Sevastopol Sketches played a major role in the development of Tolstoy's realism. Not only the formation of the human soul, but also a person in his relations to nation, to homeland, to history, and the psychic factors of people involved in these severe historical events seem to occupy the author's mind in that period. Written in the genre of sketches and based on the evidence of these events, Sevastopol Sketches provide generalized pictures of life, introduce the crucial problems of war and peace, the true heroism, patriotism, and reveal the depths of human psyche meeting the face of death.
The depiction of war as a hard and severe burden, the depiction of a Russian soldier as a humble laborer, the true hero who does not even aware of it - all these amazed the author's peers. From separate personalities, thoughts, and destinies Tolstoy composes the image of a heroic city, the city that is wounded, ruined, but does not surrender (Tolstoy, McDuff, The Sebastopol Sketches). Along with his comrades, Tolstoy cried when he left burning Sevastopol. At the same time, the author judges war actions only from a moral point of view. He does not attempt to reveal socio-economic causes of war, but rather exposes entailing ambition, lust for power, and lucre that are the characteristics of great and small conquerors. The reader is then introduced to the entire army of ambitious Napoleons with their aristocratic habits, vanity, and pretentious heroism.
With that, this vanity is opposed to the daily heroism of the city's citizens, soldiers, mariners, and military officers, whose attitude to war is based on a simple sense of duty and the desire to protect their homeland rather than peacock on the battlefield trying to embed themselves in history by all means (Tolstoy, McDuff, The Sebastopol Sketches).
Works Cited
Tolstoy, Leo, and David McDuff. The Sebastopol Sketches. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1986. Print.
