The Crimean War one of the fiercest battles in Russia''s history, killing nearly a million men and completely redrawing the map of Europe. Pitting the Tsar''s empire against an alliance of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire, it was the first conflict to use photography, the telegraph and newspapers; a war over territory, from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf; a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populistbelief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia''s task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land; it was the original ''total war''.

Orlando Figes'' vivid new book reinterprets this extraordinary conflict. Bringing to life ordinary soldiers in snow-filled trenches, surgeons on the battlefield and the haunted, fanatical figure of Tsar Nicholas himself, Crimea tells the human story of a tragic war.