Episode 28 – Writing on Human Skin – Enlightened Despotism, part I, Russia
…the Great; How Peter believed in “moving fast and breaking tradition” and combined enlightenment reforms with ruthless suppression; How Peter kicked off his modernizing reform with a fashion statement: ordering men to shave their beards and women to dress like Parisians; How Peter’s reforms planted the seed for more liberal Enlightenment reforms; How Catherine the Great introduced the idea and principle of freedom of speech into Russia’s deeply t…