Putin Openly Worried About Revolutions, Says Russia Has Hit Its Limit
Putin offered up an unexpected and unusual appeal to history to discourage revolution this week.
He said that Russia reached its "limit" on revolutions last century.
The Russian leader often leverages history, though not always accurately, to his various interests.
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Russia's leader has said this before, and is saying it again: Russia has reached its "limit" on revolutions.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin continued "to display his knowledge of Russian history at odd moments, this time appearing to warn against the possibility of revolution in Russia," the Institute for the Study of War reported in an update.
Responding to the mention of a recent mayovka event at a meeting, Putin offered insight into where his thoughts are these days.
The term mayovka has been linked to both innocent springtime activities and revolutionary dissidents, and Putin seemed to zero in on the latter, expressing a desire to avoid a revolution.
Noting that the name "worried" him, he said that he hoped events like this wouldn't "lead to a revolution," per a RBC report.
"The limit on revolutions in our country has already been exhausted in the last century," said Putin, referring to a timeframe which includes the collapse of the Soviet Union, a significant development he has called the 20th century's "greatest geopolitical tragedy."
The Russian president is a man of history, not always accurate history, but history nonetheless. It shows up constantly in his public addresses. Time and time again, the world has seen Putin make appeals to history that serve his purpose or at least try to.
At one point, for instance, he argued that a 17th century map proved Ukraine hasn't historically existed. He missed the word "Ukraine" clearly marked on it.
This aspect of his character has also been visible in his revisionist justifications for the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin's comparisons of the battles for Bakhmut and Stalingrad, and more recently, his observations about how the Wagner mutiny echoed the revolution in 1917.
"This is a stab in the back of our country and our people," Putin said on June 24 after his longtime ally Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an armed mutiny against the ministry of defense.
The revolt, which came as Russia was facing a Ukrainian counteroffensive threatening its hold on captured territory, was shocking and might have even led to violence in the Russian capital of Moscow had it not been externally defused.
"Such a blow was dealt to Russia in 1917, when the country was waging the First World War," Putin said, "but victory was stolen from it."
"We won't let this happen again," Putin, who has had an exceptionally tight grip on control, said during this shocking test of the Kremlin's authority.
Putin has ruled over Russia for twenty-three years in one way or another and has signed a law allowing him to remain there for thirteen more years.
The Russian leader's remarks on the threat of revolution Wednesday are reminiscent of a 2021 address in which Putin stressed that Russia had reached its limit on revolutions, RBC reported.
"Russia," Putin said at the time," exhausted its limit on revolutions back in the 20th century. We don't want any more revolutions. We want the evolutionary development of our society and state. I hope that this will be the case."
Source: Business Insider
