from his e book, Patriot, which can be launched on 22 October.

Navalny was jailed in 2021 after getting back from Germany the place he had been recuperating from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin, and was given three jail phrases. Russian officers have vehemently denied involvement within the poisoning and in Navalny’s dying.

Patriot was introduced in April by the writer Alfred A Knopf, which known as it Navalny’s “ultimate letter to the world”. In response to Knopf, Navalny started engaged on the e book whereas recovering from the poisoning and continued writing it in Russia, each out and in of jail.

On 22 March 2022, he wrote: “I’ll spend the remainder of my life in jail and die right here. There won’t be anyone to say goodbye to … All anniversaries can be celebrated with out me. I’ll by no means see my grandchildren.”

Though he had accepted his destiny, Navalny’s memoir conveys a resolute stance in opposition to official corruption in Russia.

Additionally on 22 March, Navalny wrote: “My strategy to the scenario is definitely not considered one of contemplative passivity. I’m making an attempt to do all the things I can from right here to place an finish to authoritarianism (or, extra modestly, to contribute to ending it).”

In a printed excerpt dated 17 January 2024, a month earlier than his dying, Navalny solutions the query posed by his fellow inmates and jail guards: “Why did you come again?”

He wrote: “I don’t wish to hand over my nation or betray it. In case your convictions imply one thing, you have to be ready to face up for them and make sacrifices if mandatory.”

In addition to capturing the isolation and challenges of his imprisonment, Navalny’s writing can be notable for its humour. He recounts a guess together with his attorneys over the size of a brand new jail sentence: “Olga reckoned 11 to fifteen years. Vadim stunned everybody together with his prediction of exactly 12 years and 6 months. I guessed seven to eight years and was the winner.”

He additionally marvelled on the absurdity of being made to sit down for “hours on a picket bench underneath a portrait of Putin” as a “disciplinary exercise”.

He describes the discomfort of being on starvation strike and of being freezing chilly on a regular basis, including wryly: “I nonetheless don’t have a six-pack.”

Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, stated in a press release launched in April by the writer that the e book was not solely a testomony “to Alexei’s life, however to his unwavering dedication to the struggle in opposition to dictatorship”, including that sharing his story would “encourage others to face up for what is true and to by no means lose sight of the values that really matter”.

She additionally stated the memoir had been translated into 11 languages and would “undoubtedly” be printed in Russian.