Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir goes to Vintage

Vintage will publish Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir, Patriot, in October 2024. The book will be published in hardcover and as an e-book, and in audio. Foreign rights have been sold around the world including with Knopf in the US, and all publishers will share the 22nd October 2024 global publication date. 

Navalny was a Russian opposition leader, lawyer and anti-corruption activist who died in February 2024 aged 47 while serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges that he condemned as politically motivated. He began Patriot shortly after his poisoning in 2020. “It is the full story of his life: his youth, his call to activism, his marriage and family, and his commitment to the cause of Russian democracy and freedom in the face of a world super-power determined to silence him,” Vintage said. 

The publisher added: “It expresses Navalny’s total conviction that change cannot be resisted and will come. 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.”  

Vintage said the book was written “with the passion, wit, candour and bravery for which he was justly acclaimed” and 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.”  

Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya said: “This book is a testament not only to Alexei’s life, but to his unwavering commitment to the fight against dictatorship – a fight he gave everything for, including his life. Through its pages, readers will come to know the man I loved deeply – a man of profound integrity and unyielding courage. Sharing his story will not only honour his memory but also inspire others to stand up for what is right and to never lose sight of the values that truly matter.”