In the Sevastopol Sketches, Leo Tolstoy evocatively recollects his experiences at the Siege of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, over the course of three short stories. Although the trio of tales which comprise the Sevastopol Sketches are ostensibly fictional and written in the second person, they accurately recall Tolstoy's experiences as a young man witnessing the Crimean War. All three possess philosophical overtones, with the overarching theme being a vilification of war as a wasteful, senseless and foolish expenditure of human life. The Sevastopol Sketches establish Tolstoy as a pacifist who considered war to be one of the most depraved and lamentable events characterizing mankind. Years after publishing these sketches, Tolstoy would draw upon the Siege of Sevastopol as a critical supplement to the narrative of his epic novel - War and Peace.

Tolstoy wrote the three Sebastopol sketches after serving as an officer in the Russian army during the Crimean War. When in the winter of 1854 he arranged to be transferred to the besieged town of Sebastopol, Tolstoy was spurred on by a fierce patriotism, but also an equally fierce desire to alert the authorities to appalling conditions in the army. He recreates in the "December," "May" and "August" sketches what happened during different phases of the siege, unprecedentedly bringing home to Russia's entire literate public the atrocities of war. Thus, because of the Sketches, Tolstoy has been called the first war correspondent; in terms of his career, they heralded his arrival as a literary celebrity.

"Sebastopol" also published under the title "Sevastopol Sketches" by Leo Tolstoy is a collection of three short stories meant to recount the author's time during the Siege of Sevastopol in Crimea. Harrowing and atmospheric, these stories are equal parts beautiful and devastating. Tolstoy is one of the most influential writers in history, though this may be one of his more obscure works, it still holds the grit and eloquence that he is known for.

Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Sevastopol Sketches’ is a series of three semi-autobiographical short stories which are based on his own recollections and experiences of the Crimean War. As a young artillery officer, Tolstoy was present at Sevastopol – the city under intense siege during the war, and his experiences of the grim situation are retold here in gruesome detail. The horrors and realities of war are laid bare as Tolstoy contrasts the heroism of soldiers with the futility of war. Undoubtedly an influence for his later epic ‘War and Peace’, ‘Sevastopol Sketches’ is an important novel in the timeline of Tolstoy’s work. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian author, widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists. His most famous novels include the epic ‘War and Peace’ and the tragic ‘Anna Karenina’. His work also includes several short stories and a semi-autobiographical trilogy which included his own recollections of the Crimean War in ‘Sevastopol Sketches’. He had a spiritual awakening in the 1870s, and became an ardent pacifist, incorporating this into his work ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You’ which is said to have had a profound impact on the non-violent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi. Contemporaries and admirers of his work included Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Anton Chekhov, and Gustave Flaubert. Tolstoy died in 1910 aged 82, leaving behind an incredible literary legacy.

Reproduction of the original: Sevastopol by Leo Tolstoi

In Sevastopol, Tolstoy wrote the battlefield observations "Sebastopol Sketches," widely viewed as his first approach to the techniques to be used so effectively in "War and Peace."