The New Yorker magazine published these excerpts Friday in anticipation of the Oct. 22 release of “Patriot.”
The French version “Patriote” will be available on October 25.
Mr Navalny was President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest and most prominent enemy and led a relentless campaign against official corruption in Russia. He died in a remote Arctic prison in February while serving a 19-year sentence on several charges, including leading an extremist group, which he said were politically motivated.
He was jailed after returning in 2021 from Germany where he was recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin, and has been sentenced to three prison terms since. Russian officials have vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning and his death.
“Patriot” was announced in April by publisher Alfred A. Knopf who called it the late politician’s “last letter to the world.”
According to Mr. Knopf, Navalny began working on the book while recovering from the poisoning and continued to write it in Russia, both in and out of prison.
Detailing his coping strategies while in detention, Navalny said he would “imagine, as realistically as possible, the worst thing that could happen. And then (he) would accept it.”
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022.
““There will be no one to say goodbye to (…) All birthdays will be celebrated without me. I will never see my grandchildren.”
Although he accepted this fate, Navalny’s memoirs express a resolute stance against official corruption in Russia.
“My approach to the situation is certainly not one of contemplative passivity. I strive to do everything I can from here to end authoritarianism (or, more modestly, to help end it),” he wrote, also on March 22, 2022.
In a published extract, dated January 17, 2024, a month before his death, Navalny answers the question asked by his fellow prisoners and prison guards: “Why did you come back?”
“I don’t want to abandon my country or betray it. If your beliefs mean anything, you must be willing to defend them and make sacrifices if necessary,” he wrote.
In addition to capturing the isolation and challenges of his imprisonment, Navalny’s writing is also notable for its humor. The late dissident recounts a bet with his lawyers on the length of a new prison sentence: “Olga had estimated that there would be between eleven and fifteen. Vadim surprised everyone with his prediction of precisely twelve years and six months. I estimated there would be seven to eight and I won.”
He also marveled at the absurdity of being forced to sit for “hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin” as part of a “disciplinary activity.”
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaïa, said in a statement published in April by the publisher that the book was not only a testimony “of Alexei’s life, but also of his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship,” adding that sharing her story would “inspire others to stand up for what is right and never lose sight of the values that truly matter.”
She added that the memoir was already translated into 11 languages and would “definitely” be published in Russian.
