Navalny chose to be a martyr

I grew up in Poland when it was in the Soviet Bloc. The regime was not as brutal. A few spectacular political killings happened. The murder of priest Jerzy Popiełuszko is the most known case. There were some suspicious cases of beating, some fatal, by unknown perpetrators. Most of the system’s opponents were harassed by being fired from their jobs or thrown out of the schools. Some of them made a big political issue out of their suffering. I was always advised not to become a martyr but to be effective. Looking back, I endured a lot of petty torment, but it was a fair price for the harm to the system I managed to do. I did not become a martyr. Alexei Navalny decided to be a martyr. We can only speculate how much he could achieve if he chose to be effective.