The Afterwar

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Britain, 1919. The war with Germany is over. The secret war with Russia is just beginning.

Britain emerged from the First World War a shell-shocked nation facing multiple crises: a shattered economy, soaring unemployment, striking workers and mutinous soldiers. City streets shook with riotous violence and the nation's politicians and generals lived in fear of terrorist bombs and assassin's bullets. Inflaming these threats from within was an enemy beyond Britain's borders: the Bolsheviks, determined to spread the Russian revolution across the globe.

The Britons tasked with thwarting these plans were a dubious bunch: adventurous soldiers out to spill Russian blood, delusional detectives in thrall to conspiracy theories, puritanical politicians enlisting the help of violent fascists. Under the leadership of these flawed characters arrogance, prejudice, incompetence and fear consumed common sense in the struggle against Russia, leading to humiliating intelligence failures, disastrous political miscalculations, and ultimately the destruction of Anglo-Russian relations. But it was through these crises and challenges that the British intelligence community evolved into the powerful force it is today.

Taking the reader back to an era of political extremism, civil unrest, extraordinary police powers and Russian expansionism, The Afterwar is a fascinating account of how the struggles and failures of the 1920s laid the foundations of Britain's intelligence community and its century-long struggle with Russia, offering lessons from the past to our troubled present.