A frank and rather tough book written by a participant in the Russo-Japanese War, Colonel of the General Staff of Gerua. The book, using the example of an unsuccessful war, examines the shortcomings of the Russian army and contains proposals for overcoming them. The book is balanced, since it was written by a military man who wants his own army to become better - on the one hand, he boldly criticizes a lot (but not everything, Gerua did not swing at the generals), on the other hand, this is a motivated criticism of a person who knows the matter from the inside, and not superficial hunting