Was the War the Main Reason for the Fall of the Tsar in 1917

Was the war the main reason for the fall of the Tsar in 1917?

The First World War was definitely a significant factor that resulted in the abdication of the Tsar but evidence suggests that there were many other factors that caused in his resignation that were equally as important.

One of the main reasons was lack of effective leadership from the Tsar in fact he made a terrible decision to leave Russia and lead the army in the war leaving his wife the Tsarina in charge with her closest advisor a ‘mad’ monk named Rasputin. The pair where strongly disliked amongst Russia, as they could not be trusted. The Tsarina was German and proved to be unpopular and she couldn’t gain support from the people of Russia.

Another very important purpose for the fall of the Tsar was the fact that overall the country was almost impossible to run. Its economy was making no progress and although reform was brought by one of the Tsars ministers, compared to other western countries Russia economy was failing. Strip farming using old fashioned methods resulted in low food production brought famines to 4/5 of the population who were peasants.

The Peasants came to city centres like Petrograd in search of work which only made living and working conditions worse. Eventually it became too much for them to handle a revolution in 1905 was staged and although peaceful intentions, it was met with open fire. The war may have been important but this revolution helped to generate the following events that meant in the end the Tsar would abdicate.

The Peasants and town workers wanted a say, their voice to be heard. So the Tsar brought forth the Duma in what was known as the October Manifesto and although claimed to voice the public’s opinions the Tsar really had control.

Three other reasons for such failure on the Tsars part were inflation, lack of communication and transport. To begin with inflation brought destruction that only added to the worsening of the economy. Prices sky rocketed whilst...