I remember promising a few posts about the books I read while under arrest. Since May, I’ve spent 80 days in detention and read a great deal, and I want to write at least about the good ones—the ones worth reading.
And I can say that I’m tremendously happy to start with my brother’s book:
Oleg Navalny. 3 1/2. With a Prisoner’s Respect and Brotherly Warmth.
It’s a delicate matter, of course. Obviously, you’re going to promote and praise your own brother’s book no matter what. So it gives me particular pleasure that I can do so with complete sincerity.
They brought me a copy in the special detention facility, and I read it without putting it down.
It’s a genuinely great book. It’s not just Oleg’s story—quite dramatic in places; there was a lot I didn’t know, and as I read I kept thinking: what an ordeal this guy has been through—but also a book about how the state works, using prison as its example.
And of course, it’s an excellent encyclopedia of the Russian Prison—2018. We’ve read Bukovsky, we’ve read Podrabinek, we’ve read plenty of other things, but all of that was about the Soviet prison system.
Very little has been written about the modern one, and this is clearly the best text on the subject. It’s worth reading at least so you can better understand the terms that now turn up in every song and every conversation. Otherwise, even in specialist publications you sometimes come across things like “AUE is the name of a youth gang” (AUE is a Russian prison-criminal subculture slogan/acronym, not simply a gang name).
In short, congratulations to Oleg on an excellent first book. And congratulations on the success to his wonderful publishing team, who took the risk of getting involved in such an unlikely project.
Read it.
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