The power & tragedy of dissent

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's memoir is a searing account of resilient autocracies

- C UDAY BHASKAR

"Patriot," the memoir-cum-prison diary of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who posed a credible political challenge to President Putin as an alternative candidate for the Kremlin, is a sad and melancholic book but with a luminous core—that of Navalny and his extraordinary courage in resisting authoritarianism.

The saga begins in August 2020 in a dramatic manner, akin to a thriller, with the author/protagonist realizing that he has been poisoned while on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow and recalling each detail till the point where he tells the flight attendant: "I have been poisoned and I am about to die." He adds with matter-of-fact candor: "I have just enough time to think. It's all lies, what they say about death. My whole life is not flashing before my eyes. The faces of those dearest to me do not appear. Neither do angels or a dazzling light. I am dying looking at a wall... the last words I hear are 'No, stay awake, stay awake.' Then I died."

Navalny does not die on page 15 and his cheeky line in the book is "Spoiler alert: actually I didn't." Luckily he was moved to Germany for emergency medical treatment and he recovered. But only to insist on returning to his beloved Russia in January 2021, where he was arrested on arrival. But the campaigner remained defiant and rallied his supporters with the innovative use of social media and related communication technologies. Well-wishers in Russia spoke of him as an alternative to President Putin, but this was wishful thinking.