The Last of the Tsars

Download The Last of the Tsars PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1681775727
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (817 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last of the Tsars by : Robert Service

Download or read book The Last of the Tsars written by Robert Service and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting account of the last eighteen months of Tsar Nicholas II's life and reign from one of the finest Russian historians writing today. In March 1917, Nicholas II, the last Tsar of All the Russias, abdicated and the dynasty that had ruled an empire for three hundred years was forced from power by revolution. Now Robert Service, the eminent historian of Russia, examines Nicholas's life and thought from the months before his momentous abdication to his death, with his family, in Ekaterinburg in July 1918. The story has been told many times, but Service's deep understanding of the period and his forensic examination of previously untapped sources, including the Tsar's diaries and recorded conversations, as well as the testimonies of the official inquiry, shed remarkable new light on his troubled reign, also revealing the kind of Russia that Nicholas wanted to emerge from the Great War. The Last of the Tsars is a masterful study of a man who was almost entirely out of his depth, perhaps even willfully so. It is also a compelling account of the social, economic and political ferment in Russia that followed the February Revolution, the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, and the beginnings of Lenin's Soviet socialist republic.

The Czar's Last Soldier

Download The Czar's Last Soldier PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Jacques Evans
ISBN 13 : 145230727X
Total Pages : 119 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (523 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Czar's Last Soldier by : Jacques Evans

Download or read book The Czar's Last Soldier written by Jacques Evans and published by Jacques Evans. This book was released on 2009-10-05 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Czar's Last Soldier is the story of the search for the Star of Golconda a 42.5-carat diamond slightly smaller than the Hope diamond. Before he was killed, a marine buried the diamond in his foxhole on the island of Corregidor during World War II. Thirty-two years later, at a Nebraska post office, Sam Gibbons and Roscoe Barnes are removing the old post office boxes and replacing them with new ones. Both men are World War II veterans who teamed up as general contractors after the war. When the old post office boxes are removed a letter hidden between warped boards falls to the floor. The letter, dated 1942, is from the marine who died on Corregidor and gives the particulars of a jewel theft he committed at the Shanghai Officer's Club in 1941. As there are no members of the marine's family still alive, they read the letter. Shortly after the theft, the marine's regiment was transferred from China to the Philippines. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the regiment was tasked to defend Corregidor. When the order to surrender was given, not wanting the Japanese to gloom onto the stolen jewels, the marine buried them. Sam and Roscoe hunt for the jewels but are unaware they were stolen from a czarist officer and are thrust into the middle of an international legal battle.

The Last Tsar

Download The Last Tsar PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307754626
Total Pages : 522 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (77 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last Tsar by : Edvard Radzinsky

Download or read book The Last Tsar written by Edvard Radzinsky and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-03-30 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russian playwright and historian Radzinsky mines sources never before available to create a fascinating portrait of the monarch, and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days.

With Snow on Their Boots

Download With Snow on Their Boots PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0312220820
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis With Snow on Their Boots by : Jamie H. Cockfield

Download or read book With Snow on Their Boots written by Jamie H. Cockfield and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 1999-07-02 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1916, in an exchange of human flesh for war material, the Russian government sent to France two brigades to fight on the side of their French allies. By the end of World War I, these two brigades had experienced their own form of the Russian Revolution, had been isolated at a southern training post in a discipline move by the French government, had battled against each other in what was one of the first confrontations of the Russian Civil War, and had emerged from the conflict as a single force, the Russian Legion of Honor, which would remain loyal to France until the end of the war. The remarkable story of these Russian soldiers has been overlooked by historians until now. Jamie Cockfield here explores the journey and transformation of these men, and in so doing, he examines the impact of the revolution on the Russians who were caught in the middle of wartime alliances and nationalist ardor.

The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two

Download The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Good Soldier Švejk
ISBN 13 : 1438916701
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (389 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two by : Jaroslav Hašek

Download or read book The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, Book Two written by Jaroslav Hašek and published by Good Soldier Švejk. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A picaresque series of tales about an ordinary man's successful quest to survive, and a funny but unrelentingly savage assault on the very idea of bureaucratic officialdom as a human enterprise conferring benefits on those who live under its control, and on the various justifications bureaucracies offer for their own existence.

March 1917

Download March 1917 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780268106867
Total Pages : 728 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (68 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis March 1917 by : Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Download or read book March 1917 written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and published by . This book was released on 2022-10 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's March 1917, Book 2, covers three days of the February Revolution when the nation unraveled, leading to the Bolshevik takeover eight months later. The Red Wheel is Nobel Prize-winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's multivolume epic work about the Russian Revolution. He spent decades writing about just four of the most important periods, or "nodes." This is the first time that the monumental March 1917--the third node--has been translated into English. It tells the story of the Russian Revolution itself, during which the Imperial government melts in the face of the mob, and the giants of the opposition also prove incapable of controlling the course of events. The action of Book 2 (of four) of March 1917 is set during March 13-15, 1917, the Russian Revolution's turbulent second week. The revolution has already won inside the capital, Petrograd. News of the revolution flashes across all Russia through the telegraph system of the Ministry of Roads and Railways. But this is wartime, and the real power is with the army. At Emperor Nikolai II's order, the Supreme Command sends troops to suppress the revolution in Petrograd. Meanwhile, victory speeches ring out at Petrograd's Tauride Palace. Inside, two parallel power structures emerge: the Provisional Government and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which sends out its famous "Order No. 1," presaging the destruction of the army. The troops sent to suppress the Petrograd revolution are halted by the army's own top commanders. The Emperor is detained and abdicates, and his ministers are jailed and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. This sweeping, historical novel is a must-read for Solzhenitsyn's many fans, as well as those interested in twentieth-century history, Russian history and literature, and military history.

The Race to Save the Romanovs

Download The Race to Save the Romanovs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1250151236
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Race to Save the Romanovs by : Helen Rappaport

Download or read book The Race to Save the Romanovs written by Helen Rappaport and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this international bestseller investigating the murder of the Russian Imperial Family, Helen Rappaport embarks on a quest to uncover the various plots and plans to save them, why they failed, and who was responsible. The murder of the Romanov family in July 1918 horrified the world, and its aftershocks still reverberate today. In Putin's autocratic Russia, the Revolution itself is considered a crime, and its anniversary was largely ignored. In stark contrast, the centenary of the massacre of the Imperial Family was commemorated in 2018 by a huge ceremony attended by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. While the murders themselves have received major attention, what has never been investigated in detail are the various plots and plans behind the scenes to save the family—on the part of their royal relatives, other governments, and Russian monarchists loyal to the Tsar. Rappaport refutes the claim that the fault lies entirely with King George V, as has been the traditional view for the last century. The responsibility for failing the Romanovs must be equally shared. The question of asylum for the Tsar and his family was an extremely complicated issue that presented enormous political, logistical and geographical challenges at a time when Europe was still at war. Like a modern day detective, Helen Rappaport draws on new and never-before-seen sources from archives in the US, Russia, Spain and the UK, creating a powerful account of near misses and close calls with a heartbreaking conclusion. With its up-to-the-minute research, The Race to Save the Romanovs is sure to replace outdated classics as the final word on the fate of the Romanovs.

The Last Tsar

Download The Last Tsar PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN 13 : 9781466445000
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (45 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last Tsar by : Donald Crawford

Download or read book The Last Tsar written by Donald Crawford and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An historical biography of the last Tsar of Russia — not Nicholas II, but his brother Michael — Emperor Michael II — who succeeded to the throne when Nicholas abdicated in March 1917. Michael, married to a double divorcée, Natasha, the daughter of a Moscow lawyer, was the first Romanov murdered by the Bolsheviks, five weeks before the other mass killings, and because he was the Romanov who posed the greatest threat to them. However, they never admitted responsibility for his murder, pretending instead that he had escaped. This book, based chiefly on original contemporary sources in Russia, tells you what the Soviet Union intended that you should never know. Does that matter now? Very much so, for unlike his brother Nicholas, Michael can serve as the bridge between today's Russia and Tsarist Russia, a gap which has yet to be closed. As Viktor Yevtukhov, appointed deputy Russian Minister of Justice in February 2011, has said: 'We should know more about this man and remember him, because this memory can give our society the ethical foundation we need'. This book will tell you why, after almost a century, that should be so. From the tragedy of the past, a hope for the future…

Churchill's Secret War With Lenin

Download Churchill's Secret War With Lenin PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Helion and Company
ISBN 13 : 1913118118
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (131 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Churchill's Secret War With Lenin by : Damien Wright

Download or read book Churchill's Secret War With Lenin written by Damien Wright and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2017-07-27 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the little-known involvement of Royal Marines as they engaged the new Bolsheviks immediately after the Russian Revolution. After three years of great loss and suffering on the Eastern Front, Imperial Russia was in crisis and on the verge of revolution. In November 1917, Lenin’s Bolsheviks (later known as “Soviets”) seized power, signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers and brutally murdered Tsar Nicholas (British King George’s first cousin) and his children so there could be no return to the old order. As Russia fractured into loyalist “White” and revolutionary “Red” factions, the British government became increasingly drawn into the escalating Russian Civil War after hundreds of thousands of German troops transferred from the Eastern Front to France were used in the 1918 “Spring Offensive” which threatened Paris. What began with the landing of a small number of Royal Marines at Murmansk in March 1918 to protect Allied-donated war stores quickly escalated with the British government actively pursuing an undeclared war against the Bolsheviks on several fronts in support of British trained and equipped “White Russian” Allies. At the height of British military intervention in mid-1919, British troops were fighting the Soviets far into the Russian interior in the Baltic, North Russia, Siberia, Caspian and Crimea simultaneously. The full range of weapons in the British arsenal were deployed including the most modern aircraft, tanks and even poison gas. British forces were also drawn into peripheral conflicts against “White” Finnish troops in North Russia and the German “Iron Division” in the Baltic. It remains a little-known fact that the last British troops killed by the German Army in the First World War were killed in the Baltic in late 1919, nor that the last Canadian and Australian soldiers to die in the First World War suffered their fate in North Russia in 1919 many months after the Armistice. Despite the award of five Victoria Crosses (including one posthumous) and the loss of hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers, sailors and airmen, most of whom remain buried in Russia, the campaign remains virtually unknown in Britain today. After withdrawal of all British forces in mid-1920, the British government attempted to cover up its military involvement in Russia by classifying all official documents. By the time files relating to the campaign were quietly released decades later there was little public interest. Few people in Britain today know that their nation ever fought a war against the Soviet Union. The culmination of more than 15 years of painstaking and exhaustive research with access to many previously classified official documents, unpublished diaries, manuscripts and personal accounts, author Damien Wright has written the first comprehensive campaign history of British and Commonwealth military intervention in the Russian Civil War 1918-20. “Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War remains forgotten. Wright’s book addresses that oversight, interspersing the broader story with personal accounts of participants.” —Military History Magazine

Daily Life in Russia under the Last Tsar

Download Daily Life in Russia under the Last Tsar PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804710305
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Daily Life in Russia under the Last Tsar by : Henri Troyat

Download or read book Daily Life in Russia under the Last Tsar written by Henri Troyat and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a vivid account of life in Moscow, "the most Russian of Russian cities," in the year 1903, a year before Russia's disastrous war with Japan and two years before the momentous Revolution of 1905. Though the undercurrents of social change were running swiftly, the surface stability of the Tsarist regime show no indication of the turmoil ahead. The author, who is perhaps best known for his biography Tolstoy, describes Russian life through the eyes of a fictional young Englishman visiting a prosperous Russian merchant family. All facets of Moscow life are covered, from entertainment and night life to family life and the devotions of the Orthodox. We learn about Russia's factory workers and peasants, its soldiers and lawyers, its priests and its city officials, its Tsar and his entourage: what they do and what they wear, what they think and what they dream. Concluding chapters take our visitor to the famous fair at Nizhny-Novgorod, which was held every year from July 15 to September 10, and on a boat trip down the Volga.

The Romanovs

Download The Romanovs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307266524
Total Pages : 817 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Romanovs by : Simon Sebag Montefiore

Download or read book The Romanovs written by Simon Sebag Montefiore and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2016 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The acclaimed author of Young Stalin and Jerusalem gives readers an accessible, lively account--based in part on new archival material--of the extraordinary men and women who ruled Russia for three centuries."--NoveList.

The Tsar of Love and Techno

Download The Tsar of Love and Techno PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hogarth
ISBN 13 : 0770436447
Total Pages : 396 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Tsar of Love and Techno by : Anthony Marra

Download or read book The Tsar of Love and Techno written by Anthony Marra and published by Hogarth. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art. This stunning, exquisitely written collection introduces a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking. A 1930s Soviet censor painstakingly corrects offending photographs, deep underneath Leningrad, bewitched by the image of a disgraced prima ballerina. A chorus of women recount their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners who settled their Siberian mining town. Two pairs of brothers share a fierce, protective love. Young men across the former USSR face violence at home and in the military. And great sacrifices are made in the name of an oil landscape unremarkable except for the almost incomprehensibly peaceful past it depicts. In stunning prose, with rich character portraits and a sense of history reverberating into the present, The Tsar of Love and Techno is a captivating work from one of our greatest new talents.

The New Tsar

Download The New Tsar PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307961613
Total Pages : 594 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (79 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The New Tsar by : Steven Lee Myers

Download or read book The New Tsar written by Steven Lee Myers and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2015 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president-- of his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history." --

Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]

Download Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition] PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782899650
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (828 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition] by : Dr. Robert F. Baumann

Download or read book Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition] written by Dr. Robert F. Baumann and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Includes 12 maps and 4 tables] In recent years, the U.S. Army has paid increasing attention to the conduct of unconventional warfare. However, the base of historical experience available for study has been largely American and overwhelmingly Western. In Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, Dr. Robert F. Baumann makes a significant contribution to the expansion of that base with a well-researched analysis of four important episodes from the Russian-Soviet experience with unconventional wars. Primarily employing Russian sources, including important archival documents only recently declassified and made available to Western scholars, Dr. Baumann provides an insightful look at the Russian conquest of the Caucasian mountaineers (1801-59), the subjugation of Central Asia (1839-81), the reconquest of Central Asia by the Red Army (1918-33), and the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-89). The history of these wars—especially as it relates to the battle tactics, force structure, and strategy employed in them—offers important new perspectives on elements of continuity and change in combat over two centuries. This is the first study to provide an in-depth examination of the evolution of the Russian and Soviet unconventional experience on the predominantly Muslim southern periphery of the former empire. There, the Russians encountered fierce resistance by peoples whose cultures and views of war differed sharply from their own. Consequently, this Leavenworth Paper addresses not only issues germane to combat but to a wide spectrum of civic and propaganda operations as well.

Nicholas and Alexandra

Download Nicholas and Alexandra PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0307788474
Total Pages : 663 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (77 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nicholas and Alexandra by : Robert K. Massie

Download or read book Nicholas and Alexandra written by Robert K. Massie and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “magnificent and intimate” (Harper’s) modern classic of Russian history, the spellbinding story of the love that ended an empire—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, The Romanovs, and Catherine the Great “A moving, rich book . . . [This] revealing, densely documented account of the last Romanovs focuses not on the great events . . . but on the royal family and their evil nemesis. . . . The tale is so bizarre, no melodrama is equal to it.”—Newsweek In this commanding book, New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Massie sweeps readers back to the extraordinary world of the Russian empire to tell the story of the Romanovs’ lives: Nicholas’s political naïveté, Alexandra’s obsession with the corrupt mystic Rasputin, and little Alexis’s brave struggle with hemophilia. Against a lavish backdrop of luxury and intrigue, Massie unfolds a powerful drama of passion and history—the story of a doomed empire and the death-marked royals who watched it crumble.

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

Download The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0375867821
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (758 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by : Candace Fleming

Download or read book The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia written by Candace Fleming and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] superb history.... In these thrilling, highly readable pages, we meet Rasputin, the shaggy, lecherous mystic...; we visit the gilded ballrooms of the doomed aristocracy; and we pause in the sickroom of little Alexei, the hemophiliac heir who, with his parents and four sisters, would be murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.” —The Wall Street Journal Here is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs—at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming (Amelia Lost; The Lincolns) deftly maneuvers between the imperial family’s extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses, making this an utterly mesmerizing read as well as a perfect resource for meeting Common Core standards. "An exhilarating narrative history of a doomed and clueless family and empire." —Jim Murphy, author of Newbery Honor Books An American Plague and The Great Fire "For readers who regard history as dull, Fleming’s extraordinary book is proof positive that, on the contrary, it is endlessly fascinating, absorbing as any novel, and the stuff of an altogether memorable reading experience." —Booklist, Starred "Marrying the intimate family portrait of Heiligman’s Charles and Emma with the politics and intrigue of Sheinkin’s Bomb, Fleming has outdone herself with this riveting work of narrative nonfiction that appeals to the imagination as much as the intellect." —The Horn Book, Starred Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Nonfiction A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book A YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist Winner of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction

In the Trenches

Download In the Trenches PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 164012196X
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis In the Trenches by : Tatiana L. Dubinskaya

Download or read book In the Trenches written by Tatiana L. Dubinskaya and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-03-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tatiana L. Dubinskaya’s autobiographical novel of life in the Russian army marked the first major work published by a female World War I soldier in the Soviet Union. Often compared to All Quiet on the Western Front, Dubinskaya’s stark and unsparing story presents a rare look at women in combat and one of the few works of fiction set on the eastern front. Zinaida, a Russian schoolgirl, runs away from home to join the army. Sent to the front, she endures the horrors of trench warfare and the hardships of military life. Undercurrents of revolutionary thinking filter into the ranks as morale begins to crumble. Zinaida must come to grips with the havoc unleashed by the czar’s overthrow and the new socialist government’s attempts to impose revolutionary reforms on the army. Destabilization and desertion follow, and her regiment joins the chaotic mass retreat of the Russian army in the summer of 1917. In addition to Dubinskaya’s original novel, this edition includes selections from her 1936 autobiographical work, Machine Gunner, which she rewrote to satisfy Stalinist censors.