Navalny's “Patriot” was simultaneously released in 36 countries in 26 languages, including Russian, and the book can be ordered in most countries of the world, but not in Russia and Belarus.
In the USA, the politician's autobiography was published with a print run of half a million copies. According to Navalny's press secretary Kira Yarmysh**, on the first day it topped the American and English Amazon. To coincide with the book's release, Navalny's team also launched a special website, where you can order a paper version with delivery to most countries of the world, except Russia and Belarus.
In the USA, the book was published by the prestigious publisher Knopf, which has published John Updike, Jack London, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Edgar Poe. In the UK, it was published by the equally well-known Penguin Books.
World media published reviews of the politician's autobiography, which he began working on after being poisoned with “Novichok.” The main work on the book was carried out from October 2020 to January 2021, when Navalny was in Germany.
“In ‘Patriot,’ less is said about Navalny's politics than about his fundamental decency, sharp sense of humor, and, mostly, cheerful stoicism in conditions that would crush a less worthy person,” writes The New York Times.
“His philosophy: hope for the best, expect the worst. His death is a terrible loss, both for Russia and for all of us,” says the material in The Guardian.
Mikhail Zygar** in a review for “Meduza”*** called the book “Patriot” “the Gospel of the Messiah,” noting that “the author consciously goes to death, patiently explaining along the way why he does it, how he prepares for it, and how he overcame it.”
The politician's widow Yulia Navalnaya* gave several interviews before the book's release, in which she said that “this book is exactly as Alexei was.” “It is both serious, about such a very large-scale person, and, on the other hand, it is very funny,” says Yulia Navalnaya, noting that everyone who reads it “will remember Alexei's Thursday broadcasts and understand how much it is him.”
Navalny himself explained in a diary entry from October 21, 2021, his desire to publish the book by saying that he “seems to have something to say.” Especially if he doesn't manage to get out of the colony alive. “If they do kill me here, then this will be a memory of me…”
Alexei Navalny was killed on February 16, 2024, in the colony after several years of imprisonment on politically criminal charges, at the moment when the issue of his exchange was being decided.
* Listed as “terrorists and extremists.”
** Recognized in Russia as “foreign agents.”
*** Recognized in Russia as a “foreign agent” and “undesirable” organization.
Photo: Markus Schreiber