The Sisters — Alexei Tolstoy

Alexei Tolstoy's writing is primarily focused on the personalities and destinies of his characters caught in the turmoil of various historical events. In particular, his trilogy The Ordeal traces the development of the Russian society during the critical years of WWI, the 1917 revolution and the civil war. Covering one of the most intense periods in the history of the Russian state, this trilogy portrays the dramatic nature of social struggle, spiritual evolution of its heroes and the crucial changes happening in the country. The Sisters, the first part of Tolstoy's trilogy, which was written in emigration in 1921. The novel starts with pre-war events of 1914 and ends with the approaching of the end of Civil War in the spring of 1920. Published as a separate edition in 1922 in Berlin, the novel reflected the author's insights and perceptions of the radical changes underway in his native land. The basic focus of the novel The Sisters is the search for personal happiness main characters - Dasha, Katya, Telegin, and Roschin - during the violent events of the First World War and the revolution. The novel also portrays the Russian intelligentsia and their choice in life during the revolution. The novel shows the transitional period from the bourgeois structures in Russia to the Soviet system. In the process, traditional way of living is destroyed and beliefs of many people are changed. The trilogy is filled with sharp life-and-death conflicts, dramatic struggles and collisions, deep crises in both public life and the destiny and psychology of individual characters. The first chapter of the novel Sisters may be viewed as an introduction to the plot, where St. Petersburg is expressively described as a bourgeois society with decadent morals: "The spirit of destruction pervaded everything. These were the days when love with all its emotions, was regarded as commonplace and old-fashioned, when people felt not love but desire… Girls concealed their innocence and marr