Deleted member 1487
The Russian leaders had absolutely no reason to avoid a European war. Serbia was only a convenient pawn in this game. What they really wanted was control over the Turkish Straits, which they couldn't get in peacetime because of British and German opposition. - But Sazonov had realised that in a great European war Britain and France would offer him the Straits on a silver plate (which actually happened - only that the Sultan was able to dance at the Tsar's grave). - So, when the opportunity arose to start a majorwar, why should Sazonov hesitate? France had pledged unconditional support, and the British allowed themselves to be duped about who mobilised when and at what.
Also backing down over Serbia would have eliminated their only pawn in the Balkans and probably caused massive political unrest in Russia over being humiliated again; having harnessed the power of pan-Slavism, the Russian populace saw itself as 'godfather' of the 'little brothers' outside its borders, which meant that they saw any backing down when the issue of supporting a little Slavic brother as almost religious heresy. Already the populace at large was not happy with the Czar and several major, though localized revolts were underway in major Russian cities in 1914 that were put down with violence by the military; backing down would stir up the populace in a really nasty way.