Peter the Great — "We need Europe for a few decades; then we must turn our back on it."
We need Europe for a few decades; then we must turn our back on it.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have no patience for those who resist progress."
"I have built a city, but I cannot build a people."
"I have often told you that I am not a Tsar for myself, but for the state."
"I have left two heirs, a son and a daughter. And I have left them a great empire, but they must know how to govern it."
"I have left my subjects more enlightened, but poorer."
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.