I am not yet finished reading the memoir of Alexei Navalny, but I'm getting close. And I have looked ahead to see generally what is upcoming. So I know the structure of the book. That seems like a weird thing to say; usually readers know the structure of a book before reading—not always, with modern novels, for instance, but often even then you can figure it out pretty quickly. Navalny's memoir has an odd structure, half intentional memoir for publication, half prison diary. And there's no table of contents, or preface, or any sort of introduction.
Should you want to know the structure of the book before reading? Maybe that knowledge will deprive you of the thrill of discovering its structure for yourself. I don't know. If you're planning on reading the book all the way through, maybe don't look at this post. On the other hand, maybe you're like me and you like to know what you're getting yourself into. Anyway, proceed at your own risk.
By the way, going into the memoir, I was interested especially in two aspects of Navalny's life: his relationship to Christianity, and his bravery. Or, you might say, I was interested in why he returned to Russia after his 2020 poisoning—did it have anything to do with Christianity? Or what was the source of his courage? Or was it rather foolishness? I don't myself interpret his return to Russia as foolishness, but I have talked to people that I respect who do interpret it that way. Anyway, regarding his return and his faith, I have been taking notes, and I plan on posting some things about those topics.
But here's the structure of the book, first in broad strokes, and then in more detail. The titles of the Parts (i.e., Part I, Near Death) are provided in the book.
Part I, Near Death, chapters 1–2, pages 3–24
Part II, Formation, chapters 3–9, pages 25–174
Part III, The Work, chapters 10–18, pages 175–276
Part IV, Prison, pages 277–471
Epilogue, pages 473–79
It's Part IV that is the prison diary, with some social media posts thrown in (e.g., at Feb. 17, 2021; March 3, 2021). You could call it "Letters and Papers from Prison." This section covers a three-year period in four different calendar years, and the section is divided into entries dated according to those years. There are many more entries for the first year of Navalny's imprisonment, 2021, than for the subsequent years, and indeed there are more entries for the first half of 2021 than the second half.
2021 contains entries totaling about 140 pages
2022, about 30 pages
2023, about 20 pages
2024, 4 pages
As for 2021, the first half of the year takes up about 120 pages, and the number of entries plummets in June. Every month of 2021 from June on has only a single entry, except for October, with two entries (one of substantial length), and December, with no entries. In contrast, February 2021 has an entry for every day until Feb 25, when he moves prisons.
Now back to the memoir section, Parts I–III. Part I has two chapters recounting his 2020 poisoning, including his growing realization on an airplane that he felt not quite right, his recovery in Germany, and his decision to return to Russia.
Below, I'll attempt to give titles or short descriptions of the chapters in Parts II–III. All of the chapters in the memoir are untitled.
Part II, Formation
Chapter 3, memories of the USSR before Gorbachev
Chapter 4, memories of the period under Mikhail Gorbachev
Chapter 5, the end of the USSR
Chapter 6, getting into university
Chapter 7, the Yeltsin era
Chapter 8, Navalny's arrest upon his return to Russia (18 Jan 2021). This chapter is out of chronological sequence, but it is in my mind the most engrossing chapter of the book.
Chapter 9, Yulia
Part III, The Work
Chapter 10, the beginnings of Navalny's political involvement in the early 2000s
Chapter 11, forming an organization called the Democrat Alternative
Chapter 12, Kirov and Yale
Chapter 13, the Anti-Corruption Foundation
Chapter 14, being prosecuted and running for mayor of Moscow
Chapter 15, Oleg Navalny in prison
Chapter 16, from blogging to YouTube, and eventually TikTok
Chapter 17, the presidential campaign in 2017
Chapter 18, bravery? Or: why do I do what I do?
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