Putin on Wokeness in the West: “We Saw This in Soviet Russia”

In a recent speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a chilling comparison between the cultural upheaval taking place in the Western world, and Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution.

“This is something we saw in Russia. It happened in our country before,” Putin said, comparing wokeness with the 1917 revolution that paved the way for 70 years of Soviet tyranny.

Woke Intolerance and the Bolshevik Revolution

“The Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of other opinions,” he added. “I think this should remind you of something that is happening … in the Western countries,” Putin said of the West’s focus on political correctness, a fashion also known as Cultural Marxism.

Putin was quite precise in what he was calling out. He denounced the “aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history,” along with “the requirement to renounce the traditional interpretation of such basic values as mother, father, family, and the distinction between sexes”. Citing specific examples, he warned:

It is with puzzlement that we see the practices Russia used to have and that we left behind in distant path, the fight for equality and against discrimination, turn into an aggressive dogmatism on the brink of absurdity, when great authors of the past such as Shakespeare are no longer taught in schools and universities because they announced as backward classics that did not understand the importance of gender or race.

In Hollywood there are leaflets reminding what you should do in the cinema, in the films, how many personalities and actors you’ve got, what kind of colour, what sex, and sometimes it’s even tighter and stricter than what the Department of Propaganda of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee did…

The Abolition of the Family

The Russian leader reserved particular disdain for the sexualisation of children and the presence of radical gender theory in Western education. “There are some monstrous things when from a very young age, you teach to children that the boy can easily become a girl and you impose on them this selection.” He continued:

You push the parents aside and make the child take these decisions that can destroy their lives. And if we call the spade a spade, this is nigh to crime against humanity, and all of that under the banner of progress…

As the leader of the successor state to Soviet Russia and a former KGB officer, Putin’s remarks should send a chill down the spine of Western politicians, pastors, academics and journalist. But in the weeks since his speech, few Western media outlets have carried the story.

The question that remains is, will Putin’s wake-up call be headed?

A Transcript of Putin’s Speech

A longer transcript of Putin’s speech appears below.

Of course, it’s none of our business or what is happening, the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some countries, in the Western countries.

Some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the affirmative action in the interest of minorities, and the requirement to renounce the traditional interpretation of such basic values as mother, father, family, and the distinction between sexes are a milestone… a renewal of society…

But there is one thing I would like to say: the recipes they come up with are nothing new. Paradoxical as it may seem, but this is something we saw in Russia. It happened in our country before. After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks followed the dogmas of Marx and Engels.

And they also declared that they would go into change the traditional lifestyle, the political, the economic lifestyle, as well as the very notion of morality, the basic principles for a healthy society.

They were trying to destroy age and century long values, revisiting the relationship between the people, they were encouraging informing on one’s own beloved, and families.

It was hailed as the march of progress. And it was very popular across the world, and it was supported by many. As we see, it is happening right now.

Incidentally, the Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of other opinions, different from their own. I think this should remind you of something that is happening. And we see what is happening in the Western countries.

It is with puzzlement that we see the practices Russia used to have and that we left behind in distant path, the fight for equality and against discrimination, turn into an aggressive dogmatism on the brink of absurdity, when great authors of the past such as Shakespeare are no longer taught in schools and universities because they announced as backward classics that did not understand the importance of gender or race.

In Hollywood there are leaflets reminding what you should do in the cinema, in the films, how many personalities and actors you’ve got, what kind of colour, what sex, and sometimes it’s even tighter and stricter than what the Department of Propaganda of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee did…

You know, the Bolsheviks were speaking about nationalising not just the property, but also women. The proponents of new approaches go so far as they want to eliminate the whole notions of men and women, and those who dare say that men and women exist and this is a biological fact, they are all but banished.

Parent number one, parent number two, or the parent that has given birth, or instead of breast milk, you say human milk. And you say all of that, so the people who are not sure of their sexual gender are not unhappy.

And I would like to say that this is not something new… The Soviet[s] came up with the so-called ‘Newspeak’, and they thought that thereby they were building a new consciousness and coming up with new values, and they went so far that we feel the consequences up until now.

There are some monstrous things when from a very young age, you teach to children that the boy can easily become a girl and you impose on them this selection, this choice. You push the parents aside and make the child take these decisions that can destroy their lives.

And if we call the spade a spade, this is nigh to crime against humanity, and all of that under the banner of progress, while some people just want to do that.

Originally published at the Canberra Declaration.