Tsar and Wwi

I don't know where some of these people get their information. World War I was a HUGE factor in the downfall of the Romanovs. Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra kept it secret that the tsarevich, the heir to the throne, had hemophilia, a disease transmitted from mother to son. The risk of dying from even a trip-and-fall were very real. When Alexei, the heir, seemed beyond saving, Rasputin, the Siberian monk, was able to ease the boy's suffering. While he was performing this good deed, he was in town having wild orgies and flaunting his relationship with the royal family, a relationship the people did not understand. When Russia went to war with Germany, the fact that the Tsarina was German did not help - particularly with everything going on with Rasputin.

Russia was doing very poorly in the war, and the Tsar decided to go to the front to lead his troops and hopefully boost morale. When he did so, he left the government in the hands of the tsarina, who was so dependent on Rasputin for her son's recovery, allowed Rasputin's terrible advice to impact her government decisions, further enraging the people against her and the royal family. Nicholas was out at the war when rebellion began. The war with Germany coupled with the German empress of Russia and the intrigues going on with Rasputin brought the Romanovs down after 300+ years.

The Romanovs had little to fear from the war; none of their relatives would ever see actual combat, just like the leaders who sent other people's children off to fight in Iraq.

The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, were the people doing the dying on the (Russian) Western Front, Germany's Eastern front. The common people were doing the actual fighting to some grand scheme that the soldiers could never see, understand, or even care about.

The war definitely did contribute to the demise of the Romanovs, but it was more of a "last straw" than the main catalyst.