Peter the Great — "It is my great desire to reform my subjects, and yet I am ashamed to confess tha…"
It is my great desire to reform my subjects, and yet I am ashamed to confess that I am unable to reform myself.
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More from Peter the Great
"I am a Dutchman in my heart."
"I have tamed the bear, but I cannot tame my own passions."
"To have a strong army and navy, one must have money. To have money, one must have trade. To have trade, one must have a sea port."
"I am a sovereign and I will answer to no one for my actions."
"Why do you hesitate? Do you doubt my power? I can make a nobleman out of my groom, but only God can make a groom out of my nobleman."
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.