Not particularly, but it was a motivating factor. Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication was driven by more then just war. If that had been the case, the Romanov dynasty would’ve been toppled centuries ago. The major reasons were economic collapse, government instability, popular discontent specifically with the Tsarina and Grigori Rasputin, the monarchy tying itself very closely to military defeat, and of course the lack of food and resources. Since Russia was at war with the Central Powers, they were able to form an economic blockade around Russia, cutting them off from Western European trade bringing down the value of the Ruble and destroying the manufacturing industry, as well as cutting Russia off from foreign resources it needed to power its slowly industrializing economy, and on top of that inflation caused by the Government printing more money to try and pay for war material, which reduced its value. Many people have made the misconception that Russia did not have the industry to supply a war, but that simply isn’t true. The industry was there, just not the money to pay for it. This led to mass lay offs and closures, which left angry urban workers with nothing to do but strike. The second reason, government instability. When the Tsar left for the frontlines in 1916, he left the government in the hands of his wife, the Tsarina. She, on the advise of Rasputin, kept appointing and dismissing ministers, meaning a government never actually lasted long enough to try and fix the problems the country was facing and ministers never had enough to time to familiarize themselves with their ministry, and that’s to say nothing of the quality of ministers that were being appointed, which wasn’t great. And this is where popular discontent comes in. Many people forget that Alexei’s haemophilia was a closely guarded secret, as in even most members of government didn’t know. So instead of the populace being grumbly but understanding the requirement of Rasputin’s services, many people just thought this crazy, homeless, unkempt, sex-crazed monk was with the Imperial Family for no particular reason, which led to speculation. This was partially put to a stop when the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Felix Yusupov engineered his murder in late 1916 but the damage had been done and his removal could not restore the lost prestige of the monarchy, nor did it allow the appointment of competent ministers as most liberals and moderate socialists who had been temperately warming up to the monarchy before the war, were now complete anathema to it. The next problem was the further tarnishing of the dynasty by military defeat. Nicholas was the head of state, and therefore the de jure head of the Russian Army, but before he took control, the Chief of Staff was Grand Duke Nicholas Nikloeavich, who had a mix of both success and defeat to his name, but was at least a military man. The Tsar was not, and constantly made poor decisions on the battlefield and was no help to his commanders who although pressed, where military men who had a better idea of what they were doing. This ruined the reputation of the House of Romanov because Nicholas was seen as responsible for the catastrophic military defeats, which is partially true. And of course, with the poor state of the Russian Army before the war, a devalued currency, lack of international trade, and food insecurity, everyone from farm workers to urban workers, skilled and unskilled labourers and even small businesses owner were desperately feeling a pinch, and the nobility and members of government were becoming fed up with the instability and lack of decisive leadership. The final tipping point was protests on International Women’s Day after bread rationing was introduced, and things just spiralled out of control from there. The last attempted to save the dynasty is a document (that I CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE) known as the Grand Manifesto or the Grand Duke’s Manifesto was tabled to several Grand Dukes by Mikhail Rodzianko, as a petition to introduce a truly constitutional system in Russia to save the government. The petition was purportedly brought to the Empress to sign, but she said she could not do so on behalf of the Emperor. They all agreed they would present the petition upon Nicholas’s return to the capital, but on the 15th of March, 1917, the day before Nicholas was supposed to see the petition, he abdicated, thus essentially ending the monarchy. If it had just been war and everything else had been avoided, the monarchy may have very well just survived, or still ended but with Russia under a better state when the Republic was proclaimed