Cossacks

The works included in this collection, written by L.N. Tolstoy at different times, can be conditionally divided into two themes – war and peace. The military theme is represented by works from the time of the conquest of the Caucasus – the remarkable novella Cossacks, notable for its psychological depth, and the dramatic, internally tense stories Raid, How Russian Soldiers Die, and Disgraced. The peaceful theme is embodied in masterpieces of Russian realistic prose – Three Deaths, The Snowstorm, and The Landlord's Morning, which are simple in terms of plot and marked by pure Tolstoyan subtlety and depth of understanding of human nature.