The stories and short stories published in this book by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) were written over half a century by the brilliant Russian writer and include examples of his entire creative output. In 1851, Tolstoy, at the age of twenty-three, traveled to the Caucasus to visit his brother, an officer in the Russian army, who was engaged in military operations there. Life in the Caucasus enriched Leo Tolstoy as a person and as a writer. He became intimately acquainted with the characters of soldiers and officers, which were soon depicted in Caucasian war stories. Leo joined the army as a cadet and participated in combat operations. After a combat mission in the mountains, he wrote the story "Raid," which opens this book. Alexander Pushkin wrote: "A poet's words are his deeds." This is a powerful truth that applied to an unusual degree to Leo Tolstoy, who continued to speak and write with unwavering sincerity about what he had discovered through strenuous spiritual investigation and agonizing suffering. We read in his diary: “The poet takes the best of his life and puts it into his creation” and “My writing is me.” What Tolstoy told us about Russian life is close to what all our literature has told us... and his books will remain for centuries a memorial to the tireless work of a genius.