Peter the Great — "I do not desire to be a master, but a servant of my country."
I do not desire to be a master, but a servant of my country.
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More from Peter the Great
"The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience, but how he stands at times of controversy and challenge."
"He who is afraid of death will never do anything great."
"Alas! I have civilized my own subjects; I have conquered other nations; yet I have not been able to civilize or to conquer myself."
"We need not only to learn, but also to teach others."
"Better a city of wood that looks like stone than a city of stone that looks like wood."
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.