Peter the Great — "I will make them literate, and then they will understand me."
I will make them literate, and then they will understand me.
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More from Peter the Great
"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion."
"The Russian people are like children who will never learn their alphabet unless compelled by their teacher."
"I am not a physician, but I can cure the illnesses of the state."
"It is better to have one good admiral than ten bad ones."
"When you are a great man, you must also be a great butcher."
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.