After listening to an interview with Yulia Navalny on the life and death of her husband, Alexei, I knew I had to read this memoir/autobiography. Based on notes, interviews, conversations, and smuggled manuscript, a section of Navalny’s life is revealed.
Born in Russia in 1976, Navalny lived under various autocratic leaders, some who allowed freedom and others who permitted little. Becoming an activist for free speech and choice, he became a critic and thus an enemy of Vladimir Putin. He tormented the President but he had enough support and power that even though the Russian leader wished him dead, fear of potential backlash saved Navalny. An excerpt:
The first time Navalny saw soldiers in white hazmat suits waving radiation detectors, he learned that truth in the Soviet Union was as scarce as butter… It was the 1980s – the dying days of the Soviet empire.
Navalny grew up in a military town near Obninsk – southwest of Moscow. When Chornobyl exploded in 1986, Navalny saw the authorities’ first instinct was to lie – not just about the disaster itself, but about everything surrounding it. They sent people to plant potatoes in radioactive soil, held May Day parades under contaminated skies, and orchestrated elaborate deceptions for foreign journalists.
This wasn’t mere incompetence; it was the reflexive response of a system built on the premise that its citizens couldn’t handle truth.
Thus began Navalny’s drive to expose facts hidden amongst the lies. In and out of prison, he ran for office, led protests, wrote articles and essays to work to free his nation. In August of 2020 while on a fight to Moscow he became deathly ill.
Poisoned he later flew to Germany for recovery. Surrounded by his children and wife plus friends, most would have determined to continue the fight from safer ground. Even knowing that he would be arrested and sent to a Gulag, he returned and was imprisoned in various Russian prisons prior to his death listed as “sudden death syndrome” in February of 2024. Seen on video the day before, he appeared relatively healthy. Much time passed before his body was secretly released to his mother for burial.
I admire the bravery of Navalny as well as that of Yulia. The details of this part of his life are horrifying as I reflect on the dangers, he faced but remained determined to speak his mind and to back vast changes in his government.
At the end of the book, he advises all readers to take action for what they believe – to stand up for right regardless of the consequences. I have lacked this strength and know it is time to step up.
The second book by Cynthia Reeves is a well-researched book based on whaling in northern Norway between 1937 and 1947. Not only did I learn about whaling (a bloody ordeal), coal mining (a brutal ordeal), and icy summers and winters, the book abounds with the strengths and frailties of human existence.
Reeves combines love and tragedy, survival and death, the real and the mystic to leave the reader in awe of her magical descriptions and details.
In 1937 whaling flourished in Arctic waters. A “summer” job, Norwegians gathered in teams that headed north for the season to hunt the wealth of products delivered via whales. Most returned south for the winter to other jobs to support families.
With only a few years separating this time from the Great War, few imagined that around the corner Hitler would invade and overrun Norway. World War II is not detailed but the author weaves the 1937-47 decade masterfully to understand survival and brutality.
The book is riveting as I imagined the courage required to face such challenging circumstances in an unforgiving environment. The beauty of icy lands and magical northern lights lighten the reader’s load of death, heartbreak, and the ability or inability to forgive, forget or move forward.
Yes, this book is heavy. I have offered it to two book clubs to which I belong; however, I have not been met with positive reception. Not everyone wants to struggle just as the characters do to understand the sacredness of living. The lessons gained astounded me and reminded me of the importance of the flipside of everything – love versus hate; life versus death; ease versus trials… Let me know what you think. My Promise: March will focus on happy reads.