The Cossacks
by Leo Tolstoy
Olenin was a young man who had never completed a university course, had never served anywhere (holding only a nominal position in a public office or another), wasted half of his fortune, and reached the age of twenty-four without doing anything or even choosing a career. In Moscow society it was what was called un jeune homme. But he found a career - he took the position of a cadet in the army and was eventually assigned to Transcaucasia. This is the place - here among Tatars, Chechens and Old Believers - a place where Olenin will find love in the arms of a beautiful Kazakh girl - a young woman who was promised to the Kazakh warrior.
