WAR AND WAR: UNDERSTANDING TOLSTOY THROUGH TWO OF HIS WAR NOVELS By Scott Maltby A SENIOR THESIS PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Scott Maltby 2 Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is one of the best known and most highly regarded authors of all time. Tolstoy’s shorter works can become easily overshadowed by his best-known pieces, "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". Some of Tolstoy's first- published novels were set during the wars of the mid 1800's, fought in the south of Russia against rebels in the Caucasus, and the Crimean war, fought against the allied forces of the French and the English. Publishing Childhood in 1852, the stories that would be collectively known as the Sevastopol Sketches, between 1855 and 1856, and then The Cossacks in 1863, Tolstoy established himself firmly as a writer. Leaving the University of Kazan in 1851 he first served at a Cossack outpost in the Caucasus, before transferring on personal request to Sevastopol during the siege. There Tolstoy gained firsthand experience he integrated into The Cossacks and Sevastopol Sketches. As he developed his style he began composing works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which deal with large ideas such as the mechanisms of history and the complexities of social life among Russian aristocrats. It is interesting that after spending so much time away from the region (besides his short story The Prisoner of the Caucasus, based on the poems of the same name by Pushkin and Lermontov, published in 1872) he would return to the region and spend nine years writing Hadji Murat near the end of his life, from 1896 to 1905, without any attempt at publishing the work. With roughly fifty years separating the time he began The Cossacks and when he finished Hadji Murat, there are some obvious differences and striking similarities that make an examination of the two worthwhile. Much can be said of and learned from these differences and similarities. However I intend to focus first on the basic level, that of the subject matter and ideas 3 developed in the texts, and focus second on what can be said of Tolstoy through his characters, when viewed within the dichotomy of hedgehogs and foxes as laid out by Isaiah Berlin in his well-known essay “The Hedgehog and The Fox”. On one hand there is the hedgehog, an intellectual who possesses a specific, unified worldview, to which they relate everything and through which they understand life. On the other there is the fox, an intellectual who does not possess a single guiding idea, but instead pursue a variety of ideas and experiences. Berlin identifies as “one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers” (22). On the more basic level there are a number of elements present in both The Cossacks and Hadji Murat in varying degrees. In each work Tolstoy addresses the differences between the culture of imperial Russia and that of the local people on either side of the conflict, critiques the Russian state and Orthodox Church, and confronts death and the realities of war, subjects which are very important to Tolstoy’s later writing and philosophy. Taking a step back we can view the characters in each work based on where they lie on the spectrum between hedgehog and fox. In The Cossacks, his earlier work, the main character Dmitry Andreyevich Olenin closely resembles a fox, while in Hadji Murat the title character is a strong hedgehog. This shift can be attributed to changes in personality and thinking Tolstoy underwent during the half century separating the works, but when looked at vis-à-vis, one can better understand the complex character that is Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. In his well-known essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox" Isaiah Berlin talks about how it is difficult to place Tolstoy with in the spectrum of the hedgehog and the fox, putting forth the hypothesis “that Tolstoy was by nature a Fox, but believed in being a hedgehog” (24). Considering this 4 hypothesis in light of the recognition of Olenin as a fox and Hadji Murat as a hedgehog, we see Tolstoy's nature played out in Olenin and his ideal believe exemplified in the life of Hadji Murat. After first examining the similar and contrasting elements of both works, it becomes fruitful to examine the characters in abstraction and to consider their relation to Tolstoy himself. The clash and intermingling of cultures between imperial Russian and various native cultures is the understandably pervasive through both works. Olenin's romanticism and adoption of aspects of the Cossack way of life embody an attempt at integrating the two cultures, however unsuccessful, while the interactions between Hadji Murat and Russians demonstrate the gap between the cultures and near impossibility of abolishing that gap. Olenin joins the army in the Caucasus in order to get a new start in life, “I've made a mess, made a mess of my life. But now it's all over, you're right. And I feel a new life is beginning” (Cossacks 5). This motivation for leaving and outlook set the stage for Olenin to embrace the cultural practices of the Caucasus. Olenin quickly takes to imitating the local dress, but is far from blending in. The first time we encounter Olenin after he begins serving actively in the army we see him “dressed in Circassian style, but badly; anyone would have realized he was a Russian, not a djigit” (48). Even after spending his days hunting and nights drinking with Uncle Yeroshka, Olenin begins to think he “resembled a djigit; but this was not the case” (110). Uncle Yeroshka serves in part as a mentor for Olenin, teaching him how to hunt and drink like a Cossack from their first meeting (53-54). An old Cossack, Uncle Yeroshka stands apart from the rest of the settlement because he does not think poorly of the Russian soldiers, as he says 5 “even though you're a soldier, you're still a man, you've got a soul in you, too” (55). Olenin's attempts at integrate himself outwardly resembles the results of Russia's attempts at subjugating the region “It was all as it was meant to be, yet not as it was meant to be” (48). The Russians have troops, officials, and people in place but despite their efforts the two cultures are so dissimilar that it is difficult for them to fit. However there is an underlying difference between the two; Olenin is motivated by a desire to be like the Cossacks because he sees their way of life as superior and is in love with the beautiful Maryana, while the imperial goals of the Russians are to possess the region and its people. Almost every interaction between Hadji Murat and a member of the upper tiers of Russian society highlights the stark contrast between the cultures of the mountains and that of imperial Russia. When Hadji Murat comes over to the Russians and meets the younger Prince Vorontsov, Vorontsov offers his hand to Hadji Murat, as a greeting and a sign that he accept s Hadji Murat’s offer of surrender; but Hadji Murat does not immediately take his hand, instead he momentarily pauses and just looks at the outstretched hand before shaking it (Death 398). Hadji Murat could have been taking a second to consider what he was about to commit to, but it seems unlikely given the resolute nature of his character. More likely the gesture is simply not something that Hadji Murat practices on a regular basis. Instead he would regularly greet another man the same way he greets Sado earlier, by “[stroking] their faces with their hands, bringing them together at the tip of the beard (377)” After escorting Hadji Murat into his home Vorontsov leaves Hadji Murat with his wife and stepson while going to attend to the arrangements necessary for Hadji Murat’s arrival (400) and later eating dinner with the 6 family. This stands in sharp contrast to manner in which Hadji Murat is received in Sado’s home, where he interacts minimally with the women of the house (377) and falling silent when Sado’s wife and daughter bring in the food (380). While being far from decisive differences, they are indicative of the gap between the two cultures. After travelling to Tiflis and meeting for the first time with the elder Prince Vorontsov, Hadji Murat attends an opera that he leaves after the first act and a soiree at which he is clearly out of place (418-419). He observes the performance detached “With Oriental, Muslim dignity, not only with on expression of surprise, but with an air of indifference”. While the performance is surely something he had never encountered prior, Hadji Murat sees no reason to be interested in the display because it does nothing to further his goal or securing the release of his family. This same attitude is seen at the soiree, where Hadji Murat deflects the guests’ questions of “how did he like what he saw” with the same answer “that his people did not have it—without saying whether it was good or bad that they did not have it” (418-419). In each situation Hadji Murat disregards the norm by leaving the opera early, attempting to discuss business with Vorontsov at the soiree, and then leaving the soiree early despite being instructed that it would be rude to do so (419). These situations, which are so familiar to the Russians in attendance, are foreign to Hadji Murat and, since they do nothing to further his goals, he is not compelled to play the part the Russians would hope him to; to enjoy the spectacle of the opera, to praise the soiree where he “could not help liking all that he saw” (419).