Re Alexei Navalny : readers may be interested to look up an excellent article in Libertiesjournal.com by the writer Sergei Lebedev entitled “The Heroic Illusion of Alexei Navalny”. While fully acknowledging Navalny’s undoubted bravery, Lebedev analyses the problematic nature of his work and stance, particularly in relation to the Russian threat to world order and international law. The question it raises for me is whether we outside Russia were looking for a charismatic saviour who would absolve us from any responsibility to act against the very real threats to democracy that Russia poses.
I think there has probably been some of that, but I don't think that's the full story. Lebedev's piece strikes me as motivated from a particular political position, but it's a valid point of view. For my money, the most level-headed biography is this one: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/navalny/
Sam, thanks for your reply and the link to the biography, which I shall look up. I agree that my comment is by no means the whole story. Navalny was/is a very complex figure. I personally don’t think that Lebedev’s critique is from a particular political position. Rather it is coming from a moral position deeply rooted in Lebedev’s view that for change to happen Russia must face and take responsibility for the enormity of its crimes, both historical and present. His argument with Navalny is that Navalny had nothing to say about this, about the crimes against not only the Russian people but also against those of the other republics. This theme of the necessity for Russians to confront and take responsibility for their past, that without addressing history there can be no deep change is central to all Lebedev’s novels and writing.
maxim katz's name is maxim. and he never "had it" for fbk, he literally continued to rally his audience to vote for navalny even while navalny continued to call him kremlin's jew
Ruth Windle.
Re Alexei Navalny : readers may be interested to look up an excellent article in Libertiesjournal.com by the writer Sergei Lebedev entitled “The Heroic Illusion of Alexei Navalny”. While fully acknowledging Navalny’s undoubted bravery, Lebedev analyses the problematic nature of his work and stance, particularly in relation to the Russian threat to world order and international law. The question it raises for me is whether we outside Russia were looking for a charismatic saviour who would absolve us from any responsibility to act against the very real threats to democracy that Russia poses.
I think there has probably been some of that, but I don't think that's the full story. Lebedev's piece strikes me as motivated from a particular political position, but it's a valid point of view. For my money, the most level-headed biography is this one: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/navalny/
Ruth Windle
Sam, thanks for your reply and the link to the biography, which I shall look up. I agree that my comment is by no means the whole story. Navalny was/is a very complex figure. I personally don’t think that Lebedev’s critique is from a particular political position. Rather it is coming from a moral position deeply rooted in Lebedev’s view that for change to happen Russia must face and take responsibility for the enormity of its crimes, both historical and present. His argument with Navalny is that Navalny had nothing to say about this, about the crimes against not only the Russian people but also against those of the other republics. This theme of the necessity for Russians to confront and take responsibility for their past, that without addressing history there can be no deep change is central to all Lebedev’s novels and writing.
maxim katz's name is maxim. and he never "had it" for fbk, he literally continued to rally his audience to vote for navalny even while navalny continued to call him kremlin's jew
Thanks for catching the typo! My interpretation of the history between them is somewhat different, but the reality of the conflict stands.
Your description of the trajectory of Russian exiles sounds so much like that of Palestinian-Americans here in the United States.
Thanks. And many other exile communities, as well. Alas.