On the flat Matlas plateau, at the very edge of a cliff, blown by the winds, there is a memorial complex dedicated to two completely different people: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy and Hadji Murat. The monument is made in the form of a marble block split into two parts — one side is dedicated to Lev Tolstoy, the other to the hero of the story "Hadji Murat".

The reminder monument unites the images of the hero of Dagestan, a native of these places, and the writer who immortalized both his name and memory for the whole world. The year 1851 was significant for both: 23-year-old Tolstoy, together with his brother, a military man, went to the Caucasus, while Hadji Murat, due to circumstances, switched to the Russian side.

“I went to be alone, to experience hardship, to test myself in hardship, to face danger, to test myself in danger, to atone for my mistakes with labor and deprivation, to break out of the old rut at once, to start everything anew — both my life and my happiness,” — this is how Lev Nikolaevich explained his decision. Tolstoy lived in a Cossack stanitsa on the bank of the Terek River for almost three years, visited Tiflis, Kizlyar, Vladikavkaz. At first, he voluntarily participated in military actions, then he was accepted into service. But interestingly, the story about the hero of the Caucasian War, Hadji Murat, was written much later, in the last decade of Tolstoy’s life — at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, and it was published posthumously.

The inscription on the monument reads: “The heavenly spirit of two great souls — Lev Tolstoy and Hadji Murat. This is Faith, Will, and Choice. The first is the genius of thought. The second is the genius of Will and Choice.”

On July 19, 1896, Lev Tolstoy wrote in his “Diary” about a meeting that inspired him to write the masterpiece: “Yesterday I was walking over a pre-war black earth field. As far as the eye could see, nothing but black earth, not a single green blade of grass. And here, at the edge of a dusty gray road, a burdock bush, three shoots... It reminded me of Hadji Murat. I want to write. He defends life to the last...”

And here is the beginning of the story “Hadji Murat”: “I... was walking home when I noticed in a ditch a wonderful raspberry-colored burdock, in full bloom, of the sort we call ‘Tatarin’ and which they carefully mow down. I thought to pick this burdock and put it in the middle of a bouquet... But it was very difficult: not only was the stem prickly all around, ... — it was so terribly strong that I struggled with it for about five minutes, tearing the fibers one by one... What energy and strength of life, — I thought, recalling the efforts with which I tore off the flower. How fiercely it defended and dearly sold its life...”

What contemporaries wrote about him:

“...Hadji Murat was indeed a remarkable man, with courage, one might say, mad, fearless, and at the same time possessing much natural cunning, perfect knowledge of Dagestan... This fearless man was a double-edged sword that could have become troublesome for us... Hadji Murat died a desperate brave man, as he lived; leaving his horses, he hid in some pit, which he and his comrades fortified, digging the earth with their hands, he answered offers to surrender with curses; two of his comrades died before his eyes, and he himself, wounded by four bullets, weak and bleeding, in despair rushed at the attackers, and there they finished him off!” (From the notes of Prince Vorontsov, 1852).

Even after one and a half centuries, the legendary mountaineer remains an example to follow. It is not reliably known whether Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy personally knew Hadji Murat, but he very accurately described the lifestyle of the mountaineer, his appearance, and character. In the story, Hadji Murat is loyal to his family; he switched to the side of the tsar’s troops to free his relatives from captivity. Tolstoy writes about a heroic man caught between a choice — Imam Shamil or Emperor Nicholas I. However, in Dagestan, his act is considered ambiguous. In the family, instead of fairy tales, children are always told a story resembling a legend about their ancestor, and those who have already learned to read are given Tolstoy’s story as a gift. Several generations of Hadji Murat’s ancestors and then descendants are buried in the old cemetery of Khunzakh. It was supposed to be the grave of the famous naib of Imam Shamil, but historically, ideological and later political reasons prevented this. Relatives are sure that they cannot bury Hadji Murat’s remains for the same reasons. His skull is kept in the Kunstkamera in Saint Petersburg, while his body is buried in Azerbaijan.

Sources:

https://gorets-media.ru/page/pamjatnik-tolstomu-i-hadzhi-muratu

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Хаджи-Мурат