A brief summary of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Hadji Murad”
On a cold November evening in 1851, Khadzhi-Murat, the famous naib of Imam Shamil, drives into the uninhabited Chechen aul Mahket. A Chechen Sado receives a guest in his sakle, despite Shamil’s recent order to detain or kill the rebellious Naib.
On the same night, three soldiers from the Russian fortress of Vozdvizhenskaya, fifteen versts from the village of Makhket, go out to the front guard with the non-commissioned officer Panov. One of them, the merry fellow Avdeev, remembers how he drank some company money from homesickness, and again says that he went to the soldiers at the request of his mother, instead of his family brother.
Hadji Murad’s envoys are coming out on this guard. While escorting the Chechens to the fortress, to Prince Vorontsov, the merry Avdeyev inquires about their wives, about the children, and concludes: “And what are these, my brother, you, good-for-sounding kids?”
The regimental commander of the Kura regiment, the
The same night, residents of the village of Mahket, to purify themselves before Shamil, try to detain Hadji Murad. While firing back, he breaks through with his mourid Eldar into the woods, where his other murids await – Hanafi’s avian and Hamzalo the Chechen. Here, Hadji Murad expects Prince Vorontsov to answer his proposal to go out to the Russians and start a struggle against Shamil on their side. He, as always, believes in his own happiness and the fact that this time everything works out for him, as it always was before. The returning messenger Khan-Magoma reports that the prince promised to accept
Early in the morning, two companies of the Kura regiment go out to the felling of the forest. The military officers behind the booze discuss the recent death in the battle of General Sleptsov. In this conversation, none of them see the most important – the end of human life and its return to the source from which she left – but see only the military courage of the young general. During the exit of Hadji Murad, the Chechens who pursued him casually wounded the merry soldier Avdeev; he dies in the hospital, not having time to receive a letter from his mother that his wife left home.
All Russians who first see the “terrible mountain man” are struck by his kind, almost childish smile, self-respect and the attention, insight and calmness with which he looks at others. Receiving Prince Vorontsov in the fortress of Vozdvizhenskaya is better than Hadji Murad expected; but the less he trusts the prince. He demands that he be sent to the most commander-in-chief, the old prince Vorontsov, to Tiflis.
During the meeting in Tiflis, Vorontsov the father perfectly understands that he should not believe a single word of Hadji Murad, because he will always remain the enemy of everything Russian, and now he is only submitting to the circumstances. Hadji Murad, in turn, understands that the cunning prince sees him through and through. At the same time, they both talk to each other quite the opposite of their understanding – what is necessary for the success of the negotiations. Hadji Murad claims that he will faithfully serve the Russian Tsar in order to take revenge on Shamil, and guarantees that he will be able to raise the entire Dagestan against the Imam. But for this it is necessary that the Russians buy out the family of Hadji Murad from the captivity, the Commander-in-Chief promises to think about it.
Hadji Murad lives in Tiflis, visits the theater and ball, increasingly rejecting the way of life of Russians in the soul. He tells the adjutant of Vorontsov Loris-Melikov assigned to him the story of his life and his enmity with Shamil. Before the listener passes a series of brutal murders, committed by the law of blood feud and the right of the strong. Loris-Melikov observes the murids of Hadji Murad. One of them, Hamzalo, continues to regard Shamil as a saint and hates all Russians. Another, Khan-Magoma, came out to the Russians only because he easily played with his own and others’ lives; just as easily he can return to Shamil at any moment. Eldar and Khanafi obey Hadji Murad without reasoning.
While Khadzhi-Murat is in Tiflis, in January 1852, under the order of Emperor Nicholas I, a raid was launched into Chechnya. In it takes part and recently passed from the guard young officer Butler. He left the Guard because of a card loss and now enjoys a good, young life in the Caucasus, trying to keep his poetic idea of the war. During the raid aul Mahket was ravaged, a teenager was killed with a bayonet in the back, a mosque and a fountain were senselessly stained. Seeing all this, the Chechens do not even hate Russians, but only disgust, bewilderment and a desire to destroy them, like rats or venomous spiders. Residents of the village ask Shamil for help,
Hadji Murad moved to the fortress of Grozny. Here he is allowed to have intercourse with the mountaineers through spies, but he can not leave the fortress except as with a convoy of Cossacks. His family is kept at this time in custody in the village of Vedeno, waiting for Shamil’s decision about his fate. Shamil demands that Khadzhi-Murat come out to him before the Bairam festival, otherwise he threatens to give his mother, old woman Patimat, in the auls and blind his beloved son Yusuf.
A week Khadzhi-Murat lives in the fortress, in the house of Major Petrov. The partner of the major, Marya Dmitrievna, imbues with respect to Hadji Murad, whose treatment differs markedly from the rudeness and drunkenness adopted among regimental officers. Between the officer Butler and Hadji Murad, friendship is fastened. Butler covers “the poetry of a special, energetic mountain life,” palpable in the mountain songs that Hanéfi sings. Particularly striking Russian officer favorite song Hadji Murad – the inevitability of blood feud. Butler soon witnesses how calmly Hadji Murad perceives an attempt of blood revenge on himself from the Kumyk prince Arslan-Khan,
Negotiations on the redemption of the family, which Hadji Murad leads in Chechnya, are not successful. He returns to Tiflis, then moves to a small town Nukhu, hoping to steal the family from Shamil by cunning or force. He is listed in the service of the Russian Tsar and receives five gold per day. But now, when he sees that the Russians are not in a hurry to release his family, Hadji Murad sees his way out as a terrible turn in life. He increasingly recalls childhood, mother, grandfather and his son. Finally, he decides to flee to the mountains, break into faithful people in Vedeno, to die or to liberate the family.
During a horseback ride, Hadji Murad, along with his murids, mercilessly kills convoy Cossacks. He expects to cross the river Alazan and thus get away from the chase, but he can not cross over the rice field filled with spring water. Pursuit overtakes him, in an unequal battle, Hadji Murad is mortally wounded.
The last memories of the family run through his mind, without causing any more feeling; but he fights to the last breath.
The head of Hadji Murad, cut off from the mutilated body, is carried along the fortresses. In Groznoy it is shown to Butler and Marya Dmitrievna, and they see that the blue lips of the dead head retain a childish kind expression. Marya Dmitrievna is especially shocked by the brutality of the “quick-fancers” who killed her recent guest and did not betray his body to the ground.
The history of Hadji Murad, his inherent strength of life and inflexibility are remembered when looking at the flower of a burdock, in full bloom crushed by people in the middle of a plowed field.
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