World War One: The Final Straw
World War One was the disaster that finally brought down the Romanov dynasty. Russia suffered catastrophic military defeats and lost millions of soldiers, whilst people at home faced severe food shortages and economic collapse.
Tsar Nicholas II made the fatal mistake of personally taking command of the army in 1915. Now every military disaster was directly blamed on him, and his absence from the capital allowed wild rumours about his German-born wife and the mysterious Rasputin to spread.
By February 1917, even the army had had enough. Bread riots in Petrograd (St Petersburg) turned into full revolution when soldiers refused to fire on protesters and instead joined them. The Tsar was forced to abdicate, ending 300 years of Romanov rule.
The new Provisional Government tried to continue the war, but they now faced competition from the Petrograd Soviet in a system called dual power. This unstable arrangement lasted only until October, when Lenin's Bolsheviks seized control and changed Russia forever.
Remember: The October Revolution succeeded because the Provisional Government was weak, unpopular, and trying to fight an unwinnable war that had already destroyed one government.