The central place in Alexei Tolstoy's work is held by his books about the events
of the Great October Revolution and the Civil War. His Ordeal (1919-1941) is
a book about the Russian people as they forge their way to a new life, about the
Russian intelligentsia which, as a result of a long "ordeal", found its place in
society.
Tolstoy himself wrote of the plan behind his trilogy: "It's time to begin
studying the Revolution, it's time for the artist to become a historian and
a thinker... I not only acknowledge the Revolution - with such acknowledgement
alone it would not be possible even to write a novel - I love its dark majesty,
its world-wide scope. And that is the task of my novel - to create this majesty,
this scope in all its complexity.

About the Author
Alexei Tolstoy (Tolstoi) (1883-1945) was a classic writer and one of the founders
of Soviet literature. Famous for his epic trilogy, Ordeal, the historical novel
Peter the First, the science-fiction novels Aelita and The Garin Death Ray, and
also many short stories, dramas, and publicistic articles.

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