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I have my country and my convictions. And I don't want to give up on either. I can't betray either one. If your convictions mean anything, you must be ready to stand up for them. And, if necessary, make sacrifices [for them]. If you're not ready [to do that], then you have no convictions. You just think you do. But those aren't convictions or principles; they're just thoughts in your head.
It so happens that in today's Russia, I have to pay for my right to have and to openly express my convictions by sitting in solitary confinement. And, of course, I don't like being in prison. But I won't renounce my convictions or my homeland. My convictions aren't exotic, sectarian, or radical. On the contrary, everything I believe in is based on science and historical experience. Those in power must change. The best way to elect leaders is through honest and free elections. Everyone needs a fair court. Corruption destroys the state. There should be no censorship. The future lies with these principles.
Alexey Navalny, Russia's most famous dissident, has died. (4 June 1976 – 16 February 2024).
Returning to Russia in 2021, after having been treated in Berlin for novichok poisoning, Navalny was immediately arrested on arrival at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Since then, he has been in and out of (but mostly in) solitary confinement all over the country, with his final station being the Polar Wolf penal colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.
On Monday, he had been visited by his parents. In reacting to the news of her son's death, his mother reacted:
"I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw our son in the colony on Feb. 12th. He was alive, healthy, cheerful."
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(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday February 17 2024, @12:20AM (5 children)
It's a very Russian thing to do, and a bit hard to understand for non-Russians. Look at the way the Chernobyl cleanup was handled with biorobots, that wouldn't work in almost any other country but in Russia it was just the way things were done.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Saturday February 17 2024, @06:04PM (3 children)
That's an entirely different situation. In that case, there's a clear understanding that the sacrifice will make a difference. Nuclear reactor workers are a different breed every where. Maybe not all of them, but enough of them at any plant would make such sacrifices. A famous non-Russian example of this is Jimmy Carter [snopes.com]. Yes, the former president. He probably had no way of knowing that it would not affect his long term outlook at the time. Being a submariner, he knew there were situations where his life might be considered expendable. By no means does Russia have a monopoly on that kind of sacrifice.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Sunday February 18 2024, @05:19AM
Nothing to do with nuclear reactor workers. Most of the work after the Chernobyl explosion was done by the Army and fire services and other volunteers. I stress the word volunteers because most of them were told what the real situation was, and how severe the risks were. If you want testimonies about what really happened on the ground, read [Nobel Prize for Literature winner] Svetlana Alexijevitsj' Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (Dalkey Archive Press, 2005).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:42AM (1 child)
I was referring to Russian fatalism, the (to non-Russians) somewhat blase attitude towards death and other dangers, "this will probably kill us, but, well, shit happens". Ask Russian friends on whether Navalny was crazy to go back to almost certain death and you'll get a very different answer than if you ask, say, US friends.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday February 18 2024, @07:12PM
That actually does make sense, and I wonder if it explains the affinity of US conservatives for Russia on some level. During the Covid pandemic they had a much more "I'm going to get it anyway" attitude and I distinctively remember saying "fatalism is not a winning strategy".
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday February 18 2024, @06:50AM