About the book: 2013 / Karl Mannerheim is one of the most famous political figures of the 20th century. Lieutenant General of the Russian Imperial Army, after the revolution of 1917 he fled to Finland, where he became a field marshal of the Finnish army, and then the president of this country. Under the leadership of Mannerheim, a powerful defensive line was built in Finland, named after him, during the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939 –1940 it significantly hampered the advance of the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, Finland sided with Germany against the USSR, but in 1944 it concluded a peace agreement with the Soviet Union and began military operations against Germany. In his memoirs, Karl Mannerheim describes his service at the court of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and in the Russian army, the revolution in Russia, difficult relations between Finland and the USSR in the interwar period, the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939–1940. and the war between Finland and the USSR in 1941–1944. Particular attention is paid to the imperial aspirations of Russia and the USSR, as well as the place of Russia-USSR in European politics.