The story of Soviet film in the period covered by Peter Kenez is central to the history of world cinema. The author explores the roots of Soviet cinema in the film heritage of pre-Revolutionary Russia; the changes in content, style, technical means, and production capacities generated by the Revolution of 1917; the constraints on form and subject imposed from the 1930s in the name of Socialist Realism; the relative freedom of expression accorded to film-makers during World War Two; and the extraordinary repression during the final years of the Stalin era.

"The republication of Professor Kenez's classic volumes is to be warmly welcomed. Based on copious archival research and a close reading of published memoirs and mixing careful narrative with judicious analysis, they still provide the definitive history of the anti-Bolshevik movement in South Russia. Their original publication provided an inspiration for a generation of scholars of the Russian Civil War; the new edition will certainly inspire another. The armchair historian too, as well as all those interested in the fate of contemporary Russia, will find much to admire and much to ponder...

"The profession will be delighted to learn that this classic study of the Russian Civil War (1917-21) on its most crucial battleground is again available. Kenez's work was the first in any language to cut through the rhetoric of partisan memory and historiography in order to present a complicated and balanced view of both sides."--Richard Stites, Georgetown University.