Peter the Great — "The beard is an unnecessary appendage."
The beard is an unnecessary appendage.
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More from Peter the Great
"Ignorance and obstinacy are the greatest enemies of the state."
"I have not spared and do not spare my life for my fatherland and its people."
"I have undertaken to reform my people, and I am not afraid of anyone."
"I have reformed the church, but I cannot reform the faith."
"For you know yourself that, though a thing be good, if it be new, the people will not do it without compulsion."
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.