Hadji Murat

I cant believe I didn’t read this earlier in life, but Hadji Murat was not something I came across until my friends Azeem and Ameer gifted me a copy. Genuinely, one of the best books I’ve been gifted. The book is set in the 1850s during the Caucasian War, and based on the real life figure Hadji Murat. Tolstoy spent years researching Hadji Murat before writing, but ultimately the book was published posthumously in 1912, because of censorship laws at the time.

Hadji Murat is a feared and renowned lieutenant of a band of Muslim mountaineers in the Caucusas mountains (spanning present day Chechen and Dagestan territories) resisting the Russian imperial conquest. We learn that most characters, mainly soldiers, in the novel see Hadji Murat as a living legend. They’ve been hearing of his exploits in battle over the years, earning him the reputation of being a fearless combatant.

During the story we learn that the leader of his people, Imam Shamil, captures his family in order to keep Hadji Murat on a leash so that he doesn’t get any idea of taking power for himself. This central conflict leads to Hadji Murat defecting to the Russians, and Tolstoy then giving us a shift in the story’s perspective, particularly from within the palace.

This is definitely a recommend from me. It’s short and approachable, and provides a glimpse during a fascinating time in history that I don’t often get to dive into.