Norman Stone's groundbreaking book was the very first authoritative account of the Russian Front in the First World War to be published in the West. In this now-classic history he dispels the myths surrounding a still relatively little-known aspect of the war, showing bow inefficiency rather than economic shortage led to Russia's desperate privations and eventual retreat. He also reinterprets the connection between the war and the chaos that followed, arguing that although fighting had almost ceased by the end o f 1916, Russia was still in turmoil - undergoing a period of change that would inexorably lead towards revolution.