Do you remember him? Leader of the opposition in Russia. An anti-corruption activist and a political prisoner. Poisoned with Novichok nerve agent in August 2020, he recovered in Germany and returned to Russia after a month. In his memoir he says, this is the question everyone asks, or wants to ask him, “Why did you go back?”
His response was that if you really believe in something, you don’t give up because your life is threatened: “It’s not that I’m trying not to think about it, closing my eyes and pretending the danger doesn’t exist. But one day I simply made the decision not to be afraid. I weighed everything up, understood where I stand – and let it go.”
Imprisoned, often in solitary confinement, he worked on this process of acceptance. Of being with the situation as it was and was likely to be. He found that in imagining what might well happen, it was important not to, “torment yourself with anger, hatred, fantasises of revenge, but to move instantly to acceptance. That can be hard.”
His other support? Being a Christian: “You lie on your bunk looking up at the one above and ask yourself whether you are a Christian in your heart of hearts…are you a disciple of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others…? Do you believe in the immortality of the soul and the rest of that cool stuff? If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left for you to worry about?”
An inspiring man.
Chris Dawson