Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
With humor and courage, the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny began writing his memoir shortly after being poisoned in Siberia by the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Navalny was Vladimir Putin’s main adversary and most outspoken critic. He survived the attempt on his life, but refused to stay in the West where he was recuperating. The 47 year-old opposition leader flew back to Russia to fight on and was immediately arrested. “‘Do not be afraid, do not give up’, was his constant refrain, and he refused to betray his own counsel and principles,” writes David Remnick in The New Yorker. Navalny finished his autobiography from a jail cell in the Polar Wolf penal colony, once part of the Soviet Gulag system. He died there July 26, 2024. Remnick and Craig Kennedy, historian and Russia expert, discuss the life and legacy of Alexei Navalny, and the supreme sacrifice he made in the name of a free Russia.
The Summer Institute is College of the Atlantic's week-long convening of ideas that welcomes experts from around the world to share their perspectives on the most pressing issues of our time. The Summer Institute is supported by the generosity of COA Champlain Society members. The event is held under a tent on the North Lawn.
With humor and courage, the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny began writing his memoir shortly after being poisoned in Siberia by the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Navalny was Vladimir Putin’s main adversary and most outspoken critic. He survived the attempt on his life, but refused to stay in the West where he was recuperating. The 47 year-old opposition leader flew back to Russia to fight on and was immediately arrested. “‘Do not be afraid, do not give up’, was his constant refrain, and he refused to betray his own counsel and principles,” writes David Remnick in The New Yorker. Navalny finished his autobiography from a jail cell in the Polar Wolf penal colony, once part of the Soviet Gulag system. He died there July 26, 2024. Remnick and Craig Kennedy, historian and Russia expert, discuss the life and legacy of Alexei Navalny, and the supreme sacrifice he made in the name of a free Russia.
The Summer Institute is College of the Atlantic's week-long convening of ideas that welcomes experts from around the world to share their perspectives on the most pressing issues of our time. The Summer Institute is supported by the generosity of COA Champlain Society members. The event is held under a tent on the North Lawn.
