Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich (Leo) Tolstoy was born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828. He studied oriental languages and then law at the university of Kazan, and he developed an interest in literature, ethics, and philosophy, including works by western European intellectuals such as the 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Tolstoy eventually dropped out of university and began writing while living a lifestyle of gambling and heavy drinking. In 1851 Tolstoy became an artillery officer in the Crimean War, and in 1854-1855 he was involved in the siege of Sevastopol, an experience that inspired him to write the Sevastopol Sketches, which highlight the devastation and senselessness of war and form the basis for Tolstoy’s later novel War and Peace. Following the war, Tolstoy left the army; he eventually became a staunch pacifist. Between 1863 and 1877 Tolstoy composed his two most famous works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His honest depictions of Russian society and politics in these works have led to his being considered a member of the so-called “realist” school. During the 1870s, Tolstoy fell into a deep spiritual crisis driven by a sense of purposelessness and a fear of death, and he turned toward intense religiosity. Tolstoy became highly critical of the Russian Orthodox church, and in 1901 he was excommunicated. Tolstoy turned his attention to writing religiously-focused literature, including essays on Christ’s teachings, a synthesis of the four gospels, and didactic (or instructive) moral tales. During this period, he wrote The Death of Ivan Ilyich, about a man confronting his mortality. Throughout his later writings Tolstoy continued to attack the church and social (or state) institutions, particularly the justice system (as in “God Sees the Truth But Waits”). Additionally, he renounced much of his past work, including War and Peace, as he determined to write not for the educated elite, but for the common people and for children. Tolstoy died of pneumonia in 1910.