Excerpts from biography

Navalny: “I will die alone in prison”

Yulia Navalnaya sees her husband Alexei's autobiography "Patriot" as a kind of legacy from the most important opposition figure in Russia for many years.

(Bild: AP)

Alexei Navalny's wife Julia completed the autobiography "Patriot" herself after Navalny's death. What becomes clear in the work: Her husband retained his humor and optimism even in the darkest hours of his imprisonment, despite torture and illness. And yet: Alexei knew that one day he would "die alone in prison".

Navalna describes it as an important testimony to the courage of the most important opposition figure against Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin and to the belief in a better future for Russia. She completed the more than 500-page work with many photos of the family and political appearances even after Navalny's death. She admitted that she had to "laugh and cry again and again".

Although the book will not be published in Russia, it will be published in Russian and 19 other languages, including German (Verlag S. Fischer).

Contents of the book:

• Milestones in his career: Anyone who has followed Navalny's political career will be familiar with many of the book's milestones. And they are also familiar with the opposition leader's bitingly sharp criticism - at public appearances in front of thousands of demonstrators, in his broadcasts on the internet or in court.

• Private: Impressions of the fate of a man who denounced a mafia-like system under Putin like no other with countless revelations, but who was also sustained by his love for his wife Julia and his children Dasha and Sakhar.

• Career: Navalny tells how, as the child of an officer in the collapsing Soviet Union, he became the most important fighter against corruption in the giant empire after studying law and working as a lawyer. The reader also learns about the sins of his youth and Navalny's attempt to take a stand against the Kremlin with a controversial collaboration with right-wing extremists. 

For long stretches, the book is also a reference work on how political grassroots work functions far from Western ideas in an authoritarian system - or not. 

• How the poison attack came about: Navalny, who has won international awards, managed to build up a broad political network, exposing the powerful with his anti-corruption foundation, until Putin's apparatus increasingly turned to fighting back. Navalny also describes the numerous attacks on him, which culminated in the Novichok nerve agent attack in Siberia in 2020.
• Why did he return to Russia? Navalny gives a detailed answer to the recurring question of why he flew back from Berlin to Moscow despite the threat of imprisonment and the risk of death. Only in this way could he be credible in his love for Russia. Anything else would be a betrayal.
• Navalny on his imprisonment: "I knew from the beginning that I would be in prison for life," he says at one point and at another: "I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die there. There will be no one there for me to say goodbye to."

I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die there. There will be no one to say goodbye to.

Alexej Nawalny

Navalny died alone in the "Polar Wolf" prison camp in the Arctic region on February 16 under unclear circumstances. For days, the authorities refused to release his body until his mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, made the blackmail attempts public in a video appeal to Putin. She ultimately succeeded in having Navalny buried in Moscow on March 1 to the great sympathy of thousands of people.

"Book will be my memorial"
 Navalny himself is at peace with himself in the book. He was able to achieve a lot in his short life, more than many others - and says that the book "will be my memorial if they finish me off for good".