I had a privilege to meet Alexei Navalny and interview him for a student newspaper at Yale, in 2011. He was a Yale World Scholar then, one of international guests of honor, invited by Yale for their courage and achievements. He came for four months to give lectures, mentor students, do his research and speak of Russia he had dreamt of and fought for.
He probably did more than that – looking back, I think he searched for influential supporters at US universities for his democratization agenda and expanded his global network mobilizing people and resources for Russia – the country he loved and could not imagine leaving for longer. All he did abroad, he ultimately did for Russia. A decade later, he left Germany and returned to his country, once again risking his life. This was not a theoretical risk, a risk on a chart or in a presentation – he knew that the odds were against him, he was still weak after the poisoning, but he and his wife still chose to return.
I remember the first impression he made upon me. He did not immediately smile, like most Americans (a default expression which I came to appreciate), but smiled only when there was something to smile at – often our naivety. Sometimes he laughed out sadly (yes, this is possible, a sad laugh) at one of our questions about opposition behavior in politics and said something like “this is very theoretical, as you phrase it, but let me think about it…”
Yes, we were theoretical through and through, and he came to us with experiences which we could neither truly understand nor imagine. We swam in a sea of concepts, theories, grand words and courses entitled “World Strategy” . We lived in a world of words that we took so seriously as to take them for life itself. Ten years later I think back of this time with nostalgy – it was wonderful to have a chance to experience such a world, but Alexei knew a different reality and he brought it to us.
He did not come from a world of theory and university courses. He came from a world of politics which did not mean what it means in Western societies – finding the right arguments for the once chosen party position. He came from a world where arguments and communication do not matter, from a world of brute force, a tyranny he had tried to challenge through uncovering of Putin’s corruption practices. He applied democratic categories to a non-democratic country hoping to contribute to the democratization of Russia.
He was open, young and full of energy. I still cannot imagine him dead and shiver at this thought.
He was courageous. No course can teach you courage. But life can, at least life that he had lived and experiences that formed him. His biography shows a change he himself made over the course of years, with ups and downs, but he was one of a few people I came in touch with able to put a higher goal above his own life and happiness.
How could he go back? I hear this question of disbelief here in Germany, in a country of comfort and security, taken for granted by many (not all) He knew what expected him and he got on this plane, with his wife at his side, and they flew back, they could have stayed….
They could have, theoretically. Alexei would be safe, his body would probably fully recover (he was still young and strong), he would maybe try finding his way through tidy, straight German streets, but he would probably still be lost. Without his mission, without his country, he would probably not be able to breathe in the long term.
Even from a prison cell, he still joked about his situation. He did not complain, he made it all look good and bearable. He said the weather could be better (in a prison camps for the worst criminals…!). Untill he spoke no more. He was a hero for me, a hero of our (comfortable, self-focused) time…
His strategy was not a theoretical framework, his mission was not a well formulated sentence, he lived for what he believed in and paid the highest price.
I think of his wife and his children and cannot bare to think of them at the same time. Words fail me.
I just hope they will somehow manage to live on. It is easy to write about a hero, it is impossible to live without one… especially if he is your husband, father, friend.
Especially if he was one.
Rest in peace.