[wagglebee]

I think the main catalyst is that the great majority of the Russian people were close to starving at any given point while the nobility had wealth that equaled or even surpassed that the of the British and German nobility.

The average Russian didn't give a damn about the Balkans and didn't understand why the Tsar was willing to go to war over it.

[Reily]

I don't agree. The average Russian knew that those in the Balkans were fellow Slavs. Pan-Slavic ideals did have a hold on the minds of a significant number of Russians. Also remember the Balkans had become newly freed from the Ottoman Turks, some this was done with Russian help. In the minds of Russians, Moscow had inherited from the fall of Constantinople the mantle of the protector of Eastern Crhistainity. The Ottomans’ were allies of the Germans and the Germans were not particularly liked anyway. Also their was a notion they were the Third Rome.