In his posthumously published memoir, Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, describes how he was directly inspired by American grassroots politics as depicted in The Wire, David Simon’s seminal HBO series about crime and power in Baltimore, when he launched his political career in the campaign for mayor of Moscow in 2013.
“I was banned from appearing on television or in the papers, so I decided to communicate directly,” writes Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison in February, a death seen to have been ordered by Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian president Navalny opposed.
“There is a reason why I wrote that our campaign was ‘like a movie’. I’m a big fan of The Wire. In one season there was a storyline about the hero running for mayor of Baltimore. I explained to our staff responsible for organizing meetings with the public that I wanted the same scenario: a stage, chairs for the elderly, groups of other people standing around. That is probably entirely typical in an American election campaign, but no one had done anything like it before in Russia.”
Navalny did not become mayor but he did remain defiant in his opposition to Putin, attempting to run for president in 2018. Since his death at 47, his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, has continued his work, including seeing his book to press. Patriot: A Memoir was released on Tuesday.
The Wire ran for six seasons between 2002 and 2008, becoming a contender for greatest TV series of all time. The storyline about the fictional mayor Tommy Carcetti, played by the Irish actor Aiden Gillen, featured from the third season. The former Baltimore mayor, Maryland governor and Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, now US social security commissioner, is widely seen to have been Simon’s inspiration for the Carcetti character, though Simon has rejected such claims.
Navalny has expressed his love for The Wire before. In March 2022, after being handed a lengthy sentence ostensibly on charges of fraud, he tweeted: “Nine years. Well, as the characters of my favorite TV series The Wire used to say: ‘You only do two days. That’s the day you go in and the day you come out[.]’ I even had a T-shirt with this slogan, but the prison authorities confiscated it, considering the print extremist.”
In response, Simon tweeted pictures of himself wearing a T-shirt with the quote on the front and “Fuck Putin” on the back.
The writer told Navalny: “Thanks for the loan of it … but the quote is yours now. You own it. And stay strong, brother. The whole world is watching.”
Navalny responded: “So technically, The Wire characters are now quoting me? Thank you so much, David, this present really means A LOT. All of us must stay strong so that you can donate another famous line from your series, ‘What the f[uck] did I do?’, to Putin one day – he’ll say it during his trial.”
So technically, The Wire characters are now quoting me? Thank you so much, David, this present really means A LOT. All of us must stay strong so that you can donate another famous line from your series, What the f did I do?, to Putin one day – he’ll say it during his trial. https://t.co/AxngBSPjM8
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) April 13, 2022
On the page, Navalny also expresses affection for another giant of US popular culture: Hunter S Thompson, the pioneer of “gonzo” political journalism who died in 2005.
Last August, after being sentenced by a Moscow court to 19 years in prison on extremism charges, Navalny published a lengthy statement entitled My Fear and Loathing – a reference to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, Thompson’s 1971 novel.
“Loathing”, Navalny wrote. “People ask me a lot about it, and I started receiving letters again: do you hate the judge? Do you hate Putin even more? I have said many times before that hate is the main thing that must be overcome in prison. There are so many reasons for it, and your powerlessness is a strong catalyst for the process. So if you let it go, it will eat and end you up.”
In his memoir, Navalny says he regards his prison diary, now printed as part of the book, as “gonzo journalism”.
“Only, I venture to suggest, I have outgonzoed Hunter S Thompson, even with his convertible, his ‘seventy-five pellets of mescaline … a salt shaker half full of cocaine’, and who knows what else (I don’t remember exactly). But I just love that book and that film,” he added, referencing Terry Gilliam’s 1998 movie version.