8 October 2025
by Andrey Volna
Source: Facebook
Aleksei Navalny’s Patriot in Russian and in English are two different books.
Actually, let’s take this in sequence.
I was interested to read the impressions of Aleksei Navalny’s book Patriot of Maria Snegovaya and Vladislav Snegovoi, which I shared here, on Facebook. On the whole I agree; in individual details, not so much. That’s always or nearly always the case.
I agree that ‘despite the title “Patriot”, the book is clearly addressed to the Western reader’. Maria then goes on to explain exactly why.
To be honest, though, something else always interested me in connection with this book. And I have spoken about this more than once in my comments to friends’ posts. This is more or less what I have said:
‘The book ends with his 2 September 2022 diary entry. But the book was published in 2024. The triumphal start of sales (it really was) of the book throughout the world in 26 languages was on 22 October 2024. That is, even a little more than two years passed from Aleksei’s last included diary entry and the publication date.
Why couldn’t they have included in the book his later, absolutely antiwar, and in some ways even pro-Ukraine prison diary entries? Especially his antiwar and pro-Ukraine post of 20 February 2023, with its 15 points on ending the war, which looks even more radical than Ukraine’s present-day demands? Yes, nationality issues were never Aleksei’s strong point. And he said all sorts of things. And made some mistakes. But Aleksei Navalny’s talent was that HE CHANGED. He was flexible. He tried to correct his mistakes.
Why then, at the time and after his death, leave it in Russian with this much-hyped ‘NOT A SANDWICH’?
That is approximately what I have said before and say now. Maria Snegovaya’s post commented in the same vein.
‘Wait up’, Maria tells me. In English my book has Aleksei’s diaries from 2023 and even 2024. And she sends me screenshots. ‘This is good’, Maria goes on to say. ‘That means they heard the criticism and added to the book.’
But no. According to available sources, there was no supplemented edition of the book. The book was published just like this in Russian—without Ukraine and the 1923 and 1924 diaries. In English, it has Ukraine and the 2023 and 2024 diaries. Here you have a screenshot from Wikipedia where it says that it is the English version of this book that includes the most important Instagram posts, compiled from Aleksei’s letters.
And let me remind you that the book was published in all languages on the same day. And that the English version had 496 pages then, in 2024, as the screenshots show. The Russian version ends at page 398. Maria Snegovaya’s screenshot shows page 469, but that is not the last page.
Moreover, today I especially visited the website of One Book Publishing, which, as the website says, was especially created to publish and distribute Aleksei Navalny’s autobiography specifically in Russian. And today, 8 October 2025, I now bought the electronic edition of Patriot in Russian.
As you have doubtless already guessed, UKRAINE AND ALEKSEI NAVALNY’S DIARIES FROM 2023 AND 2024 ARE NOT IN IT.
And now for the main question.
Why was it necessary to castrate Aleksei Navalny’s autobiography for the Russian-language reader after his death?
Why was it necessary to transmit Aleksei into Russia (and the electronic version, free for Russians, is accessible there) in an emasculated, if not to say ‘patriotic’ and ‘homespun’, form? To what end?
Questions abound. These are only a few of them.
N.B. The explanation ‘due to the difficulties of translation’ is unacceptable. On the contrary, the English translation took time. Aleksei wrote his diaries in Russian.
The explanation that there was a ban on the Meta platform in Russia is unacceptable as well. The book was not meant for sale in print in Russia and was not sold there. Aleksei Navalny himself had been ‘banned’ in Russia even before…
Attached screenshots:
- 1. Wikipedia—on the difference in the books
- 2. The publisher’s page, where I bought Aleksei’s book today in Russian without the 2023 and 2024 diaries
- 3. The last page, 398, of the Russian-language Patriot
- 4. Aleksei’s diaries for 2023, available in the English version
- 5. Aleksei’s diaries for 2024, available in the English version (4 and 5 from Maria Snegovaya)
Update
Varya Babitskaya clarified:
‘There was not the slightest ill intention in excluding the Ukrainian post (or another). There were only editorial considerations. 1) A diary and a post on Instagram are two different things. By genre and by nature. We could talk about that for a long time, but this is important. 2) Navalny’s posts had already been published. Everyone had already read them and can now (one might object that a person in Russia might not have access to Instagram, but in that case, he couldn’t buy the book. And wouldn’t, more than likely)! But that’s not true for the English speaker. And they can’t be corrected since they’re already in print. That’s all. But later his entire legacy will be brought together in one place’.
These explanations convinced me of nothing, to be honest.
First, because from the genre perspective, the diary entries worked well on Insta in English, German, and Portuguese (I have those screenshots). And they didn’t in Russian? Second. Instagram is actually officially inaccessible in Russia. But not in the United States, Germany, and so on. In some places it might take a translation, but it can be read. And in Russia it can’t. Third. At some time in the future all this will be brought together. For certain? That means, it could have been done in Russian, too? Fourth. The book in Russian is available and being sold in electronic form. I bought it myself today. Moreover, the site says that even today it can be downloaded in Russia FOR FREE.
I don’t know whether it can be today specifically. But it was possible.
But I’m not supposed to publish that. It’s up to you.
Translated by Marian Schwartz
