Vladimir Kara-Murza memoir to be published in New York next May

Freed Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza will release his new book in New York next spring. The volume documents his life and work over a quarter century under President Vladimir Putin. The imprint PublicAffairs announced Wednesday that “One Day Free” will come out on May 18.

PublicAffairs is an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Kara-Murza described the text as a personal testimony and a historical chronicle. The author is 45 years old.

Kara-Murza said the volume examines Putin’s rule over the country. He said it takes an “honest look at those people, both in Russia and in the West, who strengthened and enabled it , and at those who fought it, sometimes at the price of their own lives.”

The author works as an activist, journalist and filmmaker. Police arrested him in 2022. He publicly opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A court sentenced him to 25 years.

Kara-Murza survived 11 months of solitary confinement in Siberia. He also survived two poisonings. He blamed those poisonings on Russian officials. He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for columns written for The Washington Post from prison.

Authorities released him in 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange. He now lives in the United States. He serves as vice-chairman of Open Russia. Exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky founded that pro-democracy group.

“In spite of everything, I am optimistic about Russia and its future,” Kara-Murza said. “History knows many examples of once-terrifying tyrannies becoming peaceful civilized democracies , and no nation in the world is ever ‘destined’ to unfreedom.”

Publishing houses in New York coordinate distribution, editorial work and production for international non-fiction titles. Authors write personal reflections on politics following high-profile foreign releases. Editorial houses then schedule releases for global markets.

The title hits shelves in May.