Peter the Great

The Tsar who dragged Russia out of the medieval mud and into the European light by sheer force of personality. Standing nearly seven feet tall, he spent his life building a navy, a city on a swamp (St. Petersburg), and a modern state. He represents the "Will to Modernize"—the ruler who cut off the beards of his nobles to sharpen the mind of his empire. He is the hammer and the compass, the man who forced his country to look Westward.