- Alexei Navalny shared letters full of dark humor, religious references and dark insights into prison life with a former Gulag survivor, Natan Sharansky
- Navalny was killed on Friday at the age of 47 in a penal colony in Siberia known as the “Arctic Wolf” and the duo exchanged letters in March and April 2023
- Sharansky, 76, was held in a Moscow labor camp for nine years starting in 1978 after he was denied permission to leave the then Soviet Union for Israel
It was revealed that Alexei Navalny had shared letters full of dark humor, religious references and dark insights into prison life with Gulag survivor Natan Sharansky in the year before his death.
The 47-year-old Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's strongest domestic political opponent, exchanged deeply personal memos with Israel's former Deputy Prime Minister Sharansky (76) in March and April 2023.
In his first note, he wrote, “I hope I'm the last one to have to endure this,” almost a year before he was allegedly fatally poisoned with Novichok on February 16, 2024, in a penal colony called “Polar Wolf” in Siberia.
Sharansky was held in a Moscow labor camp for nine years starting in 1978 after being denied permission to leave the then-Soviet Union for Israel, and the two agreed on how little has changed in Russia's brutal prison system since then.
Their historic friendship – captured in the letters obtained by The Free Press – was sparked by Navalny's revelation that he had read Sharansky's memoir “Fear No Evil” in the gulag where he died.
Alexei Navalny shared letters full of dark humor, religious references and dark insights into prison life with a former Gulag survivor, Natan Sharansky, in the year before his death. Their newly released notes reveal that Sharansky, the 76-year-old former deputy prime minister of Israel, was held in a Moscow labor camp for nine years starting in 1978 after he was denied permission to leave the then Soviet Union for Israel. A general view of a church (R) for the prisoners of the IK-3 penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny served his prison sentence and died there, in the settlement of Kharp near Salekhard, Yamal-Nenets Region, Russia
They were strangers when Navalny began corresponding – he wrote his first letter to Sharansky on April 3 from IK-6 Melehovo, a facility about 250 kilometers east of Moscow known for the abuse and torture of inmates.
Sharansky was held for a time in the same colony, and Navalny joked in his opening letter: “I'm not sure you have good memories of it.”
“Now there will probably be a plaque saying 'Natan Sharansky was held here,'” he added.
“Please forgive the intrusion and the letter from a stranger, but I believe that is permissible in the relationship between author and reader.”
Navalny thanked Sharansky for his book because “it helped me a lot,” even though he had to suffer in unimaginable conditions.
“I understand that I am not the first, but I really want to be the last, or at least one of the last, of those who have to endure this,” he wrote.
Navalny said “Fear No Evil” gave him “hope” because the “similarity between the two systems — the Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia” “exposes the hypocrisy that serves as the basis of their essence.”
He said this “guarantees a collapse” of Putin’s regime as inevitable as the fall of the USSR in 1991.
The book also caused an unexpected laugh from the prisoner.
“I laughed when I read the passage where you wrote: “I was punished with a series of 15 days of SHIZO, and then they sent me to PKT for 6 months as an offender who violated prison rules .”
“I was amused that neither the nature of the system nor the pattern of its actions has changed.”
Alexei and Yulia met on vacation in Turkey
Sharansky wrote back from Jerusalem the same day, saying that he “felt a kind of shock when he received a letter from you,” referring to the fact that he addressed Navalny as “Dear Aleksej.”
“The thought itself, that it came directly from SHIZO, where you have already spent 128 days, excites in the way an old man would be excited upon receiving a letter from his 'alma mater', the university “where he spent many years of his life.” Youth,” wrote Sharansky.
He pointed out that Vladimir Kara-Murza, another imprisoned dissident still behind bars, had also written to him saying that the book still served as a guide for Russian prisons today. “My misfortune has led to this silver lining,” he said.
Sharansky described himself as an “admirer” of Navalny and said: “Aleksei, you are not just a dissident – you are a dissident “with style”!”
“My horror at your poisoning turned to astonishment and elation when you began your own independent investigation.”
“I wish you, no matter how difficult it may be physically, that you maintain your inner freedom,” he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov (left) and Israeli Cabinet Minister Natan Sharansky shake hands before talks in Moscow, Tuesday, March 3, 1998. Natan Sharanski in 1999. Sharanski was imprisoned while advocating for the right of Jews to emigrate to Israel. He was convicted on a trumped-up charge of spying for the Americans and spent nine years in torture and solitary confinement in a Siberian prison
“In prison, I discovered that in addition to the law of universal gravity of particles, there is also a law of universal gravity of souls. By remaining in prison, Aleksei, as a free person, you are influencing the souls of millions of people worldwide.”
Sharansky was imprisoned while advocating for the right of Jews to emigrate to Israel. He was convicted on a trumped-up charge of spying for the Americans and spent nine years in torture and solitary confinement in a Siberian prison.
He noted that he wrote to Navalny the day before Passover — “the celebration of the liberation of Jews from Egyptian slavery 3,500 years ago” — and signed his letter to the jailed activist with “hugs.”
Navalny wrote back four days later and said he was so overjoyed by the author's response that he cried.
“I was so touched that I had to hide my tears from my cellmates,” Navalny wrote.
“And this is the second time you've done this to me!” On the last page of “Fear No Evil,” where you write, “Forgive me for being a little late,” it's of course impossible not to to burst into tears.
Vladimir Putin is accused of orchestrating the death of Alexei Navalny. It was most recently reported that Navalny died of “sudden death syndrome,” but no details were provided to support that claim
“In your alma mater everything is as it was.” Traditions are honored. They let me out of SHIZO on Friday evening, and today, Monday, I still have 15 days left. Everything according to “Ecclesiastes”: What was will be.
“But I continue to believe that we will correct it and one day there will be in Russia what was not and will not be what was.”
Sharansky responded 10 days later, on April 17, saying he was grateful that his letters reached Navalny.
He concluded with a chilling comment: “Judging by all your time at SHIZO, you will soon break all my records. I hope you don't.”
Navalny died less than a year later. His widow Julia said he was poisoned with Novichok.
In a video message, 47-year-old Yulia Navalny said: “Vladimir Putin killed my husband.” She held back tears and promised to continue her husband's work and fight for a free Russia with the help of its citizens.
Navalnaya accused Russian authorities of hiding Navalny's body and waiting for traces of the nerve agent Novichok to disappear from his body.
Navalny – April 3, 2023
Dearest Nathan,
Alexei Navalny here. Hello from Vladimir Oblast, although I'm not sure you have fond memories of it.
I am now in the IK-6 “Melekhovo” penal colony, but from Vladimirskaya prison they write to me that a cell is being prepared for me there. So I'll probably find myself in the same facility you were at. Only now there will probably be a memorial plaque with the inscription “Natan Sharansky was held here.” Please forgive the intrusiveness and the letter from a stranger, but I believe that this is permissible in the relationship between author and reader.
I write as a reader. I just read your book “Fear No Evil” while being held in PKT.1. And now I'm writing from SHIZO2 – it will be 128 days in total. I laughed when I read the passage where you wrote: “I was punished with a series of 15 days in SHIZO, and then they sent me to PKT for 6 months as an offender who violated prison rules .” I was amused that neither the nature of the system nor the pattern of its actions has changed.
I would like to thank you for this book because it has helped me a lot and continues to help me. Yes, I'm with SHIZO now, but when you read about the 400 days you spent in the “punishment cell” because of reduced food rations, you understand that there are people who pay much higher prices for their convictions. I'm looking at the postcards Avital3 sent you, all the words are blacked out. Then I go to court where they try to convince me that burning the letters sent to me is legal. After all, there was a “code” embedded in it.
I understand that I am not the first, but I really want to be the last, or at least one of the last, of those who have to endure this.
Her book gives hope, because the similarity between the two systems – the Soviet Union and Putin's Russia – their ideological similarity, the hypocrisy that is their essence, and the continuity from the former to the latter – all this guarantees an equal and inevitable collapse. Like the one we saw.4
The most important thing is to come to the right conclusions so that this state of lies and hypocrisy does not enter a new cycle. In the foreword to the 1991 edition you write that dissidents in prisons have held the “virus of freedom” and it is important to prevent the KGB from inventing a vaccine against it. Unfortunately, they invented it. But in the current situation it is not they who are to blame, but us, who naively thought that there is no going back to the old habits. And in the interests of good, it's okay to manipulate the elections a little here, influence the courts a little there, and suppress the press a little here.
These little things and the belief that it is possible to modernize authoritarianism are the ingredients of this vaccine.
Nevertheless, the “virus of freedom” is far from eradicated. There are no longer dozens or hundreds as before, but tens and hundreds of thousands who, despite the threats, are not afraid to speak out for freedom and against war5. Hundreds of them are in prison, but I am confident that they will not be broken and will not give up.
And many of them draw strength and inspiration from your story and legacy.
I am definitely one of them.
My thanks go to you.
Here I copied it for myself from the book: L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim.6
Your,
Alexei
Sharansky – April 3, 2023
Dear Aleksei,
When I received a letter from you, I felt a kind of shock. The very idea that it came directly from SHIZO, where you have already spent 128 days, excites in the way an old man would be excited upon receiving a letter from his “alma mater,” the university where he spent many years of his youth.
I respond to you not only as “author to reader” but also as your admirer.
As “author to reader”:
When I wrote my book “Fear No Evil” immediately after my release in February 1986, almost all of my friends and comrades-in-arms were either imprisoned in gulags or in battle. That's why I imagined this book not only as a memoir, but also as a kind of textbook or manual on how to behave in a confrontation with the KGB. But by the time it was published in Russian, the USSR was already collapsing. Therefore, over the years the book has been interpreted more and more as a historical novel about the Dark Ages. And now – “the idiot’s dream has come true!”
First Volodya Kara-Murza and now you wrote to me about how this book “works” in a Russian prison today. My misfortune has brought out this silver lining.
And now – as an admirer:
Aleksei, you are not just a dissident – you are a dissident “with style”! My horror at your poisoning turned to amazement and elation when you began your own independent investigation.
I was very upset by the question asked by a certain European correspondent the day after your return to Russia. “Why did he come back? We all knew he was going to get arrested at the airport – doesn't he understand such simple things?” My response was quite rude: “You're the one who doesn't understand something. If you think his goal is survival, then you're right. But his real concern is for the fate of his people – and he tells them: “I am not afraid, and you should not be either.”
I wish you – no matter how difficult it may be physically – that you maintain your inner freedom.
In prison I discovered that in addition to the law of universal gravity of particles, there is also a law of universal gravity of souls. By remaining in prison as a free person, Aleksei, you are impacting the souls of millions of people worldwide.
Aleksei, it's really sad that the past can return so quickly and so easily. Volodya Bukovsky once insisted after the fall of the USSR that communism must be brought to justice. But there were few who supported this idea – after all, the free world won “without a bullet being fired” – why return to the past?
I hope now, after all those shots have been fired, it is clear why it was necessary then and why it will be necessary tomorrow.
XXX
By the way, I am writing to you on the day before Passover – the celebration of the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery 3,500 years ago. This is the beginning of our freedom and our history as a people. That evening, Jews from all over the world sit at the holiday table and read the words: “Today we are slaves – tomorrow we are free people.” Today we are here – next year in Jerusalem.”
On this day, I am sitting at a celebratory meal wearing a yarmulke that my cellmate, a Ukrainian prisoner in Chistopol Prison, made from my footcloth 40 years ago. Everything in this world is so twisted! I wish you, Alexei, and all of Russia an exodus as soon as possible.
hugs,
Natan Sharansky
Navalny – April 7, 2023
Dear Nathan,
This is just a quick little note to say a big thank you for your response.
I was so touched that I had to hide my tears from my cellmates. And this is the second time you've done it to me! Of course, on the last page of “Fear No Evil,” where you write, “Forgive me for being a little late,” it’s impossible not to cry8.
In your alma mater everything is as it was. Traditions are honored. They let me out of SHIZO on Friday evening, and today, Monday, I still have 15 days left. Everything according to “Ecclesiastes”: What was will be.
But I continue to believe that we will correct it and one day there will be in Russia what was not. And won't be what was.
And where else could you spend Holy Week if not in SHIZO!
A big thank you again.
hugs,
A
Sharansky – April 17, 2023
Dear Alexei,
This is just a reply to your comment. It is important that the connection between people and worlds is not broken. I cannot say – between the free world and the unfree world, since you are freer today than many (if not most) people in both parts of our world.
But I know that you have to pay for your freedom – with your health, concerns for your family and ultimately with your life.
I had certain advantages over you, after all, I'm 159 cm tall and had the same food rations as you. In the punishment cell, the sleeves of my jacket hung low enough that I could keep warm in them, whereas with you they probably only went up to my elbows are sufficient.
But at least you can receive these letters and, most importantly, share your experiences in real time.
A Russian poet once urged: “Don't let your soul be lazy, in order not to pound water into mortar, the soul is forced to work day and night, day and night.” In Russia, people have a hard time with this, but you can do it it effortlessly.
Judging by your total time at SHIZO, you'll soon break all of my records. I hope you don't succeed.
hugs,
Nathan