This photograph of people waiting in line to buy bread illustrates one of the most important effects of the war on the home front. The state's inability to manage the grain market, food distribution, and food pricing emerged as a main issue in the early stages of the war. By 1917, popular unrest over food shortages focused on the government's inability to deal with the inequities of private trade. In February of that year, workers' demonstrations over the shortage of bread were the immediate cause of the regime's collapse.
