I believe the answer is Gold.
Gold was a very hot commodity at that time because before we use paper/digital money like today, Gold was made as material to make a type of money with more intrinsic value.
The abundance of this natural resources led to many European empire came and started their colonization in AFrica.
Taft reshaped U.S. diplomacy through dollar diplomacy, and Woodrow Wilson used moral diplomacy
If you are talking about the 1917 one, then what happened is that monarchy rule ended since the soviets, that is the Bolsheviks, took over the government and executed the royalty, declaring the party of the people as the only one who is allowed to rule the country since it represented the will of the people. The soviet union was established this way.
