There were three groups affected greatly by the ancien regime, Third Estate, sans-culottes and even more so the peasants. The Third Estate made up 98 percent of France's population at the time; this social group was made up of diverse groups and they wore the burden of the taxation escaped by the First and Second Estates. The peasants took the brunt of the taxes. They were the only group of people that paid both the Gabelle and Taille taxes. Taxing the poor who had no money was sure to cause a revolt. In the case of France and Russia most of the countries currency went towards the royal families personal wealth. .
The problems with the Russian pre-revolutionary society were that the Tsar did not control the countries currency wisely. He built factories that needed more people to work in and because during the war the currency was changed not to compare with gold, the paper money used was now worth even less. Money played a big role in the starvation and scarcity of bread and other necessities. .
Nicholas was poorly trained to be a Tsar and most of his incompetence resulted from the fact that he took over the role of Tsar when he had not yet learnt the world of men, politics and Government. He had not learnt this when his father had suddenly died. He loved his family and he and his wife were love-matched, a perfect couple. The Russians were annoyed by the fact that the Tsar had let the country fall into such economic disaster; the discontent the Russian people had toward the economic hardship soon resulted in riots and demonstrations by the Russian people. .
King Louis was married to Marie Antoinette, a German lady who was very flighty and hated by the French people. This was also the same with Alexandra Romanov in the Russian empire; neither the Russians nor the French people liked the fact that their queen was of foreign descent. They both apparently had some interference with Government matters.
