Leo Tolstoy 1828 – 1910

Biography

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist widely considered one of the greatest writers in world literature. Born at Yasnaya Polyana in 1828, he served in the army in the Caucasus and Crimea before turning to fiction. His two masterpieces, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, combined vast historical sweep with intimate psychological portraits and philosophical reflection. In later life he underwent a profound spiritual crisis, renouncing his wealth and privilege, embracing Christian pacifism and simple living, and writing essays that influenced Gandhi and the nonviolent movement. His radical views brought conflict with his family and the Orthodox Church, which excommunicated him. In 1910, at eighty-two, he fled his home and died of pneumonia at the railway station of Astapovo. His grave at Yasnaya Polyana is a simple unmarked mound in the woods, as he wished, and his works remain among the most widely read novels ever written.