You can read his 1911 novella, Hadji Murad, about Russia's earlier Chechen war, online:
"'What vitality!' I thought. 'Man has conquered everything and destroyed millions of plants, yet this one won't submit.' And I remembered a Caucasian episode of years ago, which I had partly seen myself, partly heard of from eye-witnesses, and in part imagined. The episode, as it has taken shape in my memory and imagination, was as follows."