This book unravels the complicated and tragic events of the Eastern Front in the First World War. The author details Russia's sudden attack on German forces, despite her inadequate resources. A crushing defeat at Tannenberg was followed by Germany inflicting humiliation after humiliation on desperate Russian troops. For a while, those forces led by General Brusilov and facing Austria-Hungary fared better, but in the end this front too collapsed. Morale plummeted, the army began to disintegrate, and the Tsar was forced to abdicate - paving the way for the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917.

After leaving Oxford in 1953 Geoffrey Jukes spent 14 years in the UK Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Colonial Office, specializing in Russian/Soviet military history, strategy and arms control. From 1967 to 1993 he was also on the staff of the Australian National University, and until his death in 2010 he was an Associate of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies.