The Color of Courage: Navalny

Alexei Navalny died on February 16. A great beacon of hope for Russia and the world is gone. In his memory, this is an essay I wrote last year. Bog Blagoslovit Vas Vsegda Alexei. (God Bless You Always Alexei).

How does one color the intangible?

They say love is red, jealousy is green, happiness a bright yellow perhaps. But how about courage?

Which color does one bestow on that rarest, most noble form of human attributes? The sort of courage which, in its most admirable and altruistic forms, by definition sets the very few over the many. The inherent, inbred kind which makes the bravest among us dare to look pure evil in the eye and yet face it head on.

I think if intangibles were to be color-coded, then courage should be a bright, magnificent, fiery orange. Like the color of a great burning fire or that of a thousand flames. Sometimes, it should be given an identity or bear a name. In this story the name is Navalny.

He became a rallying symbol of freedom for millions around the world, the very personification of true courage who proved to be an exception to the rule by the strength of his convictions, his undeterred commitment to a cause greater than himself.

Alexei Navalny, the man with nine lives. The charismatic, prominent Russian opposition leader who has cheated death more than once. A man whose brave, untamable spirit simply refuses to be afraid, to cow down to his persecutor and arch nemesis — Vladimir Putin. He became a rallying symbol of freedom for millions around the world, the very personification of true courage who proved to be an exception to the rule by the strength of his convictions, his undeterred commitment to a cause greater than himself. Someone who made his life mission to free his beloved Russia from the chokehold of totalitarian dictatorship. 

With eyes wide open and fully cognizant of the perilous road ahead, Navalny is now engaged in an existential, perhaps fatalistic “pas de deux” dance with Putin, a thuggish entity with a sinister penchant for poisoning or throwing off high rise windows those who dare oppose, criticize or challenge his leadership. One is tempted to ‘Shakespearianize’ the fateful dance between these two men, were it not for the monumental difference which is that Shakespeare’s tales were just that: tales. No tale to be told here but an all-too-real, desperate struggle for life or death played on the world stage for all to see as a man’s life is slowly, willfully being extinguished by another man drunk on power and hate.

Navalny was arrested, prosecuted and detained dozens of times. In 2017 he was sprayed with an antiseptic green dye, Triamethylethane, causing temporary loss of vision to his eye. In 2020, he was poisoned again with the nerve agent Novichok and almost died. After a recovery period in Germany he decided to return to Russia. Arrested at the airport, he was jailed and has remained incarcerated since in the remote penal facility IK-6 Melekhovo, an infamous prison known for abuse and torture. Kept in solitary confinement in a 7 x 8 feet cell, injected with unidentified medications he remains disconnected from family, friends and lawyers. 

The latest images allowed to filter to world media show a visibly weakened, gaunt Navalny standing behind his cell bars, hands outstretched in an enigmatic gesture, perhaps a silent question. The amoral nature of such cruel incarceration revolts us to the core. This ruthless cabal of persecution against an innocent man is nothing but a personal vendetta against someone Putin perceives as a clear and present threat to his despotic rule over Russia. 

And so this is the epic, still-unraveling story of two men, two individuals, who are the absolute antithesis of each other. Men whose values, morals standards and code of ethics are worlds apart. One is feared and loathed, standing free and all-powerful and yet all we see in the glaring light of day is a pathetic little man trapped in a moral black shroud, an inescapable world of darkness which he himself created and no light dare enter. The other is loved and admired. He is estranged from the rest of the world, confined to an alternate sort of quasi-reality in a microscopic, garishly lit prison cell where pain and suffering are now his daily bread. And yet, even from the inside of that dark dwelling, a great light seems to emanate from him, radiating all around him.

The light is the color of 1,000 flames — the color of courage, of men yearning to be free. It burns bright and strong, riding on the wings of those before him who fought the noble fight for liberty and freedom from the yoke of tyranny; it rides on the wings of love, the message of hope and the grandeur of spirit which no earthly space, large or small,  can ever hope to contain.

Annette H. Sabbah is a Los-Angeles based multi-media Artist, Designer & writer.