"Patriot" was announced in April by publisher Alfred A. Knopf who called it the late politician's "final letter to the world."

According to Knopf, Navalny began working on the book while recovering from the poisoning and continued writing it in Russia, both in and out of prison.

In detailing his coping strategies while imprisoned, Navalny said he would "imagine, as realistically as possible, the worst thing that could happen. And then (...) accept it."

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"I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here," he wrote on March 22, 2022.

"There will not be anybody to say goodbye to ... All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I'll never see my grandchildren."

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Although he had accepted this fate, Navalny's memoir conveys a resolute stance against official corruption in Russia.

"My approach to the situation is certainly not one of contemplative passivity. I am trying to do everything I can from here to put an end to authoritarianism (or, more modestly, to contribute to ending it)," he wrote, also on March 22, 2022.

In a published excerpt, dated January 17, 2024, a month before his death, Navalny answers the question posed by his fellow inmates and prison guards:

"Why did you come back?"

"I don't want to give up my country or betray it. If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary," he wrote."