This book is about the armed forces of one country or three, depending on how one chooses to count. Citizens of contemporary Russia certainly see a common thread uniting their history, and I proceed from a similar assumption: Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation are treated as one country. Thus, despite the annoying fact that for seventyfour years the country had a completely different name (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), for the sake of brevity and simplicity I will often refer to the Russian empire/the Soviet Union/the Russian Federation as Russia. I should perhaps add that my annoyance should not be taken as a political statement, but as a more practical author's lament.

Not only did the name of the country change after the 1917 Revolution, but also the calendar. Dates in this book are given in the form in which they would have been in Russia at that time. Thus, until February 1, 1918, dates are given in Old Style according to the Julian Calendar used in Imperial Russia. The Julian Calendar lagged twelve days behind the Gregorian Calendar in the nineteenth century and thirteen days behind it in the twentieth century. After February 1, 1918, dates are given in New Style, consistent with the Gregorian Calendar used in the West.

I use the transliteration system of the U.S. Board on Geographic names, which I believe is easier for non-Russian speakers to read than the Library of Congress system (Yakovlev rather than Iakovlev, Milyukov rather than Miliukov, etc.).