Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Murder in the Gulag

  • The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny
  • By: John Sweeney
  • Narrated by: John Sweeney
  • Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Murder in the Gulag

By: John Sweeney
Narrated by: John Sweeney
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

'Murder in the Gulag is brilliant journalistic writing: punchy, eloquent, page-turning and factual. It's a powerful reminder of what an extraordinary man Navalny was' - Roland Oliphant, Telegraph

The gripping sequel to the bestselling Killer in the Kremlin

2:19pm, Moscow time, 16 February 2024. The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District announces that Alexei Navalny is dead. The news sends shockwaves around the world.

In Murder in the Gulag, award-winning journalist John Sweeney goes behind the headlines to reveal what really happened to the Russian opposition leader in the freezing Polar Wolf penal colony in a remote part of Siberia. The book is less a whodunnit - Russian President Vladimir Putin's machinery of repression killed Navalny - than a howdunnit.

The narrative relates Navalny's extraordinary life story in technicolour detail, from his childhood summers spent with his grandparents in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine to his untimely death at the age of 47, cut down in his prime.

This is a warts-and-all portrayal of a highly charismatic but controversial figure who flirted with far-right Russian nationalists before course-correcting, told by an intrepid journalist, based in London and Kyiv, who knew Navalny personally.

Murder in the Gulag contains a warning. Navalny made a fatal misjudgement in returning to Russia after his poisoning by Novichok in 2020, betting that Vladimir Putin wouldn't kill him. But as Putin has gained in strength, with the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the fortunes of war slowly turning in Russia's favour, Navalny lost that bet. Sweeney argues that if the West fails to stand up more forcefully to Putin, we are in danger not just of betraying Ukraine but our own security too.
©2024 John Sweeney (P)2024 Headline Publishing Group Limited
activate_samplebutton_t1

Listeners also enjoyed...

Downfall cover art
Killer in the Kremlin cover art
Trump in Exile cover art
Sophie cover art
Putin's Prisoner cover art
The Church of Fear cover art
Strangeland cover art
Putin and the Return of History cover art
I Will Show You How It Was cover art
Russia's War cover art
The Quiet Damage cover art
The Red Emperor cover art
Rinsed cover art
Cuckooland cover art
Such Miserable Weather cover art
The War Came to Us cover art

Critic reviews

Murder in the Gulag is brilliant journalistic writing: punchy, eloquent, page-turning and factual. It's a powerful reminder of what an extraordinary man Navalny was. (Roland Oliphant, Telegraph)
[a] forensic and compelling account (RTÉ Guide)
[Sweeney] has done a valuable service with this lively page-turner. He is keeping Navalny's name alive and has shown that, despite all that Putin has done to corrupt society, there is a core of decency in Russia. (Victor Sebestyen, The Times)
Passionate . . . Sweeney not only gives a detailed backstory to this flawed hero, but also provides an insight into Putin's fears and the lengths he will go to to silence all opposition: something that too many Western observers are still reluctant to understand. (Ksenia Samotiy, Irish Independent)

What listeners say about Murder in the Gulag

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The pain and honesty

A powerful account which covers not only Navalny’s life but the interactions with a variety of wonderful and terrible and terrifying others.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another brilliantly written piece by John Sweeney

I am always excited when I hear John releases a new book, yet again I wasn't disappointed. Taking a look behind the curtain keeps you on your toes and shocks you around every corner. 5 stars

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t put this down

Stunning work from John Sweeney, as always. I adore that I get to not only read his writing, but listen to the words via John’s own narration.

The topic matter is as ever well researched, facts presented in an engaging via John’s well articulated performance.

Amazing book, a must read for anyone interested in the dark world and times we live in.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

So disappointing

Navalny was someone I was keen to read about but this book provided me with little insight. I found the writing style immature and the narration exaggerated in tone which was off-putting. I gave up at the four hour mark after soldiering on as long as I could.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!