The Sevastopol Sketches
By Leo Tolstoy

In his three sketches devoted to the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War—which were published separately as Sevastopol in December, Sevastopol in May and Sevastopol in August—Tolstoy uses his characteristic analysis to reveal hidden truths about the human condition. By making his reader a voyeur of this warlike state, he was successful in challenging many of the cultural norms his Russian readers brought along to their understanding of what had happened during the Crimean War. As with a few of the works that followed this one closely (War and Peace in particular), Tolstoy handles war in both frank and emotional terms.