Aleksandr Borisovich Astashov, Russkii front v 1914 – nachale 1917 goda: voennyi opyt i sovremennost’ [The Russian Front from 1914 to the Beginning of 1917: Military Experience and Modernity]. Moskva, Novyi khronograf, 2014, 737 pages

Aleksandr Astashov’s monograph is, by a wide margin, the most comprehensive and best book ever written on the experience of Russian soldiers during the Great War. In four extensive chapters, “The narod goes to war,” “The human being in the face of war,” “Problems of organizing fighting on the Russian front,” and “The birth of the citizen-soldier,” he provides a richly researched and intelligently argued social history of the millions of men who served in Russian uniform from 1914 through 1917...