Leo Tolstoy

Life and legacy

Leo Tolstoy was born into the Russian aristocracy at the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, about 200 kilometers south of Moscow. Orphaned young, he was raised by relatives and lived the dissolute life of a young nobleman before joining the army and serving in the Caucasus and during the Crimean War. His Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his wartime experiences, brought him literary fame with their unflinching realism.

War and Peace (1869), written over six years, is an epic panorama of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars that follows the lives of five aristocratic families against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. It is at once a historical novel, a philosophical treatise, and an intimate portrait of human life in all its complexity. Anna Karenina (1877) is a more focused masterpiece - the story of an adulterous love affair set against the social pressures of Russian aristocratic society - that opens with one of the most famous sentences in literature.

In the late 1870s, Tolstoy underwent a profound spiritual crisis that transformed his life and work. He rejected the Russian Orthodox Church, embraced a radical Christianity based on the Sermon on the Mount, and denounced private property, violence, and the state. His philosophical works - including The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894) - articulated a vision of nonviolent resistance that profoundly influenced Mahatma Gandhi, who corresponded with Tolstoy, and through Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King Jr.

Tolstoy's later years were marked by increasing tension between his radical beliefs and his aristocratic life. He wanted to give away his estate and live as a peasant, while his wife fought to preserve the family's wealth and the copyrights to his works. In October 1910, at the age of eighty-two, Tolstoy fled Yasnaya Polyana in the middle of the night. He fell ill at the remote railway station of Astapovo and died there on November 20, 1910, surrounded by journalists and admirers from around the world.

Key accomplishments

• Wrote War and Peace (1869), widely considered the greatest novel ever written
• Wrote Anna Karenina (1877), a masterpiece of psychological and social realism
• Developed a philosophy of nonviolent resistance that influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
• Published The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), a foundational text of Christian anarchism and pacifism
• Transformed the novel into a vehicle for exploring the deepest questions of human existence

Quotes

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Anna Karenina, opening line (1877)

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Attributed; commonly associated with Tolstoy but exact source disputed

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