Sevastopol Stories is a cycle of 3 works by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, describing the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1854-1855. The writer, being in the ranks of the active army, took a direct part in hostilities, informing the public about what was happening through his works.
At their core, the Sevastopol stories are military reports, so we can say that Tolstoy was the first war correspondent. In the besieged Sevastopol and its environs, he was in the midst of the Crimean war, from November 1854 to August 1855.
For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription "For Bravery", medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856."
Sevastopol in the month of December
The first story is called "Sevastopol in the month of December", in which the writer conveys his first impressions of Sevastopol. In this work, Tolstoy for the first time showed the whole country a besieged city without artistic embellishment and pretentious phrases that accompanied the official news in newspapers and magazines of that time. The story describes the everyday life of the besieged city, filled with explosions of grenades, cannonballs, the torment of the wounded in overcrowded hospitals, the hard work of the city's defenders, blood, mud and death. The first story of Tolstoy's Sevastopol cycle is key, in which the writer talks about the nationwide heroism of the Russian people defending the city. Here he reveals an understanding of the reasons for this heroism: "This reason is a feeling that rarely manifests itself, bashful in Russian, but lies in the depths of everyone's soul - love for the Motherland."
Sevastopol in May
The next story of this cycle is called "Sevastopol in May", the plot line and the form of the narration of the second story are in many respects similar to the December one. But here a new phase of the war is already clearly visible, which did not justify the writer's hopes for the unity of the nation. "Sevastopol in May" is dedicated to the description of the behavior of the aristocratic officer elite, who cannot withstand the ordeal of the war. In the circle of people in power, the main stimuli of behavior are selfishness and vanity, not patriotism. For the sake of awards and career advancement, they are ready to mindlessly sacrifice the lives of ordinary soldiers. Tolstoy's criticism of official state policy and ideology, which later became a characteristic feature of the writer's work, appears for the first time in the May story.
"Sevastopol in May" was published in a disfigured form - it was corrected by censorship. And yet the public was shocked.
Sevastopol in August 1855
The third story of the Sevastopol cycle describes the most terrible period of the siege of the city - August 855. During this month, the city was subjected to continuous cruel bombing, at the end of August Sevastopol fell. The heroes of this story are not well-born people - representatives of the small and middle nobility, who, in anticipation of the last enemy assault, understand and accept the point of view of ordinary soldiers and renounce the officers' elite. Tolstoy describes the sad fate of besieged Sevastopol, emphasizing that only a significant superiority in military equipment and material resources allowed the enemy to break the will of the fearless Russian defenders of the city. The city fell, but the Russian people left it spiritually undefeated. The writer himself, along with his comrades in arms, wept as he left the burning city. At the end of the last Sevastopol story, anger, pain, grief about the fallen heroes are reflected, threats to the enemies of Russia and curses to the war are heard.
