In 1903, Leo Tolstoy told American journalist James Creelman about his book “Hadji Murad,” calling it a poem about the Caucasus rather than a sermon. He described the central figure—Hadji Murad—as a folk hero who served Russia, then fought against it with his own people, and in the end was executed by Russians. The book includes stories from the Caucasus cycle written after Tolstoy returned from the Caucasus to Yasnaya Polyana, such as “Raid,” “Felling the Forest,” “The Prisoner of the Caucasus,” and “The Blizzard.”