While slogans of freedom were being heard in Petrograd, far beyond the farthest frontiers of the vast country—from Polish churches to the mosques of Turkestan—the pillars of the monarchy were already cracking, foreshadowing the rise of a new superpower. This book tells how World War I, the national movements of the borderlands, and mounting social tensions converged into a destructive whirlwind that swept away the old order. A study not bound to either Soviet dogmas or post-Soviet myths, it examines how power worked amid general collapse and uncertainty. Why were the Whites unable to win the struggle for the population’s allegiance in the empire? What hidden processes made it possible for the three-hundred-year-old monarchy to fall in just a few days—almost without resistance? What price did the shift—from the “empire of tsars” to the “empire of Soviets”—exact from society? In front of you is a thorough analysis of one of the most sweeping and tragic transformations of the 20th century.