The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

By Leo Tolstoi

This early work by Tolstoy, published in 1863, is based on his own experiences serving with the army in the Caucasus region in the 1850s.  A young Russian, Dimitry Olenin, leaves his cultured life in Moscow in search of authentic experiences among the untamed Cossacks.  What he finds will change his life forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Feb 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781411438743

Leo Tolstoi

Leo Tolstoy grew up in Russia, raised by a elderly aunt and educated by French tutors while studying at Kazen University before giving up on his education and volunteering for military duty. When writing his greatest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy drew upon his diaries for material. At eighty-two, while away from home, he suffered from declining health and died in Astapovo, Riazan in 1910.

Reviews for The Cossacks

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Considered Tolstoy's best novel from his early years. Begun in 1853 and completed in 1862, after nearly 10 years of fits and starts he was compelled to finish it after loosing badly at cards in order to pay the debt. The novel describes life among the martial Cossacks as seen through the eyes of a young Russian soldier stationed in a native village on the frontier. Descriptions of Caucuses geography and wildlife are the strongest part of the novel in my opinion, the story itself is slow and uneventful. The Cossack's are a clannish community and the outsider Olenin who tries to penetrate it with modest success discovers himself in the process. It's like Dances with Wolves where a soldier who is sent to subjugate and civilize instead discovers indigenous wisdom and attempts to go native, but finds in the end he can never fully cross over and returns a changed man.

[drfp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of Tolstoy's best short stories / novella. Highly readable and exciting, I found this much more enjoyable than Tolstoy's other, more highly praised, Caucus novel "Hadji Murad".

[pfax_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quick, wonderful read. Tolstoy's insights into another culture are poignant and relevant. This novel speaks much of the problems of the multinational Russian empire, and maintains its relevance in the modern era's issues of globalization.