Osprey Men-at-Arms 364
"The Russian Army 1914-18"
by N Bullock & A Karachtchouk

The well known publisher Osprey has always catered for, say, WW2 subjects in a really superlative way, but now their WW1 range has really started to look fine as well. One of the recent addition is this one: "The Russian Army 1914-18". 

This 47-page booklet follows their successful standard format, with fine text, many new photos and really good artwork. It has been written by Nik Cornish, the artwork comes from the talented hand of the Moscow-based Military artist Andrei Karachtchouk.

The photos are good. The big majority of them are brand new, at least to me, so this is no re-hash of old material. The colour artwork is among the best I've seen in this series - Karachtchouk is gifted! - and also they cover both more standard cases, like infantrymen, officers and cavalry, but also more specialised subjects, like Armoured Car crew, Pilots, Turkmen Horse and Death Batallion women soldiers! It is a really colourful collection, making you REALLY interested in this Army, and also making you wonder why it has been neglected so long!

The main chapters are:

• Chronology

• Organisation of the Armed Forces

• Elite units

• Non-Russian units

• Uniforms and Personal Equipment

• Tactics

• Weapons

 

If there is something I myself feel less satisfied over, then it's the relatively big space taken up by the Chronlogy section, which outlines the main campaigns of the Russian Army, a subject easy to find elsewhere. The same cannot be said of the info on uniforms and equipment, which is really first rate, and much of it really new to me. Very highly recommended!