"[H]e felt more at home among soldiers than civilians, and all his life tended to think in terms of military concepts of loyalty, efficiency, and obedience. Brought up in the Orthodox Church, he remained a firm if unimaginative Christian. He had hesitated to accept the throne in December 1825, but once he assumed it, he had no doubt that he had been entrusted by the Almighty with the task of caring for Russia. He was completely devoted to the service of the state and of the principles of autocracy, as he understood it."