Peter the Great — "The beard is a superfluous ornament."
The beard is a superfluous ornament.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have no desire to be a king in name only."
"I shall die, but the state shall live."
"It is better to have one good example than a hundred good rules."
"I have taken my country out of darkness and brought it into the light."
"I am a reformer, not a destroyer."
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.