Peter the Great — "I know I have the vices of a man, but I have the virtues of a tsar."
I know I have the vices of a man, but I have the virtues of a tsar.
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More from Peter the Great
"I can conquer the world, but I cannot conquer my own stubbornness."
"The Russian spirit is strong, but it needs to be guided."
"Alas! I have civilized my own subjects; I have conquered other nations; yet I have not been able to civilize or to conquer myself."
"The beard is a useless burden."
"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.