ABSTRACT
For nearly a decade afterward, Nicholas was able to steer a stable course that included free political debate and much-needed agriculture reform. As World War I began to consume his empire, he insisted on imitating the example of his Muscovite ancestors by traveling to the front in 1915 to lead the war personally. As educated society grew increasingly disgusted by Alexandra's incompetence in the capital and Nicholas's failures on the front, war shortages provoked a bread strike on March 8, 1917 that quickly became a revolution. There, on July 17, 1918, Nicholas II, his wife, their five children, and the servants were taken to the basement of the house in which they were being detained and shot. As a result, the leaders of many political parties became critical of the constitutional monarchy. This was true especially in the Duma during World War I. Virtually all the deputies welcomed Nicholas's declaration of war and offered their loyalty to the tsar.
