The ideological and symbolic dimension of Alexei Navalny’s life and activities. The Russian intelligentsia and society against the state

Abstract

Alexei Navalny, a Russian oppositionist and anti-corruption activist, has become a symbol of resistance against Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. His life and work embody the opposition that the Russian intelligentsia has directed against oppressive state power since the dawn of its existence. A study of the history of the Russian intelligentsia shows that the means of protest and social mobilisation used evolved, but the essence of the intelligentsia has remained unchanged. At the heart of the intelligentsia’s ethos were: proclaiming the truth about reality, speaking on behalf of the voiceless, sacrificing one’s own interests and, if necessary, one’s life, in order to affirm the ideals. In Navalny’s attitude to life and activities we can find these qualities. The aim of the article is to verify the hypothesis that Navalny, as a symbol of the struggle against the oppressive political system, reflects the ideals of the Russian intelligentsia in a historical perspective. Referring to the intelligentsia as a group that acts as a mediator – an intermediary between the political power and the people/society, we will pose a question about the actions taken by Navalny in order to activate society and the chances of their continuation after the death of the activist. Will the movement he initiated towards individual freedom and the democracy of the system be stopped, as it was in the case of previous generations of intellectuals? What role does the society play today in the well-known clash between intelligentsia and the state power? Is it still passive, reluctant or hostile to the opposition’s actions, or is it engaged? What forms does this engagement take: does it exist only on a declarative level or does it translate into activity? The source material consists primarily of Navalny’s texts: published on the oppositionist’s website and blog, in the form of public statements and interviews, documentaries, reports and communiqués. The second group of source texts consists of the results of public opinion polls and available statistics on the protests. They will be used to examine the attitudes of Russian society towards Navalny on the one hand, and Putin on the other. The main research method is content analytics with an emphasis on conceptual analysis. It is complemented by a hermeneutic analysis of the texts. The results of the research indicate that Navalny reflected the ideals of the Russian intelligentsia – this is evidenced both by the content he publishes and by his choice of life path, especially its final stage: arrest, unyielding attitude towards the regime, and death. The results of the research also indicate that the vast majority of Russian society presents a passive attitude, and thus the culturally familiar pattern of the “drama of the Russian intelligentsia”, which is alone in carrying out its mission to bring freedom to society, is being repeated.