The Prisoner of the Caucasus

by Leo Tolstoy, Tim Newcomb (Translator)

A new 2023 translation into modern American English directly from the original Russian manuscript. This edition contains an Afterword by the translator, a timeline of Tolstoy's life and works, and a glossary of philosophic terminology used throughout Tolstoy's literature and philosophy.

"The Prisoner of the Caucasus" by Leo Tolstoy is a gripping short story that explores themes of captivity, identity, and cultural understanding. The story follows a Russian soldier, Shamil, who is captured by Chechen rebels during the Caucasian War. While Shamil is held captive, he develops an unexpected bond with his captor, a Chechen woman, revealing a humanity that transcends the boundaries of culture and nation. Tolstoy's profound exploration of empathy and the complexities of human connection elevates The Prisoner of the Caucasus to a work of extraordinary literary merit. The story is historically significant because it offers a nuanced perspective on how Russian soldiers interacted with Caucasian insurgents during a critical period in Russian history. Its enduring relevance lies in its poignant depiction of the power of compassion and understanding in the midst of conflict and cultural differences.

155 pages, Paperback

Published August 7, 2023

About the author

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.