What was the reason for the downfall of the Russian Empire in 1917?
As Russia became engulfed in World War I, over fifteen million men joined the army, which left a shortage of workers for the factories and farms. This led to widespread shortages of food and materials. As goods became more and more scarce, prices went through the roof, and soon famine consumed Russian cities. Tempers in the lower class grew short, as factory workers were suffering 12- to 14-hour days with falling wages and unbearable health and safety provisions. Labor riots and strikes broke out everywhere. On the farms, things weren’t much better. For centuries, a small class of noble landowners controlled a huge number of indentured servants, who were in essence tied to the land (serfs). In 1861, Czar Alexander II emancipated these peasants and gave them each a pittance of land to farm. The small amount of land they were each given to farm proved insufficient to feed and provide for a family’s basic needs, and thus mass riots broke out in the countryside, too. How did Nicholas II re
