Patriot: A Memoir

Author: Alexei Navalny

A couple of years ago I watched the HBO Max documentary on Alexei Navalny. It features the details behind the poisoning of Navalny and his recovery in Berlin. I expected this to be a dark movie filled with hatred for his oppressors, but was pleasantly surprised to see what an upbeat and funny guy Navalny was. Imagine the impact he could have had on the world. I hope he didn’t give up his life in vain, and we do see the fruits of his struggle finally being realized in a democratic Russia. 

This book is divided into two distinct parts. The first is a narrative account of Navalny’s life moving between small garrison towns in the vicinity of Moscow. He identifies as being half Russian and half Ukrainian and until he was 8 years old he regularly visited with his grandmother in Ukraine. However the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 put an end to his Ukrainian visits. He describes the Soviets attempts at downplaying the severity of the nuclear fallout. 

His childhood was also marked by the economic realities of the late Soviet Era. He fondly recalls queuing up for milk and yearning for American Chewing gum. But then with the glasnost period under Gorbachev he found out that “being poor was much more bearable when everybody else was, but it was intolerable once you could see your neighbor was far richer.” 

Reading some of his early experiences, reminded me of my time in growing up in India. While it was nowhere as oppressive as the Soviet Union, we too had very few luxuries and would look forward to the trinkets that we sometimes received from western visitors. 

I didn’t quite finish the second section which is his prison memoir. The few pages that I read were quite difficult to get through. Overall, Navalny is an amazing hero!