Leo Tolstoy's Sevastopol Stories
2008.072008.07.0.0.0.02222 Classics Revisited: Leo TolstoyTolstoy’’’’ss Sevastopol Stories bybyby Walter G. Moss Eastern Michigan University With the following essay, the Review launches a new series entitled “Classics Revi- sited.” Its goal will be to provide thoughtful reconsiderations of masterpieces in the literature of war. Both literary and purely historical works will be included. The in- augural appreciation is by Walter G. Moss, professor of history at Eastern Michigan University. Professor Moss, who has taught Russian history, philosophy, and litera- ture for many years, is the author of numerous articles and distinguished books within and beyond those subject areas, including A History of Russia , 2 vols. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997; 2 nd ed. London: Anthem, 2002/5), Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky (London: Anthem, 2002), An Age of Progress? Clashing Twentieth-Century Global Forces (London: Anthem, 2008), and, with R.D. Goff, J. Terry, J-H. Upshur, and M. Schroeder, The Twentieth Century and Beyond: A Global History , 7 th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007). — Ed. In April 1855, in the midst of the Crimean War, a twenty-six year old Russian sub- lieutenant, Leo Tolstoy, was commanding an artillery battery in the besieged Black Sea city of Sevastopol. 1 His unit was in the most forward bastion of the defense. It was close to the French lines and under constant and heavy bombardment. Occasionally while at the front, in a bomb-proof dugout with the sounds of cannons booming in his ears, he wrote a story about the siege of the city at the end of the previous year--he had first entered Sevastopol in November and subsequently moved back and forth from the front.
[Show full text]