 Patriot: A Memoir, by Alexei Navalny (translated from Russian by Arch Tait with Stephen Dalziel)
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote much of this while imprisoned. Navalny was poisoned in a Siberian prison in February 2024, and the book was published afterward by his wife Yulia. It’s chilling and inspiring by turns. The book starts with the first poisoning attempt in 2020. Navalny spent several weeks in a coma, and was flown to Germany for treatment. When he returned to Russia in 2021, I remember thinking: does he not know where this is headed? He absolutely did, and was convinced his fight was worth it. He describes his upbringing the USSR, and the relative freedom of the years after the Soviet breakup. He notes that Gorbachev was quite unpopular, because he promised freedom but only delivered by half-measures. Navalny was an early supported of Boris Yeltsin, only to be disillusioned by the latter’s corruption and alcoholism. On the latter point, Navalny was convinced that one of the crucial factors in the collapse of the USSR was Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol policy. It lowered the mortality rate, but also made it socially acceptable to criticize the government. Navalny became involved with anti-corruption activism, publishing exposes online, and eventually running unsuccessful (and illegal) campaigns for Mayor of Moscow and later President of Russia. His description of working with a radical political party was all too familiar: too many people fighting with each other instead of uniting against the common enemy. The last half of the book is his prison diary. Navalny was arrested immediately upon his return to Russia in 2021, and unsuccessfully fought a number of bogus charges. He pondered what would happen “if they manage to whack me,” then laughed at himself for being dramatic. He was repeatedly overwhelmed with the support he got, people demonstrating to protest his imprisonment, letters pouring in from all over Russia and around the world. Navalny remained convinced that even if he had to pay a high price for his activism, he was making it easier for others who would bring about a better Russia in the future. One of the hardest parts was the regime “taking hostages:” arresting his brother Oleg and other innocents in an attempt to silence him. Oleg wasn’t especially political, but when he was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison, he told Alexei not to stop his activism, “or all I have suffered will be for nothing.” Similarly, Navalny’s friend Pyotr Ofitserov was arrested on a trumped-up charge. In the prison transport van, Navalny asked if he had any regrets about not cooperating with the regime against him. Ofitserov’s response: “Do you really think you are the only one who wants to remain an honest man?” Popsugar Reading Challenge: Book I meant to read in 2025. 52 Book Club Challenge: Set in the Arctic or Antarctic. Booklist Queen Challenge: European author.
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