The memoirs of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in February, will be published at the end of the month. The New Yorker published excerpts in advance.
21:30•Updated 21:31
The opposition leader who died in prison in Russia in unclear circumstances in February To Alexei Navalny the memoir Patriot: Memoirs will be published at the end of the month. Navalnyi wrote his memoirs while still in prison.
The New Yorker magazine published excerpts from memoirs in advance.
The excerpts reveal, among other things, what kind of thoughts were going through the head of the opposition leader while he was serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Yamalo-Nenets County Penitentiary.
In March 2022, Navalnyi writes that he constantly thought about the worst possible end to his prison sentence, so that he would learn to accept the inconsolable situation. Navalnyi saw death in prison as the worst fate.
– I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here. There won’t be anyone here to say goodbye to. All Anniversaries and parties will be celebrated without me. I will never see my grandchildren, Navalnyi writes.
Navalny’s punishment: to sit under Putin’s picture
Although Navalnyi seems to have accepted his harsh fate based on his writing, the president Vladimir Putin the administration’s opposition remained until the end.
– I really don’t approach my situation with passive reflection. I will do everything from here to put an end to authoritarianism (or, a little more modestly, at least to contribute to its end), Navalnyi writes.
Black humor remains present in Navalny’s writings throughout the excerpts. Among other things, he marvels at what he thinks is an absurd disciplinary measure with which he is punished in prison: he is made to sit for hours at a time on a wooden bench under a picture of President Putin.
Source: AP