Alexey Navalny wrote in his memoirs that he knew he would die in prison

Russian dissident Alexey NavalnyThe President’s main political rivals Vladimir Putin Until his death in February, he believed he would die in prison, according to his posthumous memoirs, which will go on sale on October 22. American magazine the new Yorker This Saturday they published excerpts from the book, which features Navalny’s prison diary and earlier works. “I will spend the rest of my life in jail and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022. “There will be no one to say goodbye to… all anniversaries will be celebrated without me.” “I’ll never see my grandchildren.”

The Russian dissident was serving a 19-year prison sentence in an Arctic penal colony on charges of “extremism”. His death on 16 February at the age of 47 was widely condemned, with many blaming Putin. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after suffering a serious health emergency caused by poisoning in 2020.

“The only thing we have to fear is that our motherland will be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves and hypocrites,” he wrote on January 17, 2022. The newspaper reveals the punishment that the prison regime and His hunger strike gave. According to other quotes published in, his body London Times“Today I feel devastated. We went to the bathroom. I could barely stand under the hot shower. My legs were not supporting me. It’s night and I have no strength. I just want to lie down, and for the first time I feel emotionally and morally dejected,” he wrote in one entry.

The excerpts depict the loneliness of imprisonment, but also add a touch of humor. For example, on July 1, 2022, Navalny described his typical day: waking up at 6:00 a.m., having breakfast at 6:20 a.m., and starting work at 6:40 a.m. “At work, you sit for seven hours at a sewing machine on a stool below knee height,” he wrote. “After work, you sit for a few hours on a wooden bench under Putin’s portrait. This is called ‘disciplinary activity’.”

The book, titled “Patriot”, will be published by the American publishing house Knopf, which is also planning a Russian edition. “It is impossible to read Navalny’s prison diary without being outraged by the tragedy of his suffering and his death,” the journalist wrote. david remnikEditor of The New Yorker.

In the final excerpt, published in the magazine on January 17, 2024, Navalny answers the question asked by his fellow prisoners and prison guards: Why did he return to Russia? “I don’t want to abandon or betray my country.” He said, “If your beliefs have any meaning, you must be prepared to defend them and make sacrifices if necessary.” Speculating on the consequences of any attempt to assassinate him, the Russian opposition leader said his memoirs “will be monuments to me.” “If they kill me, my family will get the advance payment and royalties I hope they will get,” he wrote.