The First World War broke out in 1914 as a result of assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian throne successor, in Sarajevo. Russia entered the war to defend Serbia and joined the Entente against the Central States. Russian army was backwarded and badly equipped so in clash with better equipped German armies she suffered many defeats. In this essay the author would like to show the impact of the First World War on the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and abdication of the Tsar.
As mentioned before the Russian Army was unable to achieve victory. The main problems were the problems with supplies. Often Russian soldiers had almost defeated the enemy but then were forced to retreat due to lack of ammunition. Sometimes Russian soldiers were sent to the front without rifles and ordered to find it among the dead. Only in 1915 there were 2 millions Russian casualties.
English: Photo taken by A. A. Pasetti of Tsar Nich...
Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia.
Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia: 1894-1917. Portrait b...These defeats severely hit morale of the army. Many soldiers became reluctant to fight as they have seen no possibility of victory.
In September 1915 Tsar Nicholas II decided to take control of the army. This appeared to be a very big mistake because he became to be personally blamed for defeats. This decision has caused also other non-favorable situations - when Tsar was on the frontline his wife was trying to run the country accompanied by Rasputin. He was a Siberian monk who was able to heal the Tsar's son Alexis from hemophilia. Rasputin was regarded by the Tsarina as a holy man but in fact he was debauched adventurer. It caused many rumours among Russian society and lowered the authority of the Tsar. Tsarina was unable to govern effectively, advised by Rasputin she dismissed old ministers and replaced them with other, non effective ones, who were Rasputin's friends.