Alexey Navalny, a dissident and the political critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spent the past few years of his life behind bars but still managed to stay connected to the outside world, excerpts from letters he wrote during this period reveals.
Confined to cold, concrete cells and often alone with his books, Aleksei A. Navalny sought solace in letters. Many details about his last months — as well as the circumstances of his death, which the Russian authorities announced on Friday — remain unknown; even the whereabouts of his body are unclear. While Navalny’s aides have spoken little about his last moments, excerpts from letters he wrote to the Russian journalist Ilya Krasilshchik have been shared by The New York Times. “The letters reveal the depth of the ambition, resolve and curiosity of a leader who galvanized the opposition to President Vladimir Putin and who, supporters hope, will live on as a unifying symbol of their resistance,” the report says.
He wrote in July that no one could understand Russian prison life “without having been here,” adding in his deadpan humor: “But there’s no need to be here.”
“If they’re told to feed you caviar tomorrow, they’ll feed you caviar,” Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, wrote to the same acquaintance, Ilia Krasilshchik, in August. “If they’re told to strangle you in your cell, they’ll strangle you.”
Navalny’s love for books
He boasted of reading 44 books in English in a year and was methodically preparing for the future: Refining his agenda, studying political memoirs, arguing with journalists, dispensing career advice to friends and opining on viral social media posts that his team sent him.
In a letter dated April 2023, Navalny told Krasilshchik that he read 10 books simultaneously and used to “switch between them.”
Navalny’s love for memoirs grew when he was in jail. “For some reason I always despised them. But they’re actually amazing,” the former politician said.
Interest for Indian food
In one of his last hearings, by video link in January, Navalny argued for the right to longer meal breaks to consume the “two mugs of boiling water and two pieces of disgusting bread” to which he was entitled.
The appeal was rejected; indeed, throughout his imprisonment, Navalny seemed to savor food vicariously through others, according to interviews.
He told Krasilshchik that he preferred doner kebabs to falafel in Berlin and took an interest in the Indian food that Feldman tried in New York.
His public life
According to New York Times, Navalny was able to send hundreds of handwritten letters to his friends and supporters. Through a website, people could write to him for 40 cents a page and receive scans of his responses, typically a week or two after he sent them, and after they passed through a censor.
Navalny, who’d been imprisoned since January 2021, also communicated with the outside world through his lawyers, who held up documents against the window separating them after they were barred from passing papers.
Then there were his frequent court hearings on new criminal cases brought by the state to extend his imprisonment, or on complaints that Navalny filed about his treatment. Navalny told Krasilshchik, a media entrepreneur now in exile in Berlin, that he enjoyed those hearings, despite the rubber-stamp nature of Russia’s judicial system.
“They distract you and help the time pass faster,” he wrote, according to NYT. “In addition, they provide excitement and a sense of struggle and pursuit.”
His views about Donald Trump
In a letter sent to a friend, a photographer named Evgeny Feldman, Navalny said former President Donald Trump’s agenda for a second term was “really scary,” according to the Times.
He said if President Joe Biden were to have a health issue, “Trump will become president,” adding: “Doesn’t this obvious thing concern the Democrats?”
In another letter to Feldman dated December 3, Navalny again expressed concern over Trump and asked his friend, “Please name one current politician you admire.”