Peter the Great — "The beard is a useless burden."
The beard is a useless burden.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have not spared and do not spare my life for my fatherland and its people."
"It is better to have one good example than a hundred good rules."
"I am a pupil and I need to be taught."
"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."
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.