The Captive of the Caucasus: A True Story

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) - a Russian writer and philosopher, author of world-famous works (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection). He was born in Yasnaya Polyana into a wealthy aristocratic family. L.N. Tolstoy became an orphan at an early age. In 1837, he moved to Moscow with his sister and three brothers, where a distant relative, T.A. Yergolskaya, took care of their upbringing. In 1851, he joined the military service in the Caucasus, where he wrote a lot. In 1852, L.N. Tolstoy sent the manuscript of Childhood to the popular magazine Sovremennik at that time. The magazine's editor, N.A. Nekrasov, already highly appreciated the work of the young author. After the end of the Crimean War, L.N. Tolstoy moved to St. Petersburg and immediately joined the circle of Sovremennik. In 1872, L.N. Tolstoy wrote the novella The Captive of the Caucasus, which tells about a Russian officer captured by the mountaineers. Partly, the work is based on a real story that happened to the writer in the Caucasus. Together with his Chechen friend Sado, he went far from the detachment accompanying the convoy and nearly fell into captivity. The sentry of the fortress of Groznaya timely saw that they were being pursued by mountaineers and raised the alarm among the Cossacks. The hero of the novella, officer Zhilin, falls into captivity. He has a complicated relationship with the inhabitants of the aul, and only the kind girl Dina becomes his friend. By truthfully describing the details of Zhilin's captivity, Tolstoy shows that war is evil and condemns interethnic strife and mutual hatred.