To what extent was the impact of the First World War responsible for the downfall of Tsarism in March 1917?

In March 1917, Nicholas II abdicated and brought Tsarist’s three hundred year reign to an end. The issue of the Tsar’s downfall divides historians with two different viewpoints. The first perspective is that Russia was making progress, however it was solely undermined by the First World War in which the war caused massive losses, poor leadership and unloyality of the troops. The alternative view is that long term social, economic and political factors already existed because of the challenges of modernising the country. Together these problems contributed to the Tsar’s inability to maintain monarchy and support of civilians and led to the downfall of Tsarism.
The first reason for the First World War being responsible for the downfall of Tsarism is that Russia suffered massive defeats very early on. The Tsar believed they could win the war against Germany really easily. However, they did not realise how powerful the German army was. In the Battle of Tattenburg tens of thousands were dead or wounded and within a week at the Battle of Masurian Lakes the Russian army lost another 100,000 soldiers. Morale decreased visibly, worsened not only by the shortages or bad transport system but by bad news from the front. Despite the occasional victories, Russia emerged in the war as ill-equipped, with the soldiers under-fed. The morale was so low that there were Russian soldiers who began deserting their troops. In 1916, approximately 1.5 million soldiers deserted the army. Michael Rodzianko, the President of the Duma, sent a telegram to Nicholas II on 27th February 1917 stating how ‘the troops of the garrison cannot be relied upon,’ and how, ‘the battalions of the Guard regiments are in the grips of rebellion’ This shows the lack of unity in fighting against a common