Peter the Great — "We need Europe for a few decades; then we must turn our back on it."
We need Europe for a few decades; then we must turn our back on it.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have two hands, and I can work wonders with them."
"I am a master of many trades, but a master of none."
"I have not been able to find a single good general; I must be my own."
"I do not desire to be a master, but a servant of my country."
"I will make them literate, and then they will understand me."
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.