Welcome to Russian History Retold.

Episode 296

episode 296 Alexi Navani, life, hope, and death.

Last time we listened to my interview with Professor Maya Vinicor about her book, Workflows,

Stalinist, Liquids, and Russian labor culture.

Today we take on a very contemporary event for one of the first times in this

podcast's 14 year history and that is the death of Alexei Navalny. I say death, but I'm inclined to view his passing as murder. There is little doubt

than when he was sent to the IK3 Special Regime Colony known as Polar Wolf and Karp and the Western Siberia, he was meant to die there.

This past week his funeral was held in Moscow with thousands of people lining the streets

near the Russian Orthodox Church where his funeral was held. This represents the power he had to inspire people and why Putin needed him gone.

His influence is greater now through his death than when he was alive. This episode is not meant to be a

comprehensive review of Navalny's life. To dig deeper, I'd suggest the movie

Navalny, the 2022 American documentary film directed by Daniel Rohrer.

Born on June 4, 1976 in Bhutan in the Odensovsky District, Moscow Oblast, to LeMila and Anatoly

Nervali.

Alexi is of Russian and Ukrainian heritage and grew up in Obninsk, about 100

kilometers or 62 miles southwest of Moscow. He would spend his childhood summers with his grandmother in Ukraine, which allowed him to be fluent in Ukrainian as well as Russian.

His grandmother lived near Chernobyl when it exploded in April 1986, and he was able to see how the Soviet government tried to cover it up.

This was his first introduction to government corruption. Obviously it would not be his last.

Navalny's father was a career Soviet Army officer and his mother was an economist.

They currently own a basket weaving factory which they ran from 1994 in the village

of Kobyakova in the Vulgada Oblast.

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