The immediate cause of the collapse of the Tsarist government was the gigantic strain of World War I. The core cause was the backward economic condition of the country, which made it unable to sustain the war effort against powerful, industrialized Germany. Russian manpower was virtually inexhaustible. Russian industry, however, lacked the capacity to arm, equip, and supply the some 15 million men who were sent into the war. Factories were few and insufficiently productive, and the railroad network was insufficient. Repeated mobilizations, moreover, disrupted industrial and agricultural pr…
