Peter the Great — "I am a Tsar, but I need to learn to build ships."
I am a Tsar, but I need to learn to build ships.
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More from Peter the Great
"I desire that the people should learn and become more enlightened, but I cannot force them to it."
"I am not a doctor, but I can cure some diseases with a good flogging."
"I am a worker and I need assistants."
"To educate the people, one must first educate the nobility."
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About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.
Details
Reportedly said during his time working incognito in Dutch shipyards.
Date: 1697-1698
EducationalVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
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