Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Khadzhi-murat [Hadji Murat]

Kathy Rees (Independent Scholar - Europe)

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Ed. by Andrei Rogatchevski, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.1.00: Slavic and Russian Writing and Culture: Old, Medieval and Tsarist, 700-1917.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1912

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

In his prologue to Hadji Murat, Tolstoy described the novella as “an old Caucasian story, which I had partly seen myself, partly heard about from witnesses and partly imagined” (Ch. 1). This fictionalised history, set in 1851-2, depicts the role of its eponymous protagonist in the conflict between the Muslim Imamate (state) comprising Chechnya and Dagestan, and Christian Imperial Russia. Hadji Murat is a dzhigit (warrior), the most charismatic of the naibs (lieutenants) under Imam Shamil, who is the political, spiritual, and military leader of the Caucasians. A quarrel between Murat and Shamil results in the former’s defection to the giaour, the invader Russia; Murat hopes …

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1742 words

Citation: Rees, Kathy. "Khadzhi-murat". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 February 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11279, accessed 06 April 2025.]

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