Books: Russians As They Were

THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD—Nicholas Kalashnikoff—Harper ($3).

An autobiographical first novel of a Russian ex-revolutionist and army officer who escaped to the U. S. in 1924, They That Take the Sword is a simply-told, convincing, first-person marathon (717 pages). It traces the career of an idealistic, dynamic, personable young Siberian peasant who ran away at 16 to become a "Russian Lincoln." He became leader of a terrorist group, was exiled to Siberia, rose to a captaincy during the War, commanded both Red and White troops in the civil war, narrowly escaped "liquidation" when...