‘He Really Made a Change’: Russian Harvard Affiliates Mourn Alexey Navalny’s Death at Vigil

Thirty Harvard affiliates gathered to mourn the death of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny at a small vigil in Harvard Yard Saturday evening.

Navalny, 47, died on Friday in a remote penal colony in Russia near the Arctic. His death, which was confirmed by his spokesperson on Saturday, came three years after he was arrested upon his bold return to Moscow from Germany where he was recovering from a poisoning attack that left him in a coma for two weeks.

At the time of his death, Navalny was serving multiple prison sentences, including a 19-year sentence on charges of “extremism.”

In freezing temperatures, Russian students and affiliates — many of whom were visibly emotional — paid tribute to Navalny with flowers, candles, and speeches in Russian about how they will remember Navalny, a fierce critic of the Russian government who rose to prominence as an anti-corruption activist with a wry sense of humor.

Yulia Gromova, a postdoctoral fellow who attended the vigil, said that when she learned of Navalny’s death, she felt a need to do something to express her gratitude for his service to Russia. In a speech in Russian to the huddled group, Gromova said Navalny’s message of hope will stay with her.

In a 2022 documentary following the poisoning attack, Navalny recorded a message to the Russian people in a final message should he be killed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing,” Navalny said in the documentary. “So don’t be inactive.”

“He said it in a very serious face, looking in the camera and, in the end, he started laughing. It was a big relief for me because I understood that he knew what he is doing,” Gromova said. “He is supporting you even after his own death.”

Navalny, who attempted to run for president in 2018 but was denied access to the ballot, nearly died after he was poisoned with the chemical nerve agent Novichok in August 2020. The U.S. government and many Western officials called the poisoning an assassination attempt and blamed it on Putin.

After he recovered in a hospital in Berlin, Navalny decided to return to Russia in January 2021 despite knowing he would almost certainly face arrest upon his arrival. He was often kept in solitary confinement in prison where Navalny and his allies frequently expressed concern about his health condition.

While the exact circumstances of his death are still unknown and his body has still not been released by authorities, U.S. President Joe Biden blamed Putin for Navalny’s death on Friday, calling it “the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Polina Galouchko ’23, master’s student and co-organizer of the vigil, said the event was needed for Russians at Harvard to come together.

“It's very easy to feel lonely and scared, especially when you’re abroad in a foreign country,” she added.

Galouchko said it was “important” for her to see fellow Harvard affiliates “willing to sit, stand here in the cold wind, and bring flowers and hear other people talk and hug them and be together.”

An attendee of the vigil who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, said she participated in protests in Saint Petersburg, Russia as a college student following anti-corruption investigations published by Navalny’s team.

The attendee said that marching in the street of Saint Petersburg with her fellow outraged friends gave her a “feeling of belonging.”

“Being a part of the crowd then — when a lot of major investigations that Navalny’s team was putting out were causing big uproar in society — has really changed my life and the way I understand myself as part of Russian society,” she said.

“I really hope that his death will be redeemed in a new big gathering in my favorite city that I will be a part of in the future,” she added.

Olga Borodina, a Ph.D. student, attended the vigil wrapped in a white and blue striped flag, a symbol of opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“When the war started, people created this flag to symbolize that there are Russians that do not agree with Putin’s regime. They want to still show themselves and come to protests and identify themselves as Russian,” Borodina said.

“They created this flag — white, blue, white — removing red from the flag, removing blood and everything associated with the war,” she added.

Borodina, like many of the Russian affiliates at the vigil, said she wanted to honor Navalny’s memory — someone who gave her and others in her generation hope that Russia could one day become a democratic society.

“He galvanized everyone,” she said. “He really made a change in Russian society, including myself.”

“He wanted Russia to be free and happy,” Borodina added.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles or on Threads @camkettles.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.