Although written from the perspective of the White counter-revolutionary armies fighting to overthrow Lenin's new 'Red' regime, Stewart is remarkably objective. Generously illustrated with both maps and photographs, this is a big book which attempts - very successfully - to cover widespread theatres of war in the vastest country on earth. The Reds had two huge advantages over their White opponents: they had a unified, single command and they were defending central positions in the heart of Russia - including the capital, Moscow, and the port city of Leningrad St Petersburg] - against diffuse attacks from different directions. By contrast the Whites were disunited politically, ranging from reactionary monarchists to social democrats and even anarchists - and were fighting in widely different locations - under rival commanders unable to co-ordinate their disparate - and often desperate - attacks. As a result, the more ruthless Reds were eventually able to defeat them piecemeal; and the efforts by the Allies - the US, Britain, France and even Japan - to support them were in vain. This book covers the fighting in Siberia when Admiral Kolchak was the White leader; Ukraine, where General Deniken held sway; the Baltic where General Yudenich threatened St Petersburg, cradle of the revolution; and the Crimea where General Wrangel represented the last forlorn hope of the Whites before he and they were forced into exile.