Anthony Beevor is the acclaimed author of Stalingrad and other military history books, and here, he returns with a true epic.

Russia is the history of the Communist Revolution, told through the eyes of the ordinary people who lived through it as well as the political puppet-masters who created it.

Many regard this savage civil war as the most influential event of the modern era.

An incompatible alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky's Red Army and Lenin's single-minded Communist dictatorship.

With current and chilling echoes to the currant situation in Ukraine, Beevor explores how this revolution became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while armed forces from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia played rival parts.

This is a huge endeavour, but the writing is clear and concise. A thrilling read which ultimately explores why us humans seem incapable of learning lessons from the past.