The Cossacks

Through the landscapes of the Caucasus and the Cossack regiment to which he is assigned, a young officer, Olenin—who is none other than Tolstoy himself—discovers the splendor of the primitive world. “God, how sad our Russia is,” sighed Pushkin; for Tolstoy, the Caucasus is the discovery of joy, the forgetting of the overwhelming sense of guilt that lies at the heart of the Russian soul. There are admirable evocations of nature. The brilliant picturesqueness of romantic travels. And a love story in which we see Olenin fall in love with a young Cossack, Maryan, who for him is the symbol of a freedom still unattainable. Maryan refuses to marry Olenin, but he never forgets her, and The Cossacks marks the starting point of Tolstoy’s moral development.