Leo Tolstoy biography

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy who is famously known as Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist, philosopher and moral critic whose worldwide acclaimed works include “War and Peace” being his first acclaimed novel followed by “Anna Karenina” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” that gained him much acknowledgement and he as counted among the most influential great writers of the era. Anna Karenina was his second book that was published in the year 1873 and he continued his writing fiction genre throughout the 1880s to 1890s. His later work that was critically acclaimed worldwide was “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”. His fictitious work was always based on portraying the realistic picture of Russian society. The short biodata of Leo Tolstoy is as follows:

Name: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Known as: Novelist, Philosopher and Social critic

Born: 9th September 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire

Died:  20th November 1910 in Astapovo, Russian Empire

Parents: Count Nikolay Ilyich Tolstoy (father) and Countess Mariya Tolstoya (mother) 

Education: Joined Kazan University at the age of 16 but did not complete his studies

Spouse: Sophia Behrs

Children: he had 13 children

Critically acclaimed work: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, A confession and Resurrection    

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Image: Sketch of Leo Tolstoy.

Life History of Leo Tolstoy

1. Early Life

The writer was born on 9th September 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula province of the Russian Empire at his family’s estate. He was the fourth child of his parents and he was the youngest sibling to the other three elder brothers. After the death of his mother in the year 1830, one of his father’s cousins volunteers to take care of the kids and be a local guardian to them. But soon after the death of his mother, his father died as well after seven years of their mother’s demise. Their aunt was then legally declared as their guardian. But after his aunt’s demise, they were moved to Kazan to their second aunt where he started his higher studies in Kazan university but did not complete his degree. As the writer faced huge losses at a very early age, it was reflected in many of his writings where he idealised the memories of his childhood.

He was home tutored by French and German tutors at home during his primary education. In 1843, he enrolled himself in Kazan University taking up Oriental Languages Program as his subject of study but failed to excel in the subjects and due to poor grades, he was forcefully shifted to a much simpler program. But his dangerous habit of excessively partying finally landed him into withdrawing himself from the university and hence could not complete his studies. Finally, he went back to his hometown from Kazan to his parents’ estate in an attempt to become a successful farmer. Thus he often tried to lead the serfs or the farmhands in the work but he started skipping days for social visits to Mosco and Tula. Thus slowly his attempt at farming also failed but he managed to continue with the Journal by focusing all his energy on it that later became his medium of unparalleled expressions through his writings. This finally has also inspired many of his fiction writings.            

2. Personal Life

As Leo Tolstoy Biography stated that he was devastated after losing his elder brother in 1860 that made him desire a life partner. Thus he married Sophia Behrs on 23 September 1862. He was honest and open about his past relationships with other women including one of his serfs with whom he had a son. On the night of their marriage, he handed his spouse a diary that includes elaborative details of all his relationships. He had 13 children with Sophia but only 8 of them survive their childhood. 

They were happily married in their earlier married life as Sofia gave him all the freedom to work on his novel “War and Peace” and morally supported him to compose it all. She served him as his secretary, editor as well as his financial adviser. Sofia used to copy his handwriting of most of his epic works from time to time as he remained busy providing the final and clean drafts of his works to the editor for publication. But soon their marriage life got in turmoil as his relationship with his wife deteriorated with the increase and firming of his radical beliefs. Because of it, he even gave up all his inherited and earned health and also abducted the copyrights of his previous works. Many members of the Tolstoy family left after the establishment of the Soviet Union during the Russian revolution and many of his descendants and relatives are known to reside in Germany, Sweden and France. Victoria Tolstoy, a famous Jazz singer from Sweden is a descendant of Tolstoy. One of his great-grandkids, Vladimir Tolstoy is presently the cultural affairs advisor with the Russian Government from 2012 and also had been director of the Yasnaya Polyana museum.     

3. Elderly Life

Over more than 30 years he enriched his radical beliefs and eventually integrated himself as a moral and religious leader. He was more aligned with Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of non-violence resistance against evil forces. He was honoured with many internationally acclaimed awards for his work but he couldn’t align himself with the increasing distress in his personal and family life because of his radical beliefs. Even his wife disapproved of his beliefs and was quite apprehensive of his teachings and the disciples who used to regularly visit Tolstoy in his family estate. The notorious press took their troubled marriage on air. In order to break free from his wife’s growing dissatisfaction in 1910, Tolstoy with his daughter and his physician commenced pilgrimaging. To secure their privacy, they decided to travel incognito to evade the press.  

4. Philosophy and Religious Conversion

Tolstoy underwent depression because he had eventually developed a major religious crisis post the success and publication of Anna Karenina. Struggling to actually understand the meaning of life, he turned to the most orthodox Church of Russia but didn’t get the answer he was expecting. Slowly he came to believe that the Christan Churches were corrupted and instead of believing in the organized religion, he slowly developed his own belief and started publishing them in his newly founded publication named The Mediator in 1883. But because of his unconventional beliefs, the journal became controversial and many of the orthodox churches of Russia ousted him and he came under the constant radar of the secret police. Finally, Tolstoy agreed to give away all his wealth and this had strained his marriage with his wife. But he finally came to a compromise and acknowledged giving his wife the copyrights and the royalties of his works predating 1881. 

Works and Books

Early Works:

During the time he was serving as a junker in the Russian army he wrote a book that was later published by the name “Childhood” that comprised all his fondest childhood memories. Leo Tolstoy submitted his first sketches to a journal named “The contemporary” which was the most popular journal of his time and it instantly got published and famous in the year 1852 and that became his first publication. While he was in an army outpost in the Caucasus he started writing about day-to-day life soon after he completed “Childhood”. But he couldn’t complete the work till the time he was in the army so after he left, he completed the book and published it with the name “Cossacks”.  He managed to keep writing during the battle of the Crimean war and he finally composed the sequel of “Childhood” that he named “Boyhood” and it became the Tolstoy biography book trilogy. During the continuation of the Crimean war, he published the three series book named “Sevastopol Tale” that is based on the contradictions of the war that he realised. But in the second series of the “Sevastopol Tale” where his redaction is based on a stream of consciousness of a soldier on a front.   

Death and Legacy

The pilgrimage proved to be very detrimental for the ageing novelist. Later in November, a stationmaster of Astapovo’s train depot opened up his home in Tolstoy for the writer to rest and help recover from the deteriorating health condition. But soon after, on 20th November 1910, he died in the same house. Later he was buried in his own family estate in Tula province in Yasnaya Polyana.

Leo Tolstoy Biography Summary

Leo Tolstoy short biography can be comprehended as he is a world-renowned novelist, philosopher and social critic who is known for his radical beliefs and writing fictions that were inspired by his life and reflected the shortcomings of the socio-political structure of Russia. He had a traumatic childhood as he lost his mother, father and his aunt who were their local guardian and took care of him and his siblings after the demise of his biological parents. He never completed his studies but managed to concentrate all his energy on his first journal. Later, while serving the army, he wrote his first novel “Childhood” which captured all his fondest memories of his childhood followed by many other books. His most critically acclaimed work that is still read all over the world is “War and Peace” followed by “ Anna Karenina” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” which made him one of the most renowned novelists in the fiction genre. His radical beliefs that reflected in his publications had acquired a lot of heat from the orthodox Christian churches and he was under the secret police’s vigilance. He finally gave up all his wealth and acknowledged his wife all his copyrights of his work pre-1881 and headed to pilgrimage incognito. He died on 20th November 1910 in the same house. Later he was buried in his own family estate in Tula province in Yasnaya Polyana where the rite lost most of his beloved ones.