Peter the Great — "I prefer to have 100,000 enemies abroad than one at home."
I prefer to have 100,000 enemies abroad than one at home.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have often been accused of cruelty, but I have never been cruel without reason."
"I have built a city, but I cannot build a people."
"I am a man and I need to learn."
"I am a sovereign and I will answer to no one for my actions."
"My greatest weapon is my perseverance."
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.