Which formulation is most appropriate for a balanced analysis of the February Revolution?

Correct answer: It resulted from the interaction of economic crisis, social participation, soldiers’ mutiny and a crisis of legitimacy

The governing concept is historical causation: major revolutions usually arise from interacting political, social, economic and military pressures rather than from one isolated cause. In February 1917, food shortages, inflation and war exhaustion created economic distress; workers and women mobilised in the streets; soldiers increasingly refused to defend the old order; and the Tsarist regime lost legitimacy. Their combination produced the collapse of Tsarism and the formation of new centres of authority. Therefore, option A gives the most balanced analysis. Option B is trivial and false, option C reduces a mass revolution to a parliamentary action, and option D confuses the February Revolution with the later Bolshevik seizure of power in October.