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 AuthorAlexei 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 publishing articles.