Before They Were Titans: Essays on the Early Works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy by Elizabeth Cheresh Allen

Author:Elizabeth Cheresh Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Published: 2018-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

VII

Fear and Loathing in the Caucasus: Tolstoy’s “The Raid” and Russian Journalism

William Mills Todd III and Justin Weir

Lev Tolstoy’s short work “The Raid: A Volunteer’s Story” [“Набег: рассказ волонтера,” 1853] marks a key moment in his early career. The story implicitly compares a young man’s first experience in battle with the challenges of writing literature, riffing on Tolstoy’s own autobiographical methods and underscoring his caustic view of journalism. Although “The Raid” was immediately recognized by his fellow soldiers as a barely concealed autobiographical retelling of Tolstoy’s own military experience, modern readers may be puzzled by the apparent flurry of genres in its twelve short chapters—nature descriptions, conte philosophique, and war journalism, in addition to fiction and autobiography. Tolstoy summarizes the simple action of “The Raid” in its main title: the volunteer, a first-person narrator, cannot be dissuaded by his captain, named Khlopov, from joining a raiding party against a Chechen village.1 The large, well-armed Russian party takes the village with no resistance, but as the Russians return to the fortress, the Chechens ambush them, fatally wounding a boyish, sentimental Russian officer, Ensign Alanin. Lieutenant Rozenkrantz, a parodically Romantic figure, proves ineffectual, both in battle and in comforting his dying comrade. The remaining Russian officers, except for Captain Khlopov, are remarkable only for their frivolously gallant French phrase-making.

When viewed in light of Tolstoy’s long career, the story is more like an initial foray against the methods and subjects of contemporary literature that would occupy him for many years. Indeed, the real genius of the story lies in its remarkable account of the gestation of an artistic consciousness developing in response to both philosophical and narrative challenges. The subtitle, “A Volunteer’s Story,” captures these dimensions as deftly as the main title summarizes what one would conventionally call its action. Taken together, the titles suggest a work neither naïve nor experimental, despite its seeming simplicity and its set pieces (framing nature descriptions, parodies, meditations on abstract themes).

Tolstoy began writing “The Raid” just after he completed Childhood [Детство, 1852], and found himself at the proverbial crossroads of an authorial career. Down one well-trod path was military service and a familiar life; should he choose that path, it would be difficult to extract himself from the military commission he had only recently obtained.2 Down the other path was the potential recognition, and possible fame, he might achieve as an author. Here he feared somewhat vainly that he would become just another littérateur, one of the professional journalists whom Tolstoy increasingly despised for their narrow-mindedness and petty squabbles. Today’s readers know which path he ultimately chose, of course, but as we reread “The Raid” we can still discern some of the exciting chaos of these early inextricable aesthetic and professional decisions.3

The first draft of “The Raid” was written in 1852, while Tolstoy eagerly awaited word that his first publication Childhood had appeared in the prestigious thick journal The Contemporary [Современник]. With Childhood in print, Tolstoy’s professional literary ambitions grew, and he resolved to add what would ultimately become “The Raid” to a larger series of sketches of military life in the Caucasus.

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