Denikin came from a poor family and rose by merit through the army ranks. A brilliant field officer, he became a national hero in 1916 as commander of the "Iron Division" in the Brusilov offensive against the Austro-German armies. Churchill later credited the survival of the Allies to Russia's gallant efforts in this campaign.

In the chaos following the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917, Denikin saw his duty as the defense of Russia and her people against Germany. Although he shared the liberal views of the Russian intelligentsia, he became an outspoken critic of the provisional government for its failure to maintain army discipline, and when the Bolsheviks, who were willing to sacrifice Russian soil to political ends, seized power, Denikin helped form the White Army to oppose them. Shortly after the outbreak of the civil war in 1918, Denikin assumed political and military command of the White movement in South Russia, which at its high tide in 1919 governed forty-two million people.

In this definitive biography the author uses Denikin's letters and unpublished papers to show us firsthand the terrible winter campaigns on the steppes, the diplomatic maneuvers, and the personalities of the period. Denikin himself emerges as a sensitive man, isolated by unsought responsibility for the lives of his countrymen.