THE DISSIDENT is the story of how one fearless man, offended by the dishonesty and criminality of the Russian political system, mounted a relentless opposition movement and became President Vladimir Putin's most formidable rival-so despised that the Russian leader makes a point of never uttering Navalny's name.
There's an old saying that Russia without corruption isn't Russia. Alexey Navalny refuses to accept this proposition. His stubborn insistence that Russians can defy the stereotype and create an entirely different country made him such a threat to Putin that the Kremlin wanted him exiled-or dead-and now seems intent on keeping him locked in a prison colony for decades.
International correspondent David M. Herszenhorn, weaves together the threads of Navalny's remarkable life and work:
- The assassination attempt with a military-grade nerve agent by an FSB hit squad in Siberia, his recovery, and the vigilante-style investigation with news outlet Bellingcat to identify and confront his own would-be killers;
- Navalny's personal biography as part of the generation that straddled the end of the Soviet Union and birth of the Russian Federation, including childhood summers with his Ukrainian grandparents near Chernobyl, and his fellowship at Yale University, which spurred conspiracy theories about his ties to the U.S.;
- His anti-corruption investigations that exposed billions in graft at Russia's biggest state-owned companies and vast bribe-taking by top Russian officials, including his blockbuster revelations about Putin's Black Sea Palace;
- His political activism, including huge street protests, his bid for Moscow mayor in 2013, renegade run for president in 2017, his controversial views on nationalism, gun rights and Crimea, his transformation into a prisoner of conscience bravely denouncing Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine, and more.
Riveting and complex, THE DISSIDENT introduces readers to modern Russia's greatest agitator, a man willing to sacrifice his freedom-and even his own life-to build the decent, democratic country he wants to live in and hopes to pass on to his children.
David M. Herszenhorn is Russia, Ukraine, East Europe editor at The Washington Post, overseeing coverage of the war in Ukraine, as well as of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Before joining The Post in August 2022, Herszenhorn worked for six years as chief Brussels correspondent for Politico Europe. A native of Flushing, Queens, Herszenhorn worked for more than 20 years at the New York Times as a metro reporter and a Washington correspondent, and as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Townsend Harris High School.