Leo Tolstoy

This is the homepage dedicated to author Leo Tolstoy. Explore his biography, excerpts from his diary, and much more. So regardless of whether you're a student writing an essay or want to know who is Leo Tolstoy out of curiosity, you've arrived in the right place. This page is structured as a series of interesting questions about him, so every heading is a question.

This page examines both his early life as a young man and his later personal life after he was recognized as the leader of Russian literature. In short, here, on this page, you'll find the definitive Leo Tolstoy biography with many interesting facts, some of which will surprise you.

Please note that there are three variations of this author's name in English language: Leo Tolstoy, Lev Tolstoy, and Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy.

What Are Most Important Works By Leo Tolstoy?

Historical novel War and Peace (written between 1863 and 1869) and realist novel Anna Karenina (written between 1873 and 1877) are some of his most important works. These works of Leo Tolstoy started a new era in literary realism. Thus, his fiction served as a bridge between the classical novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century.

As such, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy had a profound influence on the evolution of world literature, both through his long novels mentioned previously and shorter novellas, such as The Cossacks (published in 1863) and The Death of Ivan Ilyich (published in 1886).

His books have been adapted into films and his plays have been performed on stages all over the world. One of his most successful plays is The Power of Darkness, a five-act folk drama written in 1886. Though the theatrical production of this play was forbidden in Russia until 1902, The Power of Darkness became a great manifestation of Tolstoy's artistic power. Within the narrow confines of the Russian peasant life, Tolstoy managed to include so many universal human traits that this play became a big success on stages all over the world.

Leo Tolstoy was the most published author in the USSR between 1918 to 1986. During these years, about 436 million copies of his books were published in the Soviet Union.

For a comprehensive Leo Tolstoy bibliography, you can see this complete list of Leo Tolstoy books.

You can also read his short stories for free. So here's a complete list of Leo Tolstoy short stories with their summaries and some links to full text.

When Was Leo Tolstoy Born?

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828. This was the year of the Russo-Turkish War, the war that lasted from 1828 through 1829. While this was the year of war in the Russian Empire, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born in safe conditions, as the hostilities were taking place rather far away from his birthplace.

Where Was Leo Tolstoy Born?

Leo Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire. The literal translation of "Yasnaya Polyana" from the Russian language is "Clear Glade". And indeed, Yasnaya Polyana was an estate during the time of Leo Tolstoy's birth.

It was an estate near the city of Tula. That city was and and still is the administrative center of Tula Oblast ("oblast" is a Russian word that means "region"). That region is located in the European part of Russia. This may have influenced Tolstoy's writing, as his birthplace was somewhat close to both its European border and the cultural center of Russia Moscow.

As stated above, that region is somewhat close to the capital of Russia, Moscow. Indeed, it's only 193 kilometers (120 miles) away from Moscow. As a result of such proximity to Moscow, Lev Tolstoy visited Moscow over one hundred fifty times (according to historian Alexander Vaskin).

Even though Tolstoy liked to walk around Moscow, his impressions of Moscow life were typically negative. His comments on the social situation in the city were sharply critical. For instance, on October 5, 1881, he recorded in his diary:

"Stench, stones, luxury, poverty. Debauchery. Here gather villains who have robbed the ordinary people, recruiting soldiers, judges to protect themselves. And they feast. The ordinary people have nothing better to do than, using these people's passions, trick them into giving back what was stolen."

Why Was Author Leo Tolstoy A Count?

Leo Tolstoy was born in a family of well-known nobility. As such, he was the fourth child of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy. Overall, his father had five children. So author Leo Tolstoy was born as a count in a rather large aristocratic family. That aristocratic family was known to Russian Emperor. However, Tolstoy's public activities in his later life angered members of the aristocratic class because he defended peasants' land interests (as described in the section about his work as a mediator-defender).

The first documented members of his family (Tolstoys, the family of nobility into which Leo Tolstoy was born) can be traced back to the 17th century. During that century, Russian emperor Peter the Great, granted the title of count to Pyotr Tolstoy. Thus, Pyotr Tolstoy is considered the founder of the Tolstoys aristocratic family.

What Education Did Leo Tolstoy Receive?

Since he was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, he had personal tutors. Thus, as a son of a count, young Leo Tolstoy had at least two tutors.

The very first tutor of young Leo Tolstoy was the benevolent German Reselman. Tolstoy depicted her in "Childhood", his first novel of his autobiographical trilogy.

However, most of Leo Tolstoy education was undertaken by a French governess Saint Thomas. She became the prototype for St. Jerome in "Boyhood", Tolstoy's second novel of his autobiographical trilogy.

Following his brothers Nikolai, Dmitry, and Sergei, Leo decided to enroll at the Imperial Kazan University (then renowned). In that university, he worked in the mathematics faculty. Then, in 1844, Leo Tolstoy became enrolled as a self-paying student in the Eastern (Arabic-Turkish) literature department. At the entrance exams, he excelled in the mandatory "Turkish-Tatar language". However, by the end of the year, he received failing grades and failed the transition exam.

To avoid repeating the entire first-year program (of the literature department), he switched to the university's law program. Though he continued to have grade issues in some subjects, he passed 1846 transition exams. During these exams, he received one A, three Bs, and four Cs, so his average grade was C. So he passed the first year university program and moved on to the second year program. However, he dropped out from the university before completing the second year program.

"It was always difficult for Leo Tolstoy to have any education imposed by others. So everything he learned in life — he learned himself, suddenly, quickly, by intense effort," writes S. A. Tolstaya in her "Materials for the Biography of Leo Tolstoy".

In 1904, Leo Tolstoy wrote about his university education: "... the first year ... I did nothing. The second year I started studying ... there was Professor Meyer, who... gave me a task - to compare 'Nakaz' of Catherine with Esprit des lois by Montesquieu... This work captivated me, I traveled to the village, started reading Montesquieu. This reading opened endless horizons for me. I started reading Rousseau and dropped out of university, precisely because I wanted to study."

Eventually, Tolstoy became a polyglot. In addition to French and German languages, which he mastered from childhood, he spoke fluently in Tatar, English, and Turkish. He also knew Latin, Ukrainian, Greek, Bulgarian languages. Furthermore, he translated from Serbian, Polish, Czech, and Italian languages.

How Did Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy Begin His Literary Career?

Leo Tolstoy kept a diary from his early life until his death. So his personal life has become the basis of his earliest literary works.

While in a hospital in 1847, 19-year-old Tolstoy began keeping a diary. In that diary, he emulated Benjamin Franklin and set himself goals for self-improvement. He also noted his successes and failures in accomplishing these goals. Furthermore, he analyzed his own shortcomings, thought processes, and the motives for his actions. He maintained this diary intermittently throughout his whole life.

After completing treatment at the hospital in the spring of 1847, Tolstoy traveled back to his birthplace estate of Yasnaya Polyana. He inherited this estate the same year.

After inheriting the estate of Yasnaya Polyana, he tried to establish new relationships with the peasants (who were working on his estate). Thus, he may have attempted to smooth over the guilt of a young landowner towards the people who had either very little or nothing. This activity at Yasnaya Polyana became the basis for his early work "A Landowner's Morning".

In his diary, Leo Tolstoy formulated a large number of life rules and goals. However, he managed to follow only a minor part of them. Among the successful ones were serious studies of the English language, music, and jurisprudence.

How Did Europe Affect Him & His Literature?

On his first trip abroad, he visited Paris. There, he was horrified by the cult of Napoleon I. However, as he attended balls and museums located in Paris, he also admired "the sense of social freedom". So Paris was a mixture of both positive and negative impressions for Tolstoy. However, a guillotine execution left such a severe impression on Tolstoy that he left Paris.

In the spring of 1857, another Russian writer, I. S. Turgenev, described his meetings with Leo Tolstoy in Paris the following way:

"Indeed, Paris does not suit his spiritual constitution; he is a strange man, I have not met such before and do not fully understand. A mix of a poet, Calvinist, fanatic, gentleman — something reminiscent of Rousseau but more honest than Rousseau — a highly moral yet unlikable creature." I. S. Turgenev, Complete Works and Letters. Letters, vol. III, p. 52.

Tolstoy's travels in Western Europe — Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy (in 1857, 1860, and 1861) left a rather negative impression on him. He expressed his disappointment in the European way of life in the story "Lucerne". The deep contrast between wealth and poverty disappointed Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. In short, the splendor of European culture didn't deceive him. He was able to see economic oppression present in European society.

That deep constrast between wealth and poverty he saw in Europe may have laid the foundation for his later religious literary works. As these works criticized many structural norms of his time's society, the deep contrast he saw in Europe may have caused him to question the morality of the status quo.

How Did Lev Tolstoy Try To Be A Teacher Of Ordinary People?

In 1849, he opened a school for peasant children. The main teacher was Foka Demidovich, a serf. However, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy often conducted classes himself.

In 1859, even before the abolition of serfdom, Tolstoy actively engaged in setting up schools in his estate of Yasnaya Polyana and throughout the Krapivensky District.

The Yasnaya Polyana school was among the original educational experiments: in an era that revered the German pedagogical school, Tolstoy decisively rebelled against any regimentation and discipline in the school. According to his view, everything in teaching should be individualized - the teacher, the student, and their mutual interactions.

In the Yasnaya Polyana school, children sat wherever they wanted, as long as they wanted, and however they wanted. There was no set teaching program. The teacher's only task was to engage the class. The classes were successful. They were conducted by Tolstoy himself with the help of several regular teachers and a few casual ones from among close acquaintances and visitors.

Starting in 1862, Lev Tolstoy began publishing the educational journal "Yasnaya Polyana", where he was the main contributor. Without a calling for publishing, Tolstoy managed to release only 12 issues of the journal, the last of which appeared with a delay in 1863.

In addition to theoretical articles, he also wrote a number of stories, fables, and adaptations suitable for primary school. Together, Tolstoy's educational articles formed a whole volume of his collected works. At the time, they went unnoticed. No attention was paid to the sociological foundation of Tolstoy's ideas about education, to the fact that Tolstoy saw in education, science, art, and technological advancements only simplified and refined ways of exploiting the ordinary people by the upper classes.

Soon after, Lev Tolstoy left teaching activities. Marriage, the birth of his own children, and plans associated with writing the novel "War and Peace" pushed his educational efforts aside for ten years. Only in the early 1870s did he begin creating his own "Primer" and published it in 1872, followed by the "New Primer" and a series of four "Russian Books for Reading", which, after long tribulations, were approved by the Ministry of Education as aids for elementary educational institutions. In the early 1870s, teaching activities at the Yasnaya Polyana school briefly resumed.

The experience of the Yasnaya Polyana school later proved useful to some domestic educators. For instance, S. T. Shatsky, when creating his own school-colony "Cheerful Life" in 1911, drew on Tolstoy's pedagogical experiments in cooperative education.

How Did Leo Tolstoy Die?

During the year of his death, Tolstoy left his estate of Yasnaya Polyana. He did that in order to live according to his beliefs. Letter from Tolstoy to his wife, left before his departure, expresses this and other important things about Tolstoy's last days.

What Was The Letter From Tolstoy To His Wife Before His Departure From Yasnaya Polyana?

"October 28, 1910. Yasnaya Polyana.

My departure will grieve you. I regret this, but understand and believe that I could not act otherwise. My situation at home has become unbearable. Among other things, I can no longer live in the luxury I lived in, and I am doing what old men of my age usually do: they leave worldly life to live in solitude and quiet in the last days of their life.

Please understand this and do not follow me, even if you find out where I am. Such your arrival would only worsen your and my situation, but it will not change my decision. Thank you for the honest 48 years of life with me and please forgive me for everything I was guilty of towards you, as I wholeheartedly forgive you for everything you might have been guilty of towards me. I advise you to reconcile yourself to the new situation my departure puts you in, and not to harbor any ill will against me. If you want to communicate something to me, pass it to Sasha, she will know where I am, and will forward to me what is necessary; she cannot say where I am because I took a promise from her not to tell anyone.

Lev Tolstoy

October 28.

I have entrusted Sasha to collect my belongings and manuscripts and send them to me.

L.T."

After Tolstoy left that above-mentioned letter, he secretly left Yasnaya Polyana accompanied only by his doctor. His last journey began at the train station Shchyokino. On the same day, after traveling by train, he headed to Optina Monastery. After that, he headed to Shamordino Convent (religious organization), where he met his sister Maria Nikolayevna Tolstaya.

Eventually, he decided to travel to his niece Helena Sergeyevna Denisenko in Novocherkassk, to obtain a foreign passport for a journey from Russian Empire to Bulgaria. However, on the way to his niece, Tolstoy felt ill. A cold he caught turned into pneumonia and his doctor (and whoever was accompanying him) carried ill Tolstoy off the train.

In November of 1910, after an excruciating illness that was making him suffocate, at the age of 83, Lev Tolstoy died in the house of train station administrator Ivan Ozolin. That train station was Astapovo, which, after his death, was renamed to Lev Tolstoy.

Six doctors tried to save the life of writer Leo Tolstoy. However, to their offers of help, he replied: "God will arrange everything." When asked what he himself wanted, he said: "I want nobody to bother me." His last coherent words, spoken to his eldest son a few hours before his death, were heard by doctor Makovitsky: "Seryozha... truth... I love much, I love everyone..."

What Are Some Interesting Facts About Leo Tolstoy?

1) While visiting the capital of Great Britain, London, he attended a lecture by Charles Dickens.

2) His life wasn't limited to literary interests. On December 22, 1858, Leo Tolstoy nearly died on a bear hunt.

3) His beloved brother Nikolai died of tuberculosis almost in his arms. Brother's death made a profound impression on Tolstoy.

4) Tolstoy sometimes organized horse races and strength competitions, in some of which he participated.

5) What Was Leo Tolstoy Nobel Prize Controversy?

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906. But he never won. This was a major Nobel Prize controversy for the reasons described below.

Reports suggest that Tolstoy did not receive the prize because of the jury's reservations towards his political and religious positions as well as Sweden's historical enmity towards Russia.

Furthermore, in 1901, 42 Swedish writers, including August Strindberg, wrote Tolstoy a letter following the announcement (he wasn't nominated that year), expressing their dissatisfaction with the decision.

6) What Was His Work As A Mediator-Defender?

Upon his return from Europe in May 1861, Tolstoy was offered the job of a mediator in Tula Province. Unlike those in the nobility who viewed ordinary people as younger brothers, Tolstoy thought the opposite. He thought that ordinary people were superior to nobility and that nobility should learn the spiritual heights from peasants. Thus, he took the position of mediator and defended peasants' land interests, often violating the tsar's decrees.

He wrote in his diary: "Mediation is interesting and engaging, but the bad thing is that all the nobility hate me with all their souls and put sticks in my wheels from all sides." However, his work as a mediator expanded his observations of peasant life, giving him material for artistic creation.

On July 16, 1866, Tolstoy appeared in a military court as the defender of Vasily Shabunin. Vasily was a clerk from a military regiment that was stationed near Yasnaya Polyana. That defender had struck an officer who had ordered him to be flogged for being drunk.

Tolstoy argued in court that Vasily Shabunin was innocent due to insanity, but the court found Vasily Shabunin guilty and sentenced that man to death by firing squad. Shabunin was executed. This event had a profound impact on Leo Tolstoy, as he saw in this event, the merciless power, founded on violence, represented by the state. So he wrote to his friend, the publicist Biryukov, the following words:

"This case had a much greater impact on my life than all the events that seemed more important at the time: the loss or recovery of fortune, successes or failures in literature, even the loss of close people."