As Tsar, Nicholas II's power was on shaky ground leading up to the events of WWI. The huge (mostly agricultural) country was at an impasse. The industrial revolution hit late, and it hit hard, with a large group of Russia's mostly-peasant population moving to bigger cities to engage in less-than desirable manufacturing jobs. Plenty of urban growth and social disruption. Meanwhile, the Tsar, and the royal lifestyle, seemed disengaged and completely removed from that of the average Russian's. Now, there's plenty to say about the external events that led to Russia's involvement in the war (entanglement ties with Serbia amongst other countries), but internally he needed a power move - and he saw [what we call WWI] as his move to demonstrate Russia's power, but more importantly his own political power within Russia. He (or the leadership in general) assumed that they could get involved in the conflict early, amass the Russia's huge army, make quick gains against Austria-Hungary, and be out of the war in no time (many great powers had similar assumptions going into the war). Russia, like almost everyone else, did not realize the quagmire that WWI would eventually turn into. There would be no quick gains, and no clear winners. As the months of the war progressed, and Russia's huge peasant and recently-urbanized population (already restless before the war) became further strained for resources, while Russian's were dying in droves on the war's fronts. Public opinion began to turn further against the Tsar. The conditions of the populace, already rife with dissent and on the precipice of revolution, were being pushing beyond the breaking point. Basically, WWI strained an already strained populace to the brink, and the political order under a detached absolute monarchy, under the Tsar, was considered less and less ideal - to the benefit of socialist ideals and Lenin's momentum that would overtake the unfortunate Romanov family, and the dated (as far as a contemporary western European is concerned) political structure that they inherited.