It seems wrong to categorise this book as military history. It is like reading a film.

Beevor strips away the misty romanticism that once surrounded the revolution.

[Beevor] is a wonderfully lucid writer who marshals the extensive material with great verve and understanding.

... does not break any new ground or offer any new perspective, and it fits squarely within the latest historiography. He gives scant attention to the causes that led to the February Revolution in 1917, dispatching the reign of Nicholas II in fewer than 20 pages.

Beevor... commands authority as a historian because his research is comprehensive and his conclusions free of political agenda. He’s a skilled writer, but his prose is not what makes his books special. Rather, it’s the confidence that his authority conveys.

Antony Beevor singles out Bolshevik unity by comparison to the divisions among their enemies – everyone from tsarist generals to Ukrainian nationalists and peasant anarchists – as the key cause of Red victory. He may well be right, but other factors were also crucial.

... rightly wide-ranging, from the Pacific, where Japanese and Americans were numbered among the anti-Soviet forces, to Europe, in all its diversity. Though they are not mentioned in this otherwise, there were indeed some Australians fighting in the civil war that followed the Bolshevik takeover in November 1917.

... makes compelling use of comparable witness testimony, including material from Russian archives gathered by his collaborator and friend, Lyubov Vinogradova.

Beevor masterfully recounts the violent events that seemed to change everything.

... tart.