Leo Tolstoy
The Russian lion
Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi (Russian: Толсто́й) is a prominent family of Russian nobility,
descending from one Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy (i.e., "the Fat") who served under
Vasily II of Moscow (1425-
The "wild Tolstoys" (as they were known in the high society of Imperial Russia) have left a lasting legacy in Russian politics, military history, literature, and fine arts.
Early days
Leo Tolstoy was born September 9th. 1828 at his family's estate known as Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province, the fourth of five children.
The title of Count had been conferred on his ancestor in the early 18th century by Peter the Great.
The legend of the green stick
At the delicate age of five, Leo Tolstoy was led to believe by his beloved brother Nikolai, that he, Nikolai, had recorded the secret for universal future happiness on a green stick buried at the edge of a ravine in Yasnaya Polyana, their native estate.
With future disclosure of this secret, the world would be swept up by love and by all the good things that love would bring.
The Legend of the Green Stick remained a powerful metaphor for Leo Tolstoy throughout
his eighty -
He was the fourth of five children. Tolstoy's parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. His teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn." Tolstoy left university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
In April 1851 Nicolas, disturbed by the direction of his brother's life, convinced
him to head for the Caucasus Mountains with Nicolas' artillery division. Their journey
to the Caucasus, over land and sea, was to form the backbone of Leo's 1861 novel
The Cossacks. Tolstoy became a soldier and stayed in the Caucasus' for three years,
where he wrote his first novel, Childhood, in the winter of 1851-
When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Tolstoy was transferred to the front. During
his experience with the War in Sebastopol, he had the first of many religious awakenings,
believing that he needed to "create a new religion corresponding to the development
of mankind." After Sebastopol capitulated in August 1855, he went to St. Petersburg
to report on the last battle and then left the army for good. In St. Petersburg Tolstoy
was well-
When Tolstoy's beloved brother Nicolas died of consumption on September 20, 1860, he turned his focus towards his religious feelings and his desire to do good works. He toured Europe, studying their educational systems in the hope of starting schools in Russia. When the serfs were liberated on February 19, 1861, he hurried back to Russia in order to mediate between them and their former masters. Unfortunately, because he frequently sided with the serfs, he was forced out of his position. This conflict between Tolstoy's status as a wealthy landowner and his desire to help the poor would cause problems for him for the rest of his life.
His conversion from a dissolute and privileged society author to the non-
Writing in a letter to his friend V. P. Botkin:
‘The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.’
His European trip in 1860-
‘If I recount this conversation with Proudhon, it is to show that, in my personal experience, he was the only man who understood the significance of education and of the printing press in our time.’
Fired by enthusiasm, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded thirteen schools
for his serfs' children, based on ground-
On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Bers, who was 16 years his junior. They had thirteen children, five of whom died during childhood. The marriage was marked from the outset by Tolstoy when, on the eve of their marriage, he gave her his diaries detailing Tolstoy's sexual relations with his serfs. Even so, their early married life was comparatively blissful and idyllic and allowed Tolstoy much freedom to compose the literary masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
However, their later life together has been described by A. N. Wilson as one of the unhappiest in literary history. His relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical and he sought to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works.
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Tolstoy’s will
The legend about the green stick with the secret of happiness for all people written
on it was mentioned in one of the versions of his will:-
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A portrait of Tolstoy's wife Sophia and their daughter Alexandra
Biography -