This volume, originally published in 1990 and now with an updated Preface, gives an account of the Allies'' last concerted attempt to destroy Russia''s nascent Bolshevik regime. At the start, it looked like a threat that should be taken seriously, as the Reds'' enemies both native and foreign combined with trained mercenaries under the leadership of a Tsarist admiral. But it finished with a firing squad on the ice, and a grisly end for the ill-fated Admiral Kolchak. With him died the last hope for the old order in Russia, and the future of the new Soviet state was secure. The skill of the author''s narrative lies in his mastery both of the detail and of the wider implications of these epic events.