Fyodor Fyodorovich Tornau’s memoirs are a unique historical source describing the twists of Caucasian life and military operations in the Caucasus in the second half of the 1830s. Under the guise of a mountaineer, the author crossed the Main Caucasus Range into the Western Caucasus twice; later he was captured by the Circassians, where he spent two years—from 1836 to 1838.