The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy Fiction Classics Literary

<p><strong>Olenin was a youth who had never completed his university course never served anywhere (having only a nominal post in some government office or other)</strong> who had squandered half his fortune and had reached the age of twenty-four without having done anything or even chosen a career. He was what in Moscow society is termed un jeune homme. But he did find a career -- he took a post as a Cadet in the army and ended up assigned to Transcaucasia. This is the place -- here among the Tatars the Chechens and the Old Believers -- this is the place where Olenin will find love in the arms of a beautiful Cossack girl -- a young woman who is promised to a Cossack warrior. Both Ivan Turgenev and the Nobel prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise Turgenev calling it his favorite work by Tolstoy.</p><p>Somewhat autobiographical partially based on Tolstoy's experiences in the Caucasus during the last stages of the Caucasian War. </p>