Top 5 Takeways from Navalny's Memoir 'Patriot'

Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny started penning his posthumously released memoir “Patriot” portion recovering from a astir fatal nervus cause poisoning successful Germany. 

Eventually incorporating his situation diary, the publication provides caller insights into his aboriginal beingness and governmental career, arsenic good arsenic the conditions helium faced successful the months starring up to his decease successful prison, his diary entries becoming little predominant and much sparse arsenic his surviving conditions deteriorated.

Here are 5 takeaways from the book:

Though helium grew up moving betwixt subject towns adjacent Moscow, Navalny regularly visited his father’s household successful Zalesiye, Ukraine — a “paradise connected earth” colony adjacent to Pripyat and the Chernobyl atomic powerfulness plant. He was adjacent baptized successful concealed astatine a religion successful the city. 

Navalny credited the Chernobyl catastrophe — which happened erstwhile helium was 10 years aged — with shaping his aboriginal conception of authorities by demonstrating the idiosyncratic interaction of the Soviet government’s secrecy and corruption. 

This skepticism of authorization continued into his education. Navalny excelled successful past and lit — fueled by his emotion of speechmaking — but was regularly punished for atrocious behavior. Despite not warring with his classmates oregon damaging schoolhouse spot (although successful his spare time, helium enjoyed making tiny explosives from discarded ammunition helium recovered successful the woods) helium tested teachers’ patience by perpetually making jokes and correcting them, sometimes escalating into arguments that required his parents to beryllium called in.

In 2009,  President Dmitry Medvedev chose Nikita Belykh, the person of the Union of Right Forces enactment (UNF), to beryllium the politician of cardinal Russia’s Kirov region. Kirov was a mediocre and undeveloped region, mostly covered by forests. 

Belykh, who had antecedently unsuccessfully tally for a State Duma seat, decided to judge the presumption with the volition of carrying retired a antiauthoritarian experimentation successful the region. 

Navalny described himself and Belykh arsenic “kind of friends,” and truthful Belykh invited Navalny on successful an advisory relation to combat corruption. 

The acquisition shaped Navalny’s knowing of authorities successful Russia. 

His archetypal realization was that Russia’s governors had small existent power, arsenic the Kremlin’s envoys successful each portion were the ones pulling the strings. 

Secondly, helium recovered that “in a corrupt environment, you are forced to behave corruptly, adjacent if each you privation is to assistance people.

“Before you cognize it, you find yourself behaving successful corrupt behaviour from greeting to night. And if you are behaving corruptly for the payment of idiosyncratic else, wherefore would it not beryllium good to bash a small spot of the aforesaid for yourself? The strategy swallows you,” helium wrote. 

Years aft Navalny worked for him, Belykh was sentenced to 8 years successful situation for bribery.

In Kirov, Navalny decided to instrumentality connected a state-owned logging institution called Kirovles. He was capable to get the company’s manager fired, arsenic good arsenic signifier an audit by 1 of the Big Four accounting firms into the company’s practices. A fewer months later, the manager was reinstalled and the audit canceled. 

In 2012, Russian authorities accused Navalny of embezzling 16 cardinal rubles (around $500,000 astatine the time) from Kirovles. In his words, the authorities said to themselves: “Ohh, helium thinks helium tin combat against our corruption? Well, we’ll conscionable accidental he’s corrupt himself.”

Navalny recounts respective occasions successful which the authorities were acold excessively repressive, realized their error, and past backtracked successful the look of nationalist pressure. But successful each of these instances, 1 tin spot the Kremlin’s threshold of repression get much and much extreme. 

Navalny and businessman Peter Ofitserov were convicted successful the Kirovles lawsuit and received 4 and five-year sentences, respectively. The 2 were transferred to situation and processed, but abruptly released the adjacent time aft being told the Prosecutor’s Office had filed an appeal.

After the archetypal sentencing, tens of thousands of radical went to the streets to protestation successful cardinal Moscow. In response, the Prosecutor’s Office asked that the sentences beryllium reduced. In Navalny’s words, the fashionable uprising forced the Kremlin to backmost down. 

In April 2017, Navalny was attacked with zelyonka (a agleam greenish antiseptic) a 2nd clip and mislaid show successful his close eye. To prevention his vision, helium would person had to question to Spain. However, authorities had refused to contented him a passport for six years. 

Law enforcement besides refused to unfastened a transgression lawsuit against the perpetrators, contempt the onslaught being carried retired connected camera and details astir the attackers being known. 

Again, the Kremlin reversed people aft seeing the nationalist outcry, and Navalny was issued a passport to prevention his sight.

In possibly the astir celebrated example, the Kremlin allowed Navalny to beryllium transported to Charité infirmary successful Berlin aft his poisoning aft days of aggravated nationalist unit — thing for which makes definite to convey erstwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“I firmly judge that each the champion things connected world person been created by brave nerds.”

Just that. On the partition of his office, Navalny had a photograph from the 1927 Solvay Conference connected Physics, which brought unneurotic immoderate of the world’s starring scientists to sermon the recently formulated quantum theory. Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Erwin Schrödingher, and 14 different Nobel Prize winners attended.

Despite the inhumane attraction and torture helium received astatine the hands of the Russian penitentiary system, Navalny often recovered the humanity successful the radical astir him. 

In 1 episode, Navalny jokingly asks the officers successful the constabulary van wherever they are taking him. From his member Oleg’s acquisition successful prison, Navalny knew that though they were not allowed to archer him, they mightiness susurration the destination “to nary 1 successful particular.” This time, they smiled and looked astatine the assemblage cameras connected their chests, arsenic if to awesome that they would archer him, but could not.

Later, Navalny laments unfairly badmouthing situation guards who helium had accused of stealing his notebook. 

“I consciousness a spot ashamed. It is Stockholm Syndrome of course,” helium said. “Here I am, innocent, and worrying astir the feelings of the campy guards. But connected the different hand, determination is specified a happening arsenic affectional intelligence.”

In different diary entry, helium recounts what helium called “the kettle drama.” In his unit, determination is lone 1 aged hardly moving kettle for boiling water, but prisoners aren’t expected to usage it due to the fact that of a occupation with its wiring. 

One morning, Navalny enactment h2o successful the kettle, turned it connected and near the kitchen. The nighttime trustee (a captive who is adjacent to the situation administration) chastised him for leaving, saying it could drawback fire, to which Navalny responds by joking, mounting the trustee disconnected adjacent further. 

But upon further reflection, Navalny realizes that helium was successful the wrong. That if helium were to interruption the kettle, oregon if it were to drawback fire, they would beryllium near without a mode to boil h2o for months. “I person shown myself to beryllium an insensitive idiosyncratic of debased affectional intelligence. I request to person a chat this evening with Zhenya,” helium wrote.

One portion of proposal helium gives to his colleagues is to find religion. Throughout the book, Navalny evokes his Christianity arsenic an integral portion of his individuality and arsenic a mode for him to header with the satellite astir him.

He does not mean zealotry, oregon that everyone should judge each connection of the Bible. But helium believes that “faith makes beingness simpler,” that believing successful a religion whose cardinal fig sacrificed himself for others, successful the immortality of the psyche and successful divine providence each marque it easier to unrecorded a beingness devoted to a origin arsenic unsafe arsenic his.

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