Peter the Great — "The Russian spirit is strong, but it needs to be guided."
The Russian spirit is strong, but it needs to be guided.
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More from Peter the Great
"I am not a man of words, but a man of deeds."
"The beard is a superfluous ornament."
"It is better to be feared than loved, if one cannot be both."
"I am a pupil and I need to be taught."
"I prefer to have 100,000 enemies abroad than one at home."
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.