The Sebastopol Sketches

Description

Tolstoy, who was an officer in the Russian army at the time, planned to be sent to the besieged town of Sebastopol during the winter of 1854. He was driven by a great sense of patriotism as well as a burning desire to inform the authorities of the horrifying conditions in the army. He wanted to witness firsthand the action of what would later be known as the Crimean War. The three Sebastopol Sketches—"December," "May," and "August"—recreate what occurred throughout various stretches of the siege and how it affected the troops in his immediate surroundings. He exposed the atrocities of war to the entire literate population of Russia by writing with the truth as his first priority.