Nicholas left Alexandra and Rasputin to rule Russia . The people did not trust either of them, because Tsarina was German and the people thought that she would cause chaos and rule Russia badly so the Germans would win the war and the Russians would lose.
Rasputin was a man from Siberia found by Alexandra to help cure Alexis who was a haemophiliac. Rasputin was considered by many Russians to have stained the reputation of the imperial family because he had such an influence of Tsarina. During the war he influenced tsarina in important decisions, when Nicholas thought it was a bad idea to make Protopopov a minister of the interior, Rasputin managed to persuade Tsarina into doing what he wanted done.
Here are some of the short term reasons:
The cold weather could have been linked to the revolution because the average winter temperature of Petrograd between January and March 1917 was –12 C while –4.4 C the year before. To defend the Petrograd and protect the tsarina, 340,000 soldiers were stationed in overcrowded barracks around the city.
The terrible weather lead to railways carrying fuel and supplies to be cancelled. The rationing of food was introduced and people had waited for several of hours in queues were told bread had sold out. Factories were also closed down.
23 february was International Women’s day and thousands of women and later men came together with banners such as ‘Down with the German woman’. The people were getting aggressive and very annoyed about the circumstance with the shortage of food.
Bridges across the river Neva were closed to prevent demonstrators coming too close to the city centre. People started walking across the river, which was frozen over. Officers ordered troops to fire. The soldiers shot 40 people.
Twelve duma deputies had formed a provisional committee to take over the government. The workers, soldiers and sailors of Petrograd formed a Soviet to watch over them.
Tsar realised what was happening he set off in his train to Pskov where he learned the Generals would no longer support him. He thought that Russia would have a better chance of winning the war if he would step down from his position as Tsar. He wanted his brother to be tsar but he turned the offer down and now the Russian Empire had no emperor
In my view the most important of all these reasons for the February Revolution was the war. I have chosen this reason because of the effects of the First World War because it made living conditions worse which made the people force the Tsar to abdicate which gave the provisional government which made people revolt against it.
If I had to choose on then it would be the effects of the First World War because this made the working and living conditions worse which made the people force the Tsar to abdicate which gave the provisional government which made the people revolt against it. Also indirectly if there had been no war then perhaps Lenin would not have got back into Russia because the only reason that the Germans helped him get back was because they correctly thought he would create havoc in Russia and thus make Russia to surrender to Germany.
