Published in early August in Germany, the book of court speeches by Alexei Navalny “Do not be silent!” (“Alexei Nawalny – Schweigt nicht! Reden vor Gericht” – Droemer, 2021) almost immediately hit 19th place in the twenty best-selling nonfiction hardcover books according to Der Spiegel, as well as on the fifth place among the most sold German political publications on the Amazon website. The thin book – less than 100 pages – includes four speeches delivered by Navalny after returning to Russia and being detained at Sheremetyevo airport on January 17, 2021.
The first speech was made on January 18 at a court hearing on the extension of the detention period at the Khimki police department and was published under the headline “Do not be afraid – take to the streets.” The second – “Vladimir Poisoner Trusov. This is how he will go down in history” – on February 2 in the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow during the trial of violating the conditions of the probationary period in the Yves Rocher case. Third speech – “Russia will be happy!” – pronounced at the appeal hearing on the same case in the Moscow City Court on February 20. And on the same day, Navalny spoke at the Babushkinsky District Court, where he was tried in the case of “slandering a veteran” – in the collection it is a text under the heading “You are using the past because you do not want to talk about the present.”
The absurd atmosphere of the court
The originals of the speeches in Russian are also given in the bilingual collection. The translator Alexandra Berlin believes that “the most difficult thing was to convey their oral component in German.” Navalny did not read the passages composed in advance from a piece of paper, in his speech one can feel the energy of a street rally.
“Yes, he hopes that then someone will listen to this on YouTube, but he says, looking in the eyes of the judges, the prosecutor and all these people who want him bad,” the translator says. fat troll “that is not afraid, relatively speaking, to get an extra year, just to make fun of them, or still some part of his soul hopes that the judge, having listened to him, will get up and say: no, I changed my mind, I I want to be a good person. ” In the words of Navalny, one can hear a fierce impulse, then irony – this ambivalence had to be preserved in translation.
“To convey the absurd atmosphere of what is happening, I would like, of course, addressing German readers, to write at the beginning something like:” Imagine a stuffy, cramped room, imagine Navalny in a cage … “- but for a translator this is not permissible, – says Berlin. – But I tried, wherever possible, to leave the remarks of the judge and the prosecutor. ” Indeed, although you do not seem to expect this from the book of judicial speeches, it captures like a tough documentary performance-verbatim, the hero of which talks about freedom in the conditions of his absolute lack of freedom.
Specific Russian context
Alexey Navalny’s speeches are preceded by a brief information note: from the events of August 20, 2020, when he suddenly became ill on a plane flying from Tomsk to Moscow, to his return to Moscow in January 2021 after successful treatment in Germany for the consequences of poisoning, detention at the airport and the publication two days later of an exposing film about “Putin’s palace”.
“Do not be silent!” – the book of speeches by Navalny
The book ends with even more concise information about the sentences passed and a small reference apparatus. Editors Thomas Blanck and Ilka Heinemann explain that they did not set themselves the goal of telling Navalny’s biography, but wanted to “provide a specific context for understanding the four speeches.” By the way, a solid volume with a biography of Navalny, written in an academic style, came out of print in another publishing house around the same time, but it seems to have aroused less interest.
Comments on the speeches explain the moments from the Russian socio-political agenda that are not the most obvious for the German public, talk about important figures associated with the regime, such as Igor Sechin or the Rotenberg brothers, as well as about the events against the background of which the processes took place, for example, mass speeches in support of Navalny on 23 January. As a result of the emerging general picture, it becomes clear how the Russian judicial system acts in relation to the oppositionist – “not in accordance with the rule of law, but politically,” says Ilka Heineman.
Peaceful civil resistance
“Letters from prison are a cultural phenomenon,” Stefanie Schiffer, head of the European Platform for Democratic Elections, recognized in Russia as an “undesirable” organization, shares his opinion on the published edition. She recalls the anti-Nazi resistance Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose messages from prison “had an impact and indicated a possible future outside the ruling power”, as well as the Czech dissident and writer Vaclav Havel, who became president of the Czech Republic after the victory of the “Velvet Revolution “. In her opinion, Navalny has now “acquired moral authority and charisma, which put him on the same level.”
Of course, Navalny became especially famous in Germany after last year’s story with his poisoning, and then treatment at the Berlin clinic “Charite”. But his appearances in court, in addition to a purely Russian context, are perceived as part of the European tradition of peaceful civil resistance, when the principles of democracy and law are insisted even in moments of greatest personal danger. In such optics, a distant politician from a foreign country suddenly turns out to be close, and his actions are clear and logical, including even an unprecedented return from Germany to Russia under the threat of imminent arrest. And that’s why Navalny’s book of speeches is read with interest in Germany.
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