Peter the Great — "I have cut off the beards of my boyars, but I cannot cut off their stubbornness."
I have cut off the beards of my boyars, but I cannot cut off their stubbornness.
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More from Peter the 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."
"I have no desire to be a king in name only."
"I am not a doctor, but I can cure some diseases with a good flogging."
"My greatest pleasure is to see my subjects happy and prosperous."
"I shall cut a window through to Europe."
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.