One of the most important factors literary critics often overlook in the work of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828-
1910) is the fact that it was subject to the censorship of the tsarist government before it was allowed to be published
in Russia. This harassment lasted the entire period of Tolstoy’s writing life, and although neither he nor his family
were ever imprisoned or exiled because of his world-wide fame and his close connections to the court at St.
Petersburg, most of his closest associates did suffer arrest, imprisonment, and exile. His estate at Yasnaya Polyana
was raided by the tsarist police once in June of 1862 (he was not there at the time), printed copies of many of his
compositions, especially the religious and philosophical ones, were seized in other raids, and he was forced to resort
to underground and foreign sources to publish many of his works. But sometimes, especially early in his career, he
eventually at least tacitly submitted to censorship in order to get his works published. This was especially true of his
military stories, and the first one he wrote, The Raid: A Volunteer’s Story [Nabeg: rasskaz volontyora] (1852) is a
prime example.