From the preface: Sophia Kossak was a member of the Polish landed gentry that had owned huge estates in the Volhynia region (part of modern day Ukraine) for centuries. Even when the area was not controlled by Poland itself, these Polish grand families maintained their power and riches, and in this book the authoer recounts her experiences in the region during one of the most turbulent periods in history - the upheaval of the First World War, collapse of Imperial Russia and the Russian Revolution.

Kossak recounts the many dangers that threatened her and her family during that time, describing the dissolution of the Russian army during a time when no government was in control of the huge Russian empire, chaos as army units chose to support the Kerensky government, the Bolsheviks, or different nationalist movements, often dissolving into banditry. The Ukrainian peasantry also rose up against the rich landowners, and Sophia writes of the attacks and looting of her families estate, as well as her families eventual flight, during which her family was at risk from a series of governments, led at different times by Bolsheviks, local strongmen, Ukrainian Nationalists and even the German Army!

Condition of the book is generally good. The cover boards have some minor scuffs, but the spine is intact and all pages are intact and tightly bound. This is an ex-Polish Library book, and it has a library label on the inside front cover, and library stamps on the publishing details page. There is an inscription in pen on the title page, and an insert with the book title and a short description (which I think is the front of the old dust jacket cut out) fixed onto the first inside page