Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) was a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists in world literature. He is best known for the epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and in later life for a moral and religious philosophy centred on nonviolence. [1]
Early life
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born on 28 August 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, his family's estate south of Moscow. Orphaned young and raised by relatives, he served in the army during the Crimean War, an experience that informed his early writing. [1]
Major novels
Tolstoy achieved lasting fame with War and Peace (1869), a sweeping narrative of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars, and Anna Karenina (1877), a tragedy of love and society. Both are celebrated for their psychological depth and their vast, closely observed casts of characters. [1][2]
Later life and thought
In his later years Tolstoy underwent a moral crisis and developed a radical Christian philosophy that rejected violence and the institutions of church and state. His writings on nonviolent resistance influenced figures including Mahatma Gandhi. He died in 1910 at a remote railway station after leaving his home. [2]
