哥萨克 (1863)

《哥萨克》（俄语：казаки）是沙俄作家列夫·托尔斯泰于1863年发表的中篇小说。最初发表在热门文学杂志《俄罗斯传讯人》，题名为《青年时》。托尔斯泰于1853年开始写作此书，但在1857年8月重读了荷马的《伊利亚德》后，突然决心全部重写，并在1862年2月完成。小说在1863年发表，同年他的第一个小孩出生。小说的内容描述贵族青年奥列宁厌倦上流社会生活，到高加索山与哥萨克人共同生活的经过。中国翻译家草婴率先将俄文版全书翻译为中文，2002年与其他草婴翻译的托尔斯泰作品中文版由台湾木马文化有限公司集成《托尔斯泰小说全集》12册出版。中国上海文艺出版社在2004年7月出版简体中文版。中国现代出版社2012年出版简体中文彩色插图版。

The Cossacks: A Caucasus Tale of 1852 (Russian: Казаки [Kazaki]) is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1863 in the popular literary magazine The Russian Messenger. It was originally called Young Manhood. Both Ivan Turgenev and the Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin gave the work great praise, with Turgenev calling it his favourite work by Tolstoy. Tolstoy began work on the story in August 1853. In August 1857, after having re-read the Iliad, he vowed to completely rewrite The Cossacks. In February 1862, after having lost badly at cards, he finished the novel to help pay his debts. The novel was published in 1863, the same year his first child was born.

Synopsis

The Cossacks is believed to be somewhat autobiographical, partially based on Tolstoy's experiences in the Caucasus during the last stages of the Caucasian War. Tolstoy had a wild time in his youth, engaging in sex with numerous women, heavy drinking, and excessive gambling; many argue Tolstoy used his own past as inspiration for the protagonist Olenin.

Disenchanted with his privileged life in Russian society, nobleman Dmitry Andreich Olenin joins the army as a cadet, in the hopes of escaping the superficiality of his daily life. On a quest to find "completeness," he naively hopes to find serenity among the "simple" people of the Caucasus. In an attempt to immerse himself in the local culture, he befriends an old man. They drink wine, curse, and hunt pheasant and boar in the Cossack tradition, and Olenin even begins to dress in the manner of a Cossack. He forgets himself and falls in love with the young Maryanka, in spite of her fiancé Lukashka. While living as a Cossack, he learns lessons about his own inner life, moral philosophy, and the nature of reality. He also understands the intricacies of human psychology and nature.

Plot summary

Set in 1852, the young idealist Dmitry Andreich Olenin leaves Moscow, hoping to start a new life in the Caucasus. In the stanitsa, he slowly becomes enamored of the surroundings and despises his previous existence. He befriends the old Cossack Eroshka, who goes hunting with him and finds him a good fellow because of his propensity to drinking. During this time, young Cossack Luka kills a Chechen who is trying to come across the river towards the village to scout the Cossacks and in this way gains much respect. Olenin falls in love with the maid Maryanka, who is to be wed to Luka later in the story. He tries to stop this emotion and eventually convinces himself that he loves both Luka and Maryanka for their simplicity and decides that happiness can only come to a man who constantly gives to others with no thought of self-gratification.

He first gives an extra horse to Luka, who accepts the present yet doesn't trust Olenin on his motives. As time goes on, however, though he gains the respect of the local villagers, another Russian named Beletsky, who is still attached to the ways of Moscow, comes and partially corrupts Olenin's ideals and convinces him through his actions to attempt to win Maryanka's love. Olenin approaches her several times and Luka hears about this from a Cossack, and thus does not invite Olenin to the betrothal party. Olenin spends the night with Eroshka but soon decides that he will not give up on the girl and attempts to win her heart again. He eventually, in a moment of passion, asks her to marry him, which she says she will answer soon.