He is called “the best Russian military leader of the First World War.” His legendary Brusilovsky breakthrough became the only successful strategic offensive of our army during the entire war. Everyone knows his name. But in the life and fate of General Brusilov there are still a lot of “blank spots”, omissions and mysteries. Why was his gift as a commander not recognized in 1916, when the Russian government desperately needed victories and heroes? Why was a monarchist to the core one of the first to renounce his emperor? Why did the Provisional Government, which raised Brusilov to the top of the military hierarchy, remove him from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief just two months later? Why did the Russian patriot cooperate with the Bolsheviks? How did the last hero of the Russian Empire serve the USSR? Answering the most difficult and “inconvenient” questions, this book traces the path of the famous commander from a tsarist general to a Soviet military expert who was attached to the Revolutionary Military Council for especially important assignments, from the Double-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner.