People don't enjoy going hungry. They get upset and start revolutions (France, Russia) or fight for their independence (Ireland).
There were so many factors in Russia, especially the staggering number of fatalities incurred by Russia (more than any other nation) in WW1, that contributed to the revolution. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "August 1914" is a masterpiece on that tragedy which Russia entered when it was woefully ill-prepared to do so, to honour an alliance. The uncertain outcome of WW1 played a pivotal role in determining the fate of the Romanovs despite their enthroned relatives across Europe and because of it. It is said that Queen Victoria as "grandmother of Europe" thought the alliances would lead to less conflict. Simmering resentments between the royal relatives viz. Wilhelm II against Nicolas II, instead paved the way to the calculated, pre-meditated butchery of the Romanovs to ensure that no Romanovs were left to mount a challenge.
This reminds me so much of the the conflict in Sril Lanka. There were terrible reports of the capture and execution of a child of the/a leader of the Tamil Tigers. The child was captured, fed, then lined up in front of a firing squad and executed. The explanation was that he might grow up to avenge his father's death. The child's bullet-riddled body was found but culpability was denied by the likely suspects.
There was a book written on the "Wisdom of Crowds". A companion book on "The Depravity of Mobs" should be written: individual culpability superseded by group righteousness.
