Patriot: A Memoir, Alexei Navalny-author; Matthew Goode, narrator
Read superbly by Matthew Goode, Navalny’s memoir, although repetitive by the very nature of his life, is eye-opening about Russia’s dictatorship, Putin’s barbaric regime and the corrupt methods of the Kremlin’s penal system, a system in which Navalny spent many years going from one prison to another, each worse than the one before.
Although Navalny had little realistic hope of release from prison at the end of his short life, he never gave up his effort to bring about change in Russia's government. Nothing they did to him could make him give up trying to defeat Putin and what he believed was a regime that abused its power and should be overthrown. His family and his supporters cheered him on even though they were also abused, arrested and imprisoned. Still, he was the one who was ultimately imprisoned and never released. He was the one who willingly subjected himself to the Russian system that tried to stop him, again and again. He was tormented and manipulated as they tried to demoralize him. He was arrested and removed from society, forcibly, with the creation of laws that were simply made up to suit any situation necessary, with Putin’s approval. (In some ways, it reminded me of how laws were manipulated to try and stop Donald Trump in the United States, though fortunately with a far different outcome.). Each time Navalny served his sentence, or refuted a charge, a new one was often levied against him, and although they sometimes even defied common sense, they were treated as legitimate in their system of kangaroo courts. At the end, he was labeled a terrorist, and finally he was sent to a penal colony in the Arctic Circle where he soon died from suspicious causes, according to some.
To intimidate Alexei, and to remove any legal recourse he might have, laws were designed to keep him in prison. He was denied basic rights, appropriate creature comforts, medical care, and nutritional needs. He was placed in solitary confinement and punishment cells for periods of time that broke Russia’s own legal codes and penal system rules. They used any means they could think up to try and wear him down and stop him from his protests. He was refused ordinary things like pen and paper, and he was only allowed to use them for brief periods of time. He could not share his food with other prisoners or share theirs, even something so simple like a slice of apple. He was refused adequate clothing. He was under constant surveillance and was subjected to frequent searches of his cell, clothing and body. He had become a lightning rod for dissent, and he was a public enemy. Although he knew that he would probably be arrested often, his legal efforts would likely fail, and his time with his family and ultimately his life would be cut short, he never gave up. He was nothing, if not brave and dedicated to the cause.
An arch enemy of President Putin, he was deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent. Defying the odds, he survived when he was able to get appropriate life-saving treatment in Berlin. He then insisted on returning to Russia, although he knew the odds of another arrest, or another attempted assassination were highly likely. He was devoted to his activism and returned to Russia with his wife, who always supported him. After his recovery and return, he was immediately imprisoned for the final time, and although time after time new charges were invented, his punishments were increased, and his legal rights were abused in an attempt to intimidate and silence him, he never weakened. Although he went on a hunger strike, he was not able to alter the charges against him, and he remained in prison. When he died, he was just 47. The world now wonders whether he died as a result of the nerve agent poisoning’s latent effects, the punishment his body was subjected to in his last few years in prison when he was shuttled from penal colony to penal colony, each one worse than the other, from natural causes due to the abuses his body was forced to endure, or was actually murdered by Putin’s cohorts with orders from the Kremlin.
Alexei Navalny possessed an indomitable spirit, and he was always optimistic in the face of the worst prospects. However, he did succumb, and regardless of the cause, one has to wonder what he actually accomplished from all of his suffering and the inability to be with his family, since Putin is alive and well and still very much in charge of Russia. It is a sad loss to those who supported him. Yulia Navalnaya, his devoted wife, has stepped up to take his place. She too has been threatened with the same fate as her husband if she returns to Russia. She inspires people to continue his effort, but Putin seems firmly entrenched.
It is a hard book to read because it is very long, and the unfortunate outcome is known, but anyone who objects to life in America, should perhaps try to live in Russia and then wake up to a new reality. Britney Griner was forced to, but she had the good fortune to be freed, although she did break their laws. She may now appreciate her country and stop kneeling in protest. Some Americans are still falsely imprisoned there, who are not quite as famous, and they remain in Russian prisons without any hope for real legal recourse, though they proclaim their innocence.