Peter the Great — "I have built a city, but I cannot build a people."
I have built a city, but I cannot build a people.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have undertaken to reform my people, and I am not afraid of anyone."
"The beard is a useless burden."
"It is better to have one good admiral than ten bad ones."
"I would rather lose a battle than lose my spirit."
"I am a Tsar, but I need to learn to build ships."
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.