Alexei Navalny’s ideal will not die with him

Alexei Navalny’s death a few days ago in a Russian Arctic penal colony generated a somber mood in the democratic world. The mood also led to the analysis that in the absence of Navalny, the prospects of democracy in Russia would be bleak. But the reverse might happen. From a larger perspective the ideal that Navalny represents does not die. His wife Yulia Navalnaya vowed to carry the torch further and appealed to the follower and global community, “the main thing that we can do for Alexei and ourselves is to keep fighting.”

Navalny, or for that matter, one can count many other leaders across the world such as Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, who fought against oppression and injustice in the 20th century, and Jamal Khashoggi who fought authoritarianism in the Middle East in the 21st century — they do not die. These leaders represent ideals which are eternal in their nature and are cherished by millions across the world. And great ideas — for example, the idea of democracy, or nonviolence, or peaceful coexistence — do not die. While drinking hemlock for his death, the wise Greek philosopher said something like this, that by dying he will be immortal and those who are alive (his killers) are dead. Socrates’s ideas of truth, dialogue, and peaceful dissent live today and thrive in many parts of the world, and his killers are forgotten.

Navalny fought for democracy and human rights in peaceful ways. Threats to his life in multiple forms including imprisonment and poisoning did not deter him from fighting for democracy in his homeland, Russia. Had it been three decades ago, Navalny could perhaps have succeeded as a popular politician in Russia and even led the country. When the new Russia emerged from the debris of the Soviet Union in early 1990s, the prospects of democracy appeared bright. The country under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin pursued a democratic agenda, but soon corruption, volatility, old psychology and lack of effective leadership pushed the country toward authoritarianism. Within a decade or so, Russia descended into one-party, one-man rule, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin.

Navalny was a “soldier of peace,” to use a Gandhian phrase. Gandhi wrote in Young India in 1921, “As our movement is avowedly peaceful, it is much better even to drop sticks (as weapons). Soldiers of peace that we are, we should copy the ordinary soldier as little as possible whether in point of uniform or otherwise.” Like Gandhi, Navalny was a fearless fighter for a cause. In 2021, after he recovered in Germany from poisoning, he could have settled there or some other location away from Russia and continued his fight for democracy in exile, but as a hero of his people, as a hero who fights on the battleground, Navalny decided to return to Moscow. In a message, he called forth to his followers in very simple but powerful terms, “never give up.”

Ironically, some political leaders and journalists are now remembering Navalny and comparing their fate, and their real or perceived marginalization, with that of Navalny. But many of them cannot even imagine the kind of suffering and sacrifice Navalny went through. Age 47 in this modern globalized world is not an age to die, leaving behind a wife and children. Educated and intelligent, Navalny could have lived a comfortable life like many of his contemporaries preferred to live. But he had a higher call — a call to serve his people, a call to be champion of democracy, a call to change society peacefully, and he did not mind sacrificing everything, including his life, to realize these ideals.

But there appears a paradox, perhaps more striking in our 21st century world. In parallel to emerging democratic dissent all over the world, also there emerge authoritarian tendencies worldwide. It seems no country is immune from this clash, and whether it is national politics or international politics, this clash between forces of democracy and authoritarianism has been further accentuated in recent years. It seems that the clash between the values of democracy and perils of dictatorship has reached a decisive point, and it is playing out before our very eyes. Navalny, by sacrificing his life, has shown us which side in this battle one has to take.