Russia's economy was at its worst during the time leading up to the revolution. The lower class had almost no way of improving their standard of living. The families had to work extremely hard just to get by. 

The working conditions were also horrible for the people at this time. Since Russia was in debt from the World War I and the many wars they had recently been involved in. The country could not afford proper machinery so the work was very hard and provided little pay. 

and finally Tzar Nicolas II did not care about the lower class people even though they made up the majority of the population. The poor eventually had enough to overthrow the Tzar.