lso supported an unrealistic saint-like ideal of aristocratic kingship. This, coupled with his immaturity, was a dangerous combination during his reign. His preoccupation with moral behavior had its basis in deep religious attitudes. But applied to his political decision-making, his faith took the form of a religious mysticism (Steinberg and Khrustalev 12-14, 18-19), and was expressed as an inflexibly paternalistic attitude toward his people and their needs. He truly believed that the Tsar was appointed by God, blinding himself to factual occurrences unless they could be rationalized in religious or moral terms. Rather than face crisis situations with objective attention to socio-economic fact, Nicholas consistently--and invariably wrongfully--evoked a traditional but useless ideal of the accepted relationship between the Tsar and the narod (the common people).
In 1914-15, with Russia at war with Germany and Austria, his sense of moral duty and paternalism led him to take control of the Russian Army, against the advice of his ministers and even Raspu
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