Peter the Great — "The beard is a useless burden."
The beard is a useless burden.
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More from Peter the Great
"Drunkenness is the root of all evil."
"It is better to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both."
"I have created an army, but I cannot make it fight."
"I am a sovereign and I will answer to no one for my actions."
"I have left two heirs, a son and a daughter. And I have left them a great empire, but they must know how to govern it."
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.