The Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria was the first 20th century conflict fought between the regular armies of major powers, employing the most modern means - machine guns, trench warfare, minefields and telephone communications; and the battle of Mukden in March 1905 was the largest clash of armies in world history up to that date. Events were followed by many foreign observers; but the events of 1914 in Western Europe suggest that not all of them drew the correct conclusions. For the first time in the West the armies of this distant but important war are described and illustrated in detail, with rare photos and the superbly atmospheric paintings of Russia's leading military illustrator.

Alexei Ivanov was born in 1969 just outside Moscow. He served in the Soviet Armed Forces for four and a half years. He is an avid collector of Russian militaria, and he is especially interested in the Russian Civil War period. He divides his time between Russia and his home in Cambridgeshire. Philip Jowett was born in Leeds in 1961, and has always been interested in military history. His first Osprey book was the ground-breaking Men-at-Arms 306: 'Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49'; he has since published a three-part sequence on The Italian Army 1940-45 (Men-at-Arms 340, 349 & 353). A rugby league enthusiast and amateur genealogist, he is married and lives in Leeds.
Andrei Karachtchouk was born in 1966 near Moscow. A well-established artist in Russia, his previous work for Osprey includes two volumes in the Men-at-Arms series on the Russian Civil War. Andrei is an active re-enactor and sculptor who, among other things, makes master-models for the UK based 'Anglo-Russian Toy Soldier' Company.