General Jaruzelski is the central figure in this worthy monograph. As a representative both of Poland's historic military tradition and of the new, efficient postwar army, and with a reputation (not wholly deserved) as a soldier-patriot, he rose rapidly to power in the army and ultimately in the state apparatus, all the while consistently serving the interest of the Soviet Union and the communist system. Indeed, for a time he proved indispensable to it. Civil-military relations in Poland, Michta demonstrates, were unlike those anywhere else in Eastern Europe.