Someone always is after Ukraine

“Denikan’s armies have smashed the Reds and he’s off and running for Moscow. Where is his front?” 

“Situation fluid,” Lacey said. “Opinions vary.”

“What an odd war. Nobody knows anything. Oh, well. What has H.Q. to say about Russian politics, Count?”

“They copied it from the Encyclopaedia Britannica,” Borodin said, “which has long since been overtaken by events. For instance, the Britannica and H.Q. say the peasants are ignorant of Western civilization, hence the power of the nobility. But the peasants have taken their estates and the nobility have no power. Whoever wrote this doesn’t understand the Revolution.”

A Splendid Little War, Derek Robinson, 2013. Robinson turned 90 this year, so he was only 81 when he wrote the fictional account of British Camel and Dh-9 pilots fighting Bolsheviks in 1918-19. It is worth a read, even though character development is not as good as in Piece of Cake.