John W. Steinberg, All the Tsars Men. Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914

Quite extraordinary in European History were the Russian defeats of 1905 and 1918 that brought about three revolutions. The destruction of a mighty empire, a 300-year-old dynasty and a unique autocratic regime, were intertwined with the failure of the Russian Army in all fields of warfare. After a decade of intensive research, John W. Steinberg reveals in a dense and well-researched book, how one of the most powerful armies in the world, one in which the cream of social elite served the Tsar ..