"The Soviet Military Experience: A History of the Soviet Army, 1917-1991" by Roger R. Reese

This book includes discussion of: the origins of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army; the Bolshevik regime's use of the military as a school of socialism; the Second World War and its repercussions; and the effect of Gorbachev's policies of Glasnost and Perestroika. The middleground between the political, operational, and anecdotal history of the Soviet military.

From its revolutionary inception in 1917 to its demise in 1991, the Red Army played a crucial role in all aspects of Soviet life. The Soviet Military Experience is the first general work to place the Soviet army into its true social, political and international contexts.

An immense amount of knowledge is ably condensed into a relatively swift read and analysis of the early years of the Red Army is especially well done.