The Civil War ended a hundred years ago, but passions about it do not subside and are unlikely to subside in the foreseeable future. Understanding the social catastrophe that befell them, each of the warring camps generated its own historical narrative and its own galaxy of heroes. Today, almost all of them - both white and red - have lost their romantic aura: both opposing sides demonstrated rare cruelty in this conflict. Oleg Budnitsky’s book is dedicated to the heroes of the Civil War on both sides: it consists of biographical sketches about the leaders of the Reds and Whites, collective portraits of the most famous military formations of both, from “snapshot photographs” of the Red Army in 1918 and the “White Crimea” in the fall of 1920- th, when the Russian Vendée was living its last days. The author contrasts the superficial view and demonization/romanticization of these historical personalities with an analysis of the motives and logic of the actions of key historical figures, an attempt to see in them living people forced to make difficult political and moral choices, as well as reap the fruits of their actions and crimes. Oleg Budnitsky – Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Director of the Institute of Soviet and Post-Soviet History of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, author of numerous studies on the history of the 20th century.