First published 2021
Young officer Leo Tolstoy stands amid the rubble of besieged Sevastopol during the Crimean War. Shells explode overhead as he moves through trenches filled with wounded soldiers. The city holds against enemy forces for months while Tolstoy participates in its defense. He earns medals for bravery, including the Order of Saint Anna and the medal for defending Sevastopol. Around him, men die not in glorious battle formations with music and drums, but in blood, suffering, and death. Tolstoy records what he sees with unflinching honesty. The war strips away romantic notions of combat and reveals its brutal reality. These stories, written immediately after the events, capture the raw experience of soldiers under siege. Tolstoy shows war as it truly unfolds rather than how poets and historians later describe it. The collection also includes his early stories "The Blizzard," "Three Deaths," and "Polikushka."
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, 19th-century, russian-literature
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: gritty, realistic
Setting: Crimea, Sevastopol
Period: Crimean War
243 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, war