Book Reviews - Review 242

A wonderful novella that describes the experiences of Dmitrii Olenin, a young Russian nobleman who heads off to join the army in the Caucasus, hoping to find there, in some form, opportunities for an authentic life that he feels denied in the cushy and stifling atmosphere of Moscow. Once stationed in a Cossack village in the plains below the mountains, he finds his minimal military duties give him plenty of time to study local customs, and rather than spend his days with his fellow soldiers, he takes to a life of semi-integration into Cossack life, drinking and shooting with some of the villagers, and ultimately falling in love with his landlord's daughter.

This is a very moving story that deals with the perennial themes of belonging, civilisation and the search for values. The life of a Cossack is Olenin's ideal, but he is forced reluctantly to accept that renunciation of his identity as an educated Russian aristocrat would be not only impossible, but an act of self-deception. Even if our identification with our milieu is reluctant and qualified, it can never be discarded completely: moreover, our desire to fit in elsewhere will not always be matched by acceptance from those we want to fit in with.

Tolstoy's shorter works are notable for their excellent pacing: there are none of the occasional longueurs of War and Peace or Anna Karenina, yet the psychological penetration and the broad human sympathy are just as prominent. The Cossacks adds to these qualities a very vivid sense of place and of the life of a simple, tough and proud rural community. This is a story that really captures the imagination.