Hadji Muarad

Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy is a delightful story using real life experiences that Tolstoy went through while he was serving in the military for Russia in the late 19th century. The author depicts some real problems faced during this time for not only the Russians but also the Muslims within Russian society as well. There is mistrust on both sides as the main character tries to form an unlikely alliance with the Russian forces to take down the resistance leader. Throughout the whole book all the characters are battling with this mistrust for one another that leads the book down the line of a tragedy and that there is no good in man. The story follows Hadji Murat a defector from the Chechen resistance trying to save his family from their leader

Hadji Murat had surrendered to the Russian forces early on in the book and spent his time trying to get them to help rescue his family from the leader Shamil. Hadji would plead to them and even after telling the Russians multiple times that he would see Shamil die by his hands if the Russians would assist him. However, there was a lot of mistrust on both sides of the lines. The Russians could not fully trust Hadji Murat’s intentions and would never tell him if they were going to help. They would also have 24/7 guards on him to make sure he wasn’t doing anything shady while in the custody of the Russian military. Murat on the other side also showed his distrust as he would never eat anything provided by the Russians without seeing another Russian eat the food. This was shown in the book on page 33 as Tolstoy explained “he hardly ate anything except some pilau, to which he helped himself from the very part of the dish from which Marya Vasilevna had helped herself”. Also, after a while when he finally decided it was time to leave the care of his Russian “allies” to be only shot down by them because of his intent to