His poor handling of Bloody Sunday and Russia’s role in World War I led to his abdication and execution. He spent a lot of time in the countryside. Born into an aristocratic Russian family, Tolstoy wrote realist fiction and semi-autobiographical novels before shifting into more moral and spiritual works. Among the ideas that Tolstoy extols in War and Peace is the belief that the quality and meaning of one's life is mainly derived from his day-to-day activities. Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828-November 20, 1910) was a Russian writer, best known for his epic novels. A member of the nobility, he published his books in Russian as “Graf [Count] L.N. Prahl, Amanda. He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. He was known for sci-fi works like 'Foundation' and 'I, Robot. In addition to his religious tracts, Tolstoy continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. In 1844, at age 16, he began studying law and languages at Kazan University, but was apparently a very poor student and soon left to return to a life of leisure. He developed a firm belief that the best way to live was to strive for personal perfection by following the commandment to love God and love one’s neighbor, rather than following the rules set by any church or government on earth. “Don’t spare your labour,” he advised an author in 1890, “write as it comes, at length, and then revise it, and above all shorten it. During the Crimean War, from 1853 to 1856, Tolstoy was an artillery officer and served in Sevastopol during the famous 11-month siege of the city between 1854 and 1855. Despite being born into a wealthy family, Tolstoy preferred … When the aunt passed away, Tolstoy and his siblings moved in with a second aunt, in Kazan, Russia. In many ways, Tolstoy’s legacy cannot be overstated. He returned to his parents' estate, where he made a go at becoming a farmer. Before entering formal university, Tolstoy was fluent in English and was “also well-versed in Arabic, Tartar, and Turkish…with the help of several specialized tutors.”[8] His health had been declining, and he had renounced the luxuries of his aristocratic lifestyle. Tolstoy did not marry until his thirties, after the death of one of his brothers hit him hard. During that time, he composed Boyhood (1854), a sequel to Childhood, the second book in what was to become Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy. In 1843, he enrolled in an Oriental languages program at the University of Kazan. Even with fame, fortune, and a loving family, life is meaningless. He wrote many great novels and various other literary works in his time, but that only scratches the surface of how and what he did to change the world. He wrote on revolution, but he considered it an internal battle to be fought within individual souls, rather than a violent overthrow of the state. The following year, he wrote his third lengthy novel, Resurrection. Duelling new English-language versions of the 1870s novel “Anna Karenina” are raising questions about the novelist Leo Tolstoy’s complex and contradictory attitudes toward Jews. Between 1871 and 1874, Tolstoy tried his hand at poetry, branching out from his usual prose writings. Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule. Anna follows her sexual instincts, and as those instincts are produced by modern society, they lead her to her doom. Following his stint as a junker, Tolstoy transferred to Sevastopol in Ukraine in November 1854, where he fought in the Crimean War through August 1855. In 1899, he had written Resurrection, his final novel, which critiqued the human-run church and state and attempted to expose their hypocrisy. ', Scholar Isaac Asimov was one of the 20th century's most prolific writers, writing in many genres. His mother died when he was two years old, whereupon his father's distant cousin Tatyana Ergolsky took charge of the children. Tolstoy did, however, get politically involved, or at least publicly expressed his opinions on major issues and conflicts of the day. Leo (Lev Nikolayevich) Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, his family's estate, on August 28, 1828, in Russia's Tula Province, the youngest of four sons. The novel also uniquely incorporated three long essays satirizing the laws of history. He hoped to continue spreading his teachings throughout Russia. Nov. 19, 2010. His War and Peace was heavily influenced by Hugo, particularly in its treatment of war and military scenes. When their father, Count Nikolay Tolstoy, died just seven years later, their aunt was appointed their legal guardian. He was the youngest of four boys. As a Russian artillery officer, the author of War and Peace saw his first combat in an all-too-familiar setting: Chechnya. In 1862, he put those ideals to work, founding 13 schools for Russian peasant children in the aftermath of Alexander II’s emancipation of the serfs. However, he did not complete the work, entitled The Cossacks, until 1862, after he had already left the Army. His descendant then was nicknamed “Tolstiy,” meaning “fat,” by Vasily II of Moscow, which inspired the family name. For the last two decades of his life, Tolstoy largely focused on essay writing. I haven’t read either in English, but I think Tolstoy should be almost as good in translation. 5 min. Tolstoy did, however, get politically involved, or at least publicly expressed his opinions on major issues and conflicts of the day. Soon after reading Victor Hugo’s epic novel Les Miserables, Tolstoy met Hugo himself. Like War and Peace, Anna Karenina fictionalized some biographical events from Tolstoy's life, as was particularly evident in the romance of the characters Kitty and Levin, whose relationship is said to resemble Tolstoy's courtship with his own wife. In 1852, Tolstoy submitted the sketch to The Contemporary, the most popular journal of the time. As Tolstoy was flailing on the farm, his older brother, Nikolay, came to visit while on military leave. Other historians trace the family’s origins to 14th or 16th-century Lithuania, with a founder named Pyotr Tolstoy. His wife recorded in her diary, in 1878, that she could always tell that when "Levochka starts reading English novels," he was getting ready to write himself. In the midst of the Crimean War, Tolstoy also expressed his views on the striking contradictions of war through a three-part series, Sevastopol Tales. He attempted to lead the serfs, or farmhands, in their work, but he was too often absent on social visits to Tula and Moscow. Tolstoy is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77), which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. He is also championed for his finesse in underscoring the role of people's everyday actions in defining their character and purpose. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Stylistically, it lies at the juncture of realism and modernism. Tolstoy received his primary education at home, at the hands of French and German tutors. In 1851, after running up significant debts from gambling, he went with his brother to join the army. Leo Tolstoy helped peasants as much as he could. Leo Tolstoy - Leo Tolstoy - First publications: Concealing his identity, Tolstoy submitted Childhood for publication in Sovremennik (“The Contemporary”), a prominent journal edited by the poet Nikolay Nekrasov. Amanda Prahl is a playwright, lyricist, freelance writer, and university instructor. In style Tolstoy valued clarity, and to achieve it, he endlessly revised his own prose. With his peasant smock and flowing grey beard, looking “like a character from a fairy tale,” the elderly writ… Back home, the burgeoning author found himself in high demand on the St. Petersburg literary scene. These are the mysteries that Pavel Basinsky’s book Leo Tolstoy: Flight from Paradise spends 500 pages unravelling, reconstructing the past through letters and diaries. In 1898, Tolstoy wrote Father Sergius, a work of fiction in which he seems to criticize the beliefs that he developed following his spiritual conversion. War and Peace spent significant time criticizing the telling of history, arguing that it’s the smaller events that make history, not the huge events and famous heroes. By 1868, he had released three more chapters and a year later, the novel was complete. In the spring of 1888, a performance of this work did take place in Tolstoy’s Moscow residence. Should we view his final exit as flight, escape or departure? One of his most successful later works was the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, written in 1886. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is widely considered the most popular Russian composer in history. He came to believe that there was no such thing as good government, only an apparatus to exploit and corrupt its citizens, and he became a vocal advocate of non-violence. He also wrote a trio of semi-autobiographical short stories, Sevastopol Sketches, which depicted his time as an army officer during the Crimean War. Leo Tolstoy, Russian author, a master of realistic fiction and one of the world’s greatest novelists. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Having written War and Peace and Anna Karenina, he was one of the most celebrated authors in the history of mankind. Struggling to uncover the meaning of life, Tolstoy first went to the Russian Orthodox Church but did not find the answers he sought there. He had a decent knowledge of English, Italian, Polish, Tatar, and several other Slavic languages. A portion of the novel was first published in the Russian Messenger in 1865, under the title "The Year 1805." His low grades forced him to transfer to an easier law program. Anxious to escape his wife's growing resentment, in October 1910, Tolstoy, his daughter, Aleksandra, and his physician, Dr. Dushan P. Makovitski, embarked on a pilgrimage. The novels are not direct autobiographies, but instead tell the story of a rich man’s son who grows up and slowly realizes that there is an insurmountable gap between him and the peasants who live on the land owned by his father. His mother died when he was two. After completing Childhood, Tolstoy started writing about his day-to-day life at the Army outpost in the Caucasus. When Tolstoy's new beliefs prompted his desire to give away his money, his wife strongly objected. There, Tolstoy failed to excel as a student. His moral and philosophical writings inspired Gandhi, which means that Tolstoy’s influence can be felt in contemporary movements of non-violent resistance. Ivan the Terrible was the first tsar of all Russia. During his reign, he acquired vast amounts of land through ruthless means, creating a centrally controlled government. His 1863 novella, The Cossacks, provided a close look at the Cossack people in a story about a Russian aristocrat who falls in love with a Cossack girl. Tolstoy died there shortly after, on November 20, 1910. Some of his descendants left Russia in the early 20th century, and many of them continue to make names for themselves in their chosen professions to this day. Dickens also was at least partly responsible for Tolstoy's decision to write fiction to start with. Over the last 30 years of his life, Tolstoy established himself as a moral and religious leader. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-leo-tolstoy-4773774. Childhood & Early LifeLeo Tolstoy was born on 28 August 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana in Central Russia in a noble Russian family. During his 1857 tour, Tolstoy was in Paris when he witnessed a public execution. Along with some of his compatriots, he embarked on tours of Europe: one in 1857, and one from 1860 to 1861. One example of his efforts is the outbuilding of Kuzminsky, the school he founded for peasant children. Illustration of Natasha's first ball in "War and Peace" from a 1893 edition. The epic story deals with Tolstoy’s theories about history, spanning many years and moving through wars, family complications, romantic intrigues, and court life, and ultimately intended as an exploration of the eventual causes of the 1825 Decembrist revolt. His wife not only disagreed with his teachings, but she also disapproved of his disciples, who regularly visited Tolstoy at the family estate. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Leader, Quotes From Leo Tolstoy's Classic 'Anna Karenina', 12 Russian Authors Every Language Learner Should Read, Biography of Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian Poet, an unhappily married aristocratic woman’s, violent revolution espoused by many anarchists, M.F.A, Dramatic Writing, Arizona State University, B.A., English Literature, Arizona State University, B.A., Political Science, Arizona State University. Tolstoy also wrote significantly in favor of the economic theory of Georgism, which posited that individuals should own the value they produce, but society should share in the value derived from the land itself. He also managed to publish Youth, the third part of his autobiographical trilogy, in 1857. His criticism extended to many of the foundations of society at the time, including private property and marriage. Later, as he shifted away from fiction into non-fiction, his language became more overtly moral and philosophical. In fact, he corresponded with Mahatma Gandhi about the practical and theoretical applications of non-violence. Tolstoy’s magnum opus was 1869’s War and Peace, a massive and sprawling narrative encompassing nearly 600 characters (including several historical figures and several characters strongly based on real people Tolstoy knew). It covers personal themes of morality and betrayal, as well as larger social questions of the changing social order, contrasts between city and rural life, and class divisions. As a consequence of espousing his unconventional — and therefore controversial — spiritual beliefs, Tolstoy was ousted by the Russian Orthodox Church. Tolstoy believed his first true novel to be Anna Karenina, published in 1877. His stab at becoming the perfect farmer soon proved to be a failure. Similarly, his visit to the exiled anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon gave Tolstoy the idea for his novel’s title and shaped his views on education. Valuing their privacy, they traveled incognito, hoping to dodge the press, to no avail. Tolstoy left behind a literary legacy of epic prose, carefully drawn characters, and a fiercely felt moral philosophy, making him an unusually colorful and influential author across the years. Their troubled marriage took on an air of notoriety in the press. © 2021 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Back in Russia in 1862, Tolstoy produced the first of a 12 issue-installment of the journal Yasnaya Polyana, marrying a doctor's daughter named Sofya Andreyevna Bers that same year. The Russian novelist and moral philosopher Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) ranks as one of the world's great writers, and his "War and Peace" has been called the greatest novel ever written. Interestingly, Tolstoy did not consider War and Peace to be his first “real” novel; he considered it a prose epic, not a true novel. ThoughtCo. (The couple had spawned 13 children in all, but only 10 had survived past infancy.). When his funeral procession went through the streets, police tried to limit access, but they were unable to stop thousands of peasants from lining the streets—although some were there not because of devotion to Tolstoy, but merely out of curiosity about a nobleman who had died. Ultimately, he disliked and dismissed poetry. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, instituting a reign of death and terror while modernizing Russia and helping to defeat Nazism. Nekrasov was enthusiastic, and the pseudonymously published work was widely praised. https://www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-leo-tolstoy Leo Tolstoy. By the end of his life, Tolstoy had reached a breaking point with his beliefs, his family, and his health. He wrote in support of the Boxer rebels during the Boxer Rebellion in China, condemning the violence of the Russian, American, German, and Japanese troops. Tolstoy still managed to continue writing while at battle during the Crimean War. His most famous novels contained sweeping prose somewhere between the realist and modernist styles, as well as a particular style of seamlessly sweeping from quasi-cinematic, detailed but massive descriptions to the specifics of characters’ perspectives. Prone to partying in excess, Tolstoy ultimately left the University of Kazan in 1847, without a degree. Instead, he began developing a radical, anarcho-pacifist, Christian worldview that explicitly rejected both violence and the rule of the state. By 1901, Tolstoy’s radical views led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church, but he was unperturbed. (2021, February 17). For the most part, Tolstoy wrote in the realist style, attempting to accurately (and with detail) convey the lives of the Russians he knew and observed. After Anna Karenina, Tolstoy began further developing the seeds of moral and religious ideas in his earlier works into the center of his later work. His ideas about nonviolent resistance to evil influenced the likes of social leader Mahatma Gandhi. On September 9, 1828, writer Leo Tolstoy was born at his family's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula Province of Russia. During quiet periods while Tolstoy was a junker in the Army, he worked on an autobiographical story called Childhood. One of his most successful later works was The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Leo Tolstoy died 100 years ago, on Nov. 20, 1910, and his name has become synonymous around the world with the greatness of Russian literature. Reading Dickens had the effect of making Tolstoy want to sit down and write. In his later years, Tolstoy wrote almost solely about his moral, political, and religious beliefs. Also during his later years, Tolstoy reaped the rewards of international acclaim. Because of the conventions of Russian noble titles, Tolstoy also bore the title of “count” despite not being his father’s eldest son. Following the success of War and Peace, in 1873, Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best-known novels, Anna Karenina. Tolstoy’s personal life, with its origins in the aristocracy and his eventual renunciation of his privileged existence, continues to fascinate readers and biographer, and the man himself is as famous as his works. Later in his life, he was greatly influenced by the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The short answer is no. Yet he still struggled to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with the tensions they created in his home life. “And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. In 1873, Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best-known novels, Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was born in 1828 on his family's estate in rural Russia. This was Leo Tolstoy. However, ironically, he didn't fit the mold of a Christian. Sophia Tolstoy: Not the Woman You Thought She Was. Tolstoy's other late works include essays on art, a satirical play called The Living Corpse that he wrote in 1890, and a novella called Hadji-Murad (written in 1904), which was discovered and published after his death. The novel follows two major plotlines which intersect: an unhappily married aristocratic woman’s doomed affair with a cavalry officer, and a wealthy landowner who has a philosophical awakening and wants to improve the peasantry’s way of life. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, … Tolstoy was survived by his wife and their brood of 8 children. (1886), continued developing Tolstoy’s radical and religious views, with harsh critiques of the state of Russian society. Between 1863 and 1888, the couple had 13 children; eight survived to adulthood. What I learned from Sophia’s memoir, letters, and other prose, previously inaccessible, changed my perspective of this woman and her marriage. After spending a day traveling by train, his destination somewhere in the south, he collapsed due to pneumonia at the Astapovo railway station. Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote the acclaimed novels 'War and Peace,' 'Anna Karenina' and 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich,' and ranks among the world's top writers. In the business of writing, gold is only obtained, in my experience, by sifting.”. Biography of Leo Tolstoy, Influential Russian Writer. War and Peace is, in fact, frequently cited as the greatest novel ever written. Once the Crimean War ended and Tolstoy left the Army, he returned to Russia. He wrote poems about his military service, compiling them with some fairy tales in his Russian Book for Reading, a four-volume publication of shorter works that was intended for an audience of schoolchildren. He was buried at the family estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province, where Tolstoy had lost so many loved ones yet had managed to build such fond and lasting memories of his childhood. At home did not study English ... At the time he made this comment on the writing of his novel, Tolstoy seemed to hold this principle as the inescapable logic of historical narrative. The gruesome violence and heavy death toll in the war horrified him, and he left the army as soon as possible after the war ended. Years ago, beginning my archival research for Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography, I discovered that a memoir by Leo Tolstoy ‘s wife remained unpublished. The marriage was, reportedly, happy and passionate in the early days, despite Sonya’s discomfort with her husband’s wild past, but as time went on, their relationship deteriorated into deep unhappiness. The title character, Ivan Ilyich, comes to the jarring realization that he has wasted his life on trivial matters, but the realization comes too late. Tolstoy further lost his father at the age of nine and went on to stay with his aunt Madame Ergolsky. In the 1860s, Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. Prahl, Amanda. Between 1852 and 1856, Tolstoy focused on a trio of autobiographical novels: Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. The disagreement put a strain on the couple's marriage until Tolstoy begrudgingly agreed to a compromise: He conceded to granting his wife the copyrights — and presumably the royalties — to all of his writing predating 1881. Her history and arts writing has been featured on Slate, HowlRound, and BroadwayWorld.. Tolstoy served as an officer during the Crimean War. The story was eagerly accepted and became Tolstoy's very first published work. "Biography of Leo Tolstoy, Influential Russian Writer." Some background knowledge would be hugely beneficial - in particular an American reader likely has no idea of Russian slavery, or of non-existence of Russian culture prior to approximately 1815. Tolstoy was born into a very old Russian aristocratic family whose lineage was, quite literally, the stuff of Russian legend. He wrote in support of the Boxer rebels during the Boxer Rebellion in China, condemning the violence of the Russian, American, German, and Japanese troops. He was born on the family’s estate, the fourth of five children born to Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and his wife, the Countess Maria Tolstoya. The traumatic memory of that experience shifted something in him permanently, and he developed a deep loathing and mistrust of government in general. In it, he wrote of his fondest childhood memories. His work includes the 'The Sleeping Beauty' and 'The Nutcracker. To this day, Tolstoy's novels are considered among the finest achievements of literary work. The first sentence of Anna Karenina is among the most famous lines of the book: "All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The Greatest Works of Russian Literature Everyone Should Read, Papa Panov's Special Christmas: Synopsis and Analysis, Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian Novelist, Biography of the Rev. Residing at Yasnaya Polyana with his wife and children, Tolstoy spent the better part of the 1860s toiling over his first great novel, War and Peace. His schools were among the first to run on the ideals of democratic education—education which advocates democratic ideals and runs according to them–but were short-lived due to the enmity of the royalist secret police. Tolstoy’s journey from dissolute aristocrat to socially agitating writer was shaped heavily by a few experiences in his youth; namely, his military service and his travels in Europe. In contemporary academia, Tolstoy is still widely acknowledged as having possessed a gift for describing characters' unconscious motives. "Biography of Leo Tolstoy, Influential Russian Writer." His Confession (1880) and What I Believe (1884) declared his Christian beliefs, his support of pacifism and complete non-violence, and his choice of voluntary poverty and asceticism. His French and German were excellent. Despite the success of Anna Karenina, following the novel's completion, Tolstoy suffered a spiritual crisis and grew depressed. In order to escape with the least amount of conflict, he slipped away secretively, leaving home in the middle of the night during the cold winter. Leo Tolstoy is considered to be one of the most important and prolific writers in history due to his two masterpiece novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest authors of all time. Although Tolstoy fulfilled the bargain, Repin did not. Musings on Radical Christianity (1878-1890). He was the fourth child of Maria Volkonsky and Nicolay Ilvich Tolstoy. Among his later works' genres were moral tales and realistic fiction. He was even watched by the secret police. Asceticism and the work of inner perfection were among the things Tolstoy advocated for in his writings. Although he was commended for his bravery and promoted to lieutenant, Tolstoy did not like his military service. https://www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-leo-tolstoy-4773774 (accessed April 21, 2021). A later visit to Paris, in 1860 and 1861, produced further effects in Tolstoy which would come to fruition in some of his most famous works. 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Like his military service novels are considered among the finest achievements of literary work royalties that Tolstoy earned from Russian!
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