Alexei Navalny

Notes From Prison

In the October 21, 2024 issue of The New Yorker, Alexei Navalny is given credit for writing an article titled “Prison Diaries.” Presumably these were excerpts gathered by his wife, Yulia, and others who received his postings smuggled out of maximum-security prisons over the years. After being poisoned by Russia on a flight in 2020, Navalny decided to return to Russia — knowing he would be arrested and imprisoned, probably for life. In a Facebook post he explains why he refused to live out his life in the safety of exile. He writes, “I have my country and my convictions. I don’t want to give up my country or betray it. If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary.” As we all probably know, Navalny died in a maximum-security prison in northern Russia just a few years later on February 16, 2024.

Let me share a couple of the many “takeaways” in the excerpts pulled from his postings. In order to survive the severe conditions he was living under — as he was re-sentenced frequently on trumped-up charges — he decided that any hope of an early release was only a way of tormenting himself. So instead, he devised two “techniques” to survive in the meantime.

Navalny borrowed his first technique from psychology treatment and self-help books. He imagined the worst thing that could happen and accepted it, skipping the stages of denial, anger, and bargaining. “The important thing is not to torment yourself with anger, hatred, fantasies of revenge, but to move instantly to acceptance. That can be hard,” he writes. Navalny admitted that he was in prison now and probably would die there because of the decisions he had made. Equally bad things have happened to others who were innocent or just fell through the cracks of justice.

The second technique was (and is) religion. He writes, “I have always thought, and said openly, that being a believer makes it easier to live your life, and to an even greater extent, engage in opposition politics. Faith makes life simpler. ... Do you believe in the immortality of the soul? ... If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left for you to worry about? ... My job is to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of his family to deal with everything else.”

Apparently people keep asking Navalny why on earth he ever returned to Russia, knowing he would be arrested immediately. They figured he had some kind of deal worked out that just went off course. But he didn’t. He came back because of his convictions and because he believed it was the right thing to do. And it cost him his life. But he also believed completely that those who cling to unjust power like Putin and his followers, both there and here, inevitably will fail. The victory of those who fight against them is inevitable. This collection of his smuggled messages ends with the admonition, “for now, we must not give up, and we must stand by our beliefs. That victory is inevitable.”

Amen, brothers and sisters.