Shortly after the Soviet Union withdrew from WW I, the Red Army confronted the Whites, staunch opponents of communism who were aided by an interventionist militia led by the U.S., Britain and France. Millions died in the civil war of 1918-1921, as battles, epidemics, mass starvation and executions racked the nation, and as the Cheka, or secret police, sent countless people to death in labor camps. Anti-Semitic massacres swept the Ukraine. In this gripping, revelatory history, readers grasp the human cost of the civil war and its permanent impact on Soviet consciousness. Lincoln ( In War's Dark Shadow ; Passage Through Armageddon ) uncovers fanaticism, terror and elitist politics among both Reds and Whites, peopling his canvas with memorable figures including a truculent Lenin, stormy poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and Aleksandra Kollontai, champion of women's rights and sexual liberation.