This is the first book to study the development of the Cossack hero and to identify him as part of Russian cultural mythology. Kornblatt explores the power of the myth as a literary image, providing new and challenging readings of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoi, and a host of other writers.

Judith Deutsch Kornblatt is professor and associate chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature and associate dean for Arts and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the coeditor of Russian Religious Thought, and author of Doubly Chosen, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.