Although they granted him very little time to write (sometimes one hour, other than Prison his texts was increasingly difficult as the conditions of the confinement harden; Alexéi Navalni’s memories managed to reach their collaborators and editors and last Octoberseveral months after his death, “Patriot” was published worldwide. Now, the volume finally reached Argentine bookstores.
Navalni died in one of the toughest prisons in Russia, in the Arctic Circle; After a painful course for the worst prisons of the country for 3 years. The authorities reported that on February 16, 2024 he crumbled during a walk and could not be resuscitated. Murder or natural death due to lack of medical care and basic care? The answers are confused and it is possible that if Russia’s current political situation persists, the true causes of its end are never known.
Thousands of people throughout the country fired their remains in March 2024 and those mobilizations were severely repressed. His wife, Yulia, and his children, exiled for security reasonsthey could not attend their funeral in Moscow. His mother was in charge of negotiating the restitution of the body that could finally be buried by the family.
“I will not give them my country and I think that darkness will end up giving in. But as long as I am here, I will do everything I can, I will try to do the right thing and encourage everyone not to lose hope. Russia will be happy! ” Thus, one of his latest texts reaffirmed his vocation to fight for his country until the last consequences. And that conviction led him to death.
The story
“In truth, dying did not hurt. Not having been exhaling my last breath, I would not have lying on the floor next to the sink of the plane, because, as it is, I was not especially clean. ” This is the first “patriot” and narrates the most dramatic moment in Navalni’s life, which marked the turning point that determined its end. In 2020, on a flight between Siberia and Moscow, he decompensated and was almost dead when the plane landed. The news of his aging turned the world and Germany offered a space to be rehabilitated safely.
The documentary “Navalni”, directed by Daniel Roher (It can be seen on the Max Platform) account for the investigation carried out by the Russian dissident team to unravel how the “Novichok” substance, causing contact by contact, had reached Alexéi. Very soon they discovered that the action had left a FSB unit (Federal Security Service) that dealt with the murders commissioned by the Government. In 2023, while Navalni was in jail, the film won The Oscar as best documentary.
With the protagonist already replaced from the sequelae of the attack, the story of “Patriot” dates back to Navalni’s childhood. Son of a military, grew in a unit near Obninsk, where the first nuclear power plant of the USSR was built, which is why Chernobil tragedy He hit his family very closely. In his memoirs, this memory works as the origin of the vocation for Alexéi’s truth, but is also pointed out as a starting point for one of the deepest political transformations in the history of the twentieth century: the collapse of the USSR. The book, therefore, is a first -hand testimony of what the long transition between the reforms meant for common citizens by Mikhail Gorvachov and the perpetuation in the power of Vladimir Putin.
In that period, Navalni received a lawyer, began to intervene in politics and transformed himself into a candidate, first to the mayor of Moscow and then to the presidency. His criticisms of the system imposed by Putin focused mainly on corruption. And to disseminate his complaints he used an almost unknown tool for Russian politics (and therefore, uncontrollable): a blog and then social networks.
He later formed The Anti -Corruption Foundationarmed a team of collaborators and investigated each state company until disassembling the secret that allowed its officials to enrich themselves at the expense of the heritage of the Russians. He showed mansions, cars, villas and vineyards of the main members of the Government. His followers on the networks grew up in number, contributed money to support their investigations and went to the mobilizations he convened. His activity caught the attention of power more and more. Thus the arrests and threats began. Its offices were constantly invaded by security forces and their confiscated and destroyed files. An escalation of violence that over the years ended with his death.
“Navalny began as an anti -corruption blogger. Before this he had had some flirting with the nationalisms, something that from the government always endors Russian politics. “In terms of anti -corruption complaints, it was always very effective, because it handled the technological issue very well. It was the figure of the nice boy, skilled with technology, intelligent, rogue, which managed to get attention. I was always very willing to cause them to see it inside and outside Russia. This became the favorite Putin adversary of the Western media Anti Kremlin. But, in the last times of his life, he showed that he was also a very brave man. After poisoning he could have lived in Germany, as so many opponents, and yet he decided to return. He knew that if he returned they were going to stop him and paid with his life. There is something of that martyrology that is very moving. ”
The end
Once replaced from the sequelae of navalni poisoning he returned to Russia, but was arrested at the airport and imprisoned immediately. Dozens of invented judicial causes were opened and the convictions added years and years. He was transferred from one penalty to another and the conditions of the confinement worsened with each move. Because of his back pain for those who denied medical help, he decided to start a hunger strike. The second part of “Patriot” is the diary of that final painful, in which he suffered all kinds: sleep deprivation, isolation, permanent surveillance, incommunication.
“Social progress and a better future can only be achieved if a certain number of people are willing to pay a price for the right to have their own convictions,” he wrote to justify his fatal determination to return to Russia.
“He was a very intelligent person and it would have been interesting to see if he became the political alternative to Putin over time, although it was a more seductive model for the prosperous West than for the Russians. The book is also valuable to understand how the Putin government operates with the opponents faced, to eliminate them metaphorically or really, ”concludes Pomeraniec.
“Patriot” is the autobiography of a brave man, but also a valuable historical testimony to understand the political map of the 21st century. For all these reasons, it is a book that is worth reading.
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