Book Review | A charismatic whistleblower’s story

The verdict on Alexei Navalny, the most vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his “corrupt” regime, is split. He died in February in a remote Arctic prison colony after prolonged imprisonment. Detractors believe he was a victim of slow poisoning by Putin’s men.

In the West, Navalny was seen as a bold and fearless crusader who wanted a corruption-free Russia. The Kremlin saw him as a CIA stooge who wanted a regime change and turn Moscow into a pliant US vassal state.

Navalny, who had begun his career as a corporate lawyer changed when he took interest in politics and came into prominence through his relentless campaign against corruption. His campaign displayed the opulent life-style of Russia’s rulers that he regularly posted through videos on YouTube, including a purported billion-dollar palace of Putin’s on the Black Sea coast that Western media reports said, was watched 130m times. Patriot, his posthumous autobiography-cum-prison diary comes amid further strains in relations between the West and Russia because of the Ukraine war.

Navalny wanted to write a spy thriller, not a prison diary. The idea came to him after he survived an attempt by Russian secret agents to spray his underwear with the chemical weapon Novichok in 2020.

The book begins like a racy thriller as it describes in detail on how he collapsed on a flight and managed to be saved only after he was allowed to be treated in Germany from a local Russian hospital where he was initially admitted. Navalny regained his strength and in less than a year flew back to Russia to continue his fight against Putin. But he was promptly arrested and put back behind bars facing several charges including of terrorism and extremism.

“I’ve mortally offended him by surviving,” he said during his trial.

The rest of the book talks of his childhood, and growing up period until it turns into a prison diary. He touches on major political events, including the collapse of the Soviet Union but in passing and not in great detail apart from how corrupt the system had become.

The 47-year-old Navalny avoided talking about his preference of his mixed Russian-Ukrainian parentage, saying it is almost as difficult for a child to choose whether it was the father or the mother he loved most. However, that did not stop him from urging the Russian people to oppose Putin’s Ukraine war.

Navalny was the most closely guarded prisoner in Russia. His book details how every single movement of his was under relentless surveillance.

The near-500 pages book evokes a mixed reaction in readers. There are portions that are highly moving, at other times the details, especially of his prison life, tends to get a little monotonous. A sharper-edited book with a lesser number of pages perhaps, would have been better.

Navalny may have died for his country but he was more popular in the West than in Russia. An independent survey after his death showed only one in 10 Russians held a favourable view of Navalny. Maybe he was talking to an international audience and to history.

But Patriot is a book worth reading. Its appeal lies in the courage, resilience and stoicism Navalny shows in the face of death as he remains steadfast in his belief for a better Russia.

Patriot

By Alexei Navalny

Penguin

pp. 479; Rs 1,399