Stages of the formation of the “Caucasian prisoner” in Russian literature

The article attempts to compare the “Caucasian Prisoner” as a literary and cultural phenomenon in the works of A.S.Pushkin, M.Yu.Lermontov, L.N.Tolstoy and V.S.Makanin. The specificity of the image of the “Caucasian prisoner” revealed, as well as its transformation, which occurred in the creative consciousness of the writer of the twentieth century.