Sevastopol stories. Tolstoy L.

In the mid-50s of the XIX century, the Contemporary magazine published a cycle of “Sevastopol Stories” by L. N. Tolstoy (1828-1910). For readers of that time, with intense attention of the Izvestia about the Crimean War, these essays were of interest primarily as a living evidence of an eyewitness, as a kind of report from the scene. Personal participation in the defense of Sevastopol allowed Tolstoy with the vigilance of a realist writer to fully and objectively depict different human characters. The writer shows that Russian soldiers, ordinary people are the main force that gives rise to the heroic spirit of the defenders of the hero city. In the essays for the first time in Tolstoy’s work, a generalized image of the Russian people is presented, in the formidable time of the defense of their homeland. A new look at the war as a hard work, devoid of a halo of beautifulness, its perception from the point of view of ordinary participants was the artistic discovery of the great writer.