To what extent did the First World War contribute to the start of the 1917 revolution?

The First World War was a large factor that contributed to the beginning of the February 1917 revolution. Why? The war affected far more people than the Russo-Japanese war did. That war was far away and dealt with by the army. This one was closer to home; fought in Russia itself and nearly every family had a member fighting in it. Total war also had a huge strain on resources in Russia. Russian economy before the war was mainly agrarian and was under- developed and ill- equipped for a long modern war. Led to severe shortages on the front. Cases of some soldiers sharing one gun between two people. This of course led to dissatisfaction amongst the soldiers and was a factor in their mutiny. The tsar also made numerous mistakes when it came to commanding the war. He appointed his cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich to be commander in chief of the Russian army. The man had never commanded an army in battle before and was now faced with leading an army of millions of men. In 1915, after a disastrous start to the campaign, Tsar Nicholas took charge of the army. This was a huge mistake. The Tsar was seen as the father of the people, and now every death of every man on the front could be blamed on him, a man who was supposed to be responsible for protecting his citizens. This move to the front line also brought trouble to the rest of Russia as Tsar Nicholas left his wife, Tsarina Alexandra in charge. She was German and so many Russian citizens believed she was conspiring with the Kaiser against their country. She was also suspected to be having an affair with a man named Gregori Rasputin, a man despised by many people and they were not happy with him having an influence over the Tsarina and ultimately Russia. The Tsarina also didn't help when severe shortages in the city (due to the war effort moving all resources to the front) caused protests and she played down the riots to her husband. In February, a women’s march against a lack of bread caused the Tsar to return home from the front. He was however too late, and was stopped by a group of striking rail workers. While stopped, the Tsar was convinced by his advisors to abdicate and hand over power to his brother. His brother refused to take up the crown and control of Russia was given to a provisional government.