Peter the Great and Napoleon: Equality

When I read Zak's post "Napoleon and civil liberties", I realized how Napoleon shared a similarity to Peter the Great in the necessity to compromise. While I realize that in my previous post I just discussed how Peter the Great did not manipulate the public, and I believe that this is true, I think that he instead manipulated his rule (much like how Napoleon did with the Napoleonic codes)--giving the public something while taking away something else. I saw a serious parallel between Napoleon's control over the press (making the press write only what the government issued) and Peter the Great linking the Church with the state while making the Church more tolerant.

It's interesting that while Hitler used manipulation in acquiring public support, Napoleon and Peter the Great seem to manipulate the liberties that they are giving their people creating a sort of facade of liberty while simultaneously tightening their control and power over the country.