I don't know if this helps, but the Tsarist regimes were incredibly repressive. In order to control such a large empire with so many nationalities and basically no concept of modernisation whatsoever, the only way for them to rule was by an iron fist.
There was very limited amounts of change, and usually any sort of change led to a Tsar becoming even more repressive - for example, you have the emancipation of the serfs under Alexander the II which, for it to be successful for the serfs, had to lead to more change. Upon seeing the amount of change necessary to have the emancipation work, Alexander faced more problems and unrest, therefore, he became even more repressive to save the chaos of a complete overhaul of the system.
Nicholas II was repressive because he wanted to pass on all that he had inherited to his son. He wanted to leave his son the biggest empire possible and to have it under control. Under his reign, the revolutionary groups emerged, and thus, you have war.
I hope this helped.
