Biography leo novel tolstoy
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Leo Tolstoy
(1828-1910)
Who Was Leo Tolstoy?
In the 1860s, Russian author Leo Tolstoy wrote his first great novel, War and Peace. In 1873, Tolstoy set to work on the second of his best-known novels, Anna Karenina. He continued to write fiction throughout the 1880s and 1890s. One of his most successful later works was The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
Early Life
On September 9, 1828, writer Leo Tolstoy was born at his family's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula Province of Russia. He was the youngest of four boys. When Tolstoy's mother died in 1830, his father's cousin took over caring for the children. When their father, Count Nikolay Tolstoy, died just seven years later, their aunt was appointed their legal guardian. When the aunt passed away, Tolstoy and his siblings moved in with a second aunt, in Kazan, Russia. Although Tolstoy experienced a lot of loss at an early age, he would later idealize his childhood memories in his writing.
Tolstoy received his primary educatio
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Leo Tolstoy Biography
Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) by Ilya Repin, pixabay
Leo Tolstoy was born Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana near Tula, Russia. He grew up in an aristocratic Russian family with four siblings. By the time Tolstoy turned 10, both of his parents had passed away. He attended a Russian university but did not finish his degree. He and his brother fought in the Crimean war (1853-1856); Tolstoy’s horror at what he witnessed during the war would lead to a lifelong passion for nonviolence.
Following his release from the army, Tolstoy traveled around europe. During his travels, he adopted the moral positions that would guide his life’s work and his writing—nonviolence, the importance of education, and a disdain for the aristocracy.
Upon his return to Russia, Tolstoy married Sofya Andreyevena Bers; the couple had 13 children, three of whom died in infancy. In the period after he married Sofya (commonly referred to by the Russian d
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Biography of Leo Tolstoy, Influential Russian Writer
Leo Tolstoy (September 9, 1828-November 20, 1910) was a Russian writer, best known for his epic novels. Born into an aristocratic Russian family, Tolstoy wrote realist fiction and semi-autobiographical novels before shifting into more moral and spiritual works.
Fast Facts: Leo Tolstoy
- Full Name: Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
- Known For: Russian novelist and writer of philosophical and moral texts
- Born: September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire
- Parents: Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Mariya Tolstoya
- Died: November 20, 1910 in Astapovo, Russian Empire
- Education: Kazan University (began at age 16; did not complete his studies)
- Selected Works:War and Peace (1869), Anna Karenina (1878), A Confession (1880), The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Resurrection (1899)
- Spouse: Sophia Behrs (m. 1862)
- Children: 13, including Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy, Countess Tatiana Lvona Tolst