NEW YORK (AP) — A memoir Alexei Navalny began working on in 2020 will be published this fall. “Patriot,” which publisher Alfred A. Knopf is calling the late Russian opposition leader's “final letter to the world,” will come out Oct. 22.
Navalny, 47, died in February while serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges that he condemned as politically motivated. He was jailed after returning from Germany in January 2021, and died in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
According to Knopf, Navalny began working on the book in Germany, and continued writing it in Russia, both in and out of prison.
“In vivid, page-turning detail, including never-before-seen correspondence from prison, Navalny recounts, among other things, his political career, the many attempts on his life, and the lives of the people closest to him, and the relentless campaign he and his team waged against an increasingly dictatorial regime,” Knopf's announcement reads in part.
“Written with the passion, wit, candor, and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed, ‘Patriot’ is Navalny’s final letter to the world: a moving account of his last years spent in the most brutal prison on earth; a reminder of why the principles of individual freedom matter so deeply; and a rousing call to continue the work for which he sacrificed his life.”