The Russians will never really be civilized, because civilization was imposed on them too soon. Peter the Great’s genius was imitative but lacked true genius, which creates and constructs everything from nothing.88 Some of the things he did were good, but most were misguided. He saw that his people was barbarous, but did not see that it was not ripe for a civilized political system: he wanted to civilize the people, while what it really needed was to be trained in discipline.
