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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny believed he would die in prison, according to an excerpt from his posthumous memoir previewed by The New Yorker magazine and The Times of London.
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” Navalny wrote. “There will not be anybody to say goodbye to.”
The memoir, titled “Patriots,” which will be released on Oct. 22, details the last years of Navalny’s life, from the attempt on his life in 2020 to his return to Russia one year later, when he was arrested and put on trial on a variety of charges including fraud and extremism.
Navalny died in a high-security penal colony near the Arctic Circle in February, at the age of 47. Russian authorities attributed his death to natural causes, but media reports have claimed that Navalny showed signs of poisoning before his death.
While Navalny had seemingly accepted his fate, he did not do so with “contemplative passivity,” according to the memoir.
“I am trying to do everything I can from here to put an end to authoritarianism (or, more modestly, to contribute to ending it),” he wrote. “Every single day, I ponder how to act more effectively, what constructive advice to give my colleagues who are still at liberty, where the regime’s greatest vulnerabilities lie.”
In a passage dated Jan. 17, 2024, Navalny explained why he had returned to his home country in 2021 after surviving the assassination attempt — a decision that would prove fatal.
“I don’t want to give up my country or betray it,” he wrote. “If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary.”
