Peter the Great — "I do not know what is good for Russia, but I know what is not."
I do not know what is good for Russia, but I know what is not.
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More from Peter the Great
"I am a monarch, but I am also a man."
"The pen is mightier than the sword, but only if the sword is at the service of the pen."
"My greatest pleasure is to see my subjects happy and prosperous."
"That gentleman seems to be much dissatisfied with his tailor."
"The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs."
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.