In another way, it could be argued that the incompetence of Nicholas II to rule and his mistakes as well as decisions brought to the same problem of the two revolution outbreaks. The first mistake made was going to war, after which the chain of problems had followed out of the Tsars incompetence. By appointing himself as being a commander in chief hoping to inspire the army to fight with vigour and leaving Petrograd, he had a slender knowledge about war which led to him being put in a vulnerable position of being blamed for any defeats the army suffered in Russian people’s eyes, and secondly he was unaware of the extent to which the strikes gotten in the homeland, therefore made incompetent decisions such as to put down the revolutionaries with violence instead of going on concessions or at least hear peoples demands. If the World War had not broken out, then Nicholas would not had to have to leave the city when it’s population needed a strong leadership, and therefore would be able to put down the demonstrations, in 1905 revolution for example. To that fact, the departure of Nicholas to the front left Tsarina Alexandra to be in charge, who was incapable and unpopular German woman with Russian population, as well as who was constantly under the influence of Rasputin, proceeding with decisions he pleaded her to do, for instance appointing ministers into the government. There were rumours of Alexandra being a German spy and having affairs with Rasputin spreading across the country. The factor could lead to the outbreak of the two revolutions in the way that Rasputin appointed his friends as the new ministers that not only could upset the administration of the war, but also as a consequence, previous ministers that were in fact loyal to the Tsar were sacked and the elites have felt alienated from the Tsar by the integration of Rasputin. Nevertheless, World War I still remains as most important factor in leading to the outbreak of two revolutions, because as mentioning previously, without the war, the Tsar would not have to leave Tsarina behind, the autocracy would not be under Rasputin’s influence and subsequently it would not anger Russian people even further onto going to such steps as revolutions.
Land issue is another factor that is considered to be linked to the problem. The peasantry have suffered a great deal, there were many cases of land hunger, because of the shortages of crops, there was nothing to harvest. To that point, they wanted a redistribution of land from rich landowners to themselves so that they can be in control of their own land, however the liberals of Provisional government did no see it that way, therefore it has gradually angered the poor leading to the following revolutions. The demands continued increasing, peasants were desperate to have a bigger land, rather than having small strips of it, but the autocracy were not willing to go onto any concessions, and the peasantry felt that radical action was needed to be taken for them to be noticed. It could be argued that at some point, once Lenin has stepped in to sort this problem and offered “Peace, Bread and Land”, both of the revolutions could be prevented or at least seized if Lenin came into Russian empire earlier, however the damages were already caused. Despite this argument, the Wold War is more significant in the manner that peasants were pulled out from the farms to fight in the war, meaning that the land owned by them was left be without being properly looked after while away, therefore the crops have died out resulting in no harvests production or agricultural development. It presents a clear fact that World War 1 was the main disaster that led to the two revolutions.
Another debatable factor that could have led to an explanation of the two revolutions is the economy that by this point is in shambles. Shortages of raw materials and goods grew worse, no trade union was available which surely led to starvation, as even bread was no longer available for people to buy. Soldiers that came back from war flee the country, but find themselves unemployed and difficulty strikes to find a job, only the offer of long hours and low pay available. At the same time Tsars lack of leadership brought in Lenin’s attraction to the government, who has managed to bust up the economy and gain people’s support by his promises, then may be it is debatable whether Russia simply needed a strong leader to pull it out of problems or economic and previously mentioned problems were inevitable. Despite the argument that the economy was most significant in two revolutions, the World War is what causes these economic problems in the first place. The war costs went up from 4-30 million, which had the devastating affection the economy as it led to inflation and shortages of goods. Due to this it is clear that the war played a more prominent role in causing two revolutions than economy.
In conclusion, the main cause for the outbreak of the two, October and February revolutions was World War I. To make a clear judgement, if there was not an outbreak of war in 1914, then Russia would not have experienced the revolutions, as well as other important factors chained to this. Before the war occurred, the economy was stabilised and no sign of inflation was seen to be occurring, as well as there was no causes in a widespread discontent. Additionally, the army would either not have a reason to be disloyal, there would be no humiliating defeats and blames thrown at Nicholas II for every failure of the army at war, as well as him leaving the Tsardom. Even though factors such as the land and economy problems, incompetent leadership all have caused an additional push to both revolutions, World War was at the starting line of problems, therefore is the main factor that can be recognised in the creating of the two revolution outbreaks.