The second volume of The Crimean Circle follows the rifle platoon, predominantly made up of young Jewish boys conscripted into the Russian Army, into the siege of Sevastopol during the war of 1854-55. Led by their Ukrainian training sergeant, Grigorij Timoshenko, and their Jewish corporal, Iosif Cymerman, they now have a sympathetic commander, Lieutenant Vladimir (Volodya) Sasanoff, aristocratic son of one the richest men in Russia. During the city's...