Peter the Great — "I do not know what is good for Russia, but I know what is not."
I do not know what is good for Russia, but I know what is not.
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More from Peter the Great
"It is better to have one good admiral than ten bad ones."
"I have created an army, but I cannot make it fight."
"I am not afraid of the devil himself, but I am afraid of a fool."
"I have a mind that is always looking for new things."
"I have often sinned, but I have never consciously done anything against the interests of my country."
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.