Without any irony whatsoever, I consider this hunger strike a heroic act. Some people ask me about it in a sarcastic way: so, you write that they are heroes, but they are not going to starve themselves to death, are they?
As for me, there are plenty of living people whom I consider heroes. What makes an act heroic is not death, but the motive behind it.
These six, as a sign of faith in their convictions, as a protest, and as an expression of despair (yes, and there is nothing wrong with that), declared that they would destroy their own bodies.
An ordinary person cannot make that many sacrifices, but they are making this one—the most essential, the most important one—for our shared right to choose.
From Sakharov (Andrei Sakharov, Soviet dissident) to Shein, from Marchenko to Khodorkovsky, from Tolokonnikova to Gandhi, and to any prisoner who is now on hunger strike in a cell against torture and lawlessness—all of them went on hunger strikes that seemed useless and senseless to many, but that made the world better and reduced the number of cynics around us, if only a little. It is a high price to pay with one’s health, and not everyone is willing to make that bargain.
That is why, personally, it does not matter to me how many days the striker has held out, how many kilograms he has lost, what his blood pressure is, and so on. To me, they became heroes from the very first minute they announced the hunger strike, because I know their resolve and I believe in the sincerity of their motives. They have made a sacrifice without which there can be no struggle for freedom.
After Sergei Boyko was hospitalized today, we held a brief remote meeting—Khodorkovsky, Kasyanov, and Navalny—and decided to call on Leonid Volkov, Yegor Savin, Sergei Boyko, Alexander Forov, and Fyodor Gorozhanko to end the hunger strike.
I join in that appeal: guys, regardless of your decision, what you have done will be an important example for everyone, but I ask you to end the hunger strike. It will be better that way.
A separate note to Leonid Volkov: it seems to me that we all need another big rally in Moscow. On September 13, on this so-called “Single Voting Day,” when ballots will be handed out across the country from which the main opposition party has been illegally removed. Such a rally needs to be prepared, and your participation is needed here.
The amount of absurdity in our lives has suddenly gone off the charts: the mere burning of food is enough to make most people’s eyes pop out. We need to come together and remind everyone that there is, in fact, an alternative point of view on whether a government official can own a watch worth 37 million rubles, whether fruit should be crushed by bulldozers instead of being given to the poor, who should decide the composition of election participants, and many other issues.
PS A reminder that in Novosibirsk, a public gathering for the right to choose will take place on August 11.
PPS While I was writing this post, news came in that Sergei Boyko had been admitted to intensive care.