With his own hand he shaved off the beards of his chief lieutenants; beards were un-European and un-modern. So was Moscow, the cradle of the Russian monarchy and state; Peter determined to build himself a new capital on the recently conquered Baltic shore, facing west toward the Europe whose technology and culture he admired so intemperately. The marsh at the mouth of the Neva seemed a strategically suitable place, and there, using Italian architects and forced native labor, he built St. Petersburg.
