The Unfound Peace is the first book dealing with disabled former servicemen of tsarist Russia in all regards--socioeconomic status, healthcare, social reintegration into families and communities, self-representation--and the only one comparing World War I and Russian Civil War veterans. Alexandre Sumpf considers the ways disabled Great War veterans tried to live under the Bolsheviks and compares their experiences with those of the Red Army veterans who received special considerations from the new regime.

Offering a history of the body and health in relation to work, The Unfound Peace also compares the situation of disabled veterans with that of disabled workers who were subject to the same demands of extreme productivity but benefited from better social protection, though they dealt with accusations that they were faking their disabilities.

Sumpf's exploration of disabled veterans, with transnational comparisons, offers the possibility of rereading the history of the first generation of Soviets through the collective and private memory of war, in the USSR and in exile.