Alexey Navalny wrote in his new memoir that he knew he would die in prison

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s main political opponent before his death in February, believed he would die in prison, according to his posthumous memoirs, which will be released on October 22.

The New Yorker published excerpts from the book Friday, with texts from Navalny’s prison diary and earlier.

“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022.

“There will be no one to say goodbye to… All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I will never see my grandchildren.”

Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of “extremism” in an Arctic penal colony.

His death on February 16 at the age of 47 drew widespread condemnation, with many blaming Putin.

Navalny was arrested in January 2021 when he returned to Russia after suffering a major health crisis due to poisoning in 2020.

“The only thing we have to fear is that we will surrender our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves and hypocrites,” he wrote on January 17, 2022.

The fragments capture the loneliness of captivity, but also a touch of humor.

For example, on July 1, 2022, Navalny outlined his typical day: waking up at 6 a.m., having breakfast at 6:20 a.m., and going to work at 6:40 a.m.

“At work you sit at the sewing machine for seven hours on a stool below knee height,” he wrote.

“After work you sit for a few hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin. That’s called ‘disciplinary activity.'”

The book, titled Patriotis released by American publisher Knopf, which is also planning a Russian version.

“It is impossible to read Navalny’s prison diary without being outraged by the tragedy of his suffering and by his death,” he wrote. New Yorker editor David Remnick.

In the latest excerpt published in the magazine, dated January 17, 2024, Navalny responds to the question posed to him by his fellow prisoners and prison guards: why did he return to Russia?

“I don’t want to give up or betray my country. If your beliefs mean anything, you have to be willing to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary,” he said.