This is one of those books where the sub-title is an example of truth in advertising, as the author examines the reign of terror wrought by men such as Roman Ungern-Shternberg and Grigorii Semenov (among others) who, once freed from their obligation of service to the Czarist throne, could think of nothing better to do but prey on the Russian society of the Far East with no vision greater than personal aggrandizement. Call this part of the explanation of how the weakness of Russian society possibly made Bolshevik victory inevitable; barring a really major intervention by outside powers.

As for the drawbacks to this book, apart from the rather fearsome price (this is definitely an inter-library loan special), there are times when Bisher's background as a security analyst rather than a scholar becomes a little problematic. He does get bogged down in the mass of material he has collected and it seems that he could have tied the rise of the Cossack warlords to wider trends in Russian society, such as the history of the "service" aristocracy in Czarist Russia. Still, there's really nothing else like this book on the subject. ( )