Leo Tolstoy

EARLY LIFE 

Leo Tolstoy was born Lyov Nikolayevich Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate in Russia on September 9, 1828.

Tolstoy in 1897

Leo was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya (née Volkonskaya). 

In 1836 a tutor predicted literary fame for the young Leo.

Leo's mother died when he was 6, after the birth of daughter Mary, and his father when he was 9. He was bought up by relatives (he finally went to live with his aunt in 1841) but Leo mainly had a happy childhood.

In 1844, Leo began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. However, he spent his time there playing cards, womanizing, drinking and playing sport.

CAREER 

Tolstoy left Kazan University in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle.

Tolstoy at age 20, circa 1848

He began writing during this period, and Tolstoy's first published work, Childhood, appeared under a pseudonym in the Russian literary and political magazine Sovremennik ("The Contemporary") in 1852.

In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy went with his older brother Nichola to the Caucasus and joined the army. At helping subdue the rebellious Tattar tribes, Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War, and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854–55.

During the war Tolstoy was recognized for his bravery and courage and he was promoted to lieutenant in 1854. 

Tolstoy's experiences in battle, recounted in his Sevastapol Sketches, helped develop his pacifism, and gave him material for his realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his later works. 

Tolstoy during the Crimean War, c. 1854.

Tolstoy didn't enjoy the army and he resigned his commission after the Crimean War ended in 1856.

In the early 1860s Tolstoy spent some time abroad studying educational methods. He set up a school at Yasnaya Polyana, where he introduced a new method of teaching. No compulsory lessons, no rules, no punishment and no rewards. It only lasted a year and only his growing fame as an author prevented the  authorities from prosecuting him for such activities.

After the failure of his school, Tolstoy typcally wrote in the mornings and devoted the afternoons to managing his vast estates in the Volga Steppes.

After reading Schopenhauer's philosophical book The World as Will and Representation, and a gradual conversion to mystical Christianity, Tolstoy gradually became converted to an ascetic morality as the proper spiritual path for the upper classes. From around 1880 he threw in his lot with the peasants and proceeded to work in the woods and fields alongside them. Tolstoy also wrote ethical pieces on educational, religious and social themes.

After attacking the Orthodox Church in his book Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy was excommunicated in 1901. His works were banned in Russia and instead they had to be published in England or Germany.

WORKS 

As well as novels, Tolstoy also wrote short stories, autobiographical experiences, plays and numerous philosophical essays. He doodled as he wrote, sitting at a large desk at home.

Tolstoy in his study in 1908

Tolstoy's first published novel, Childhood, was released under the initials L. N. in the November 1852 issue of the popular Russian literary journal The Contemporary. Published when Tolstoy was just 23-years old, Childhood was an immediate success.

Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace was published in 1869. Set during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, it tells of the interwoven histories of the poor Rostov family and the rich Bolkonskys. It is regarded as a milestone in the development of the western novel.

Anna Karenina was initially released in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger and was first published in book form in 1878. The story is based on an account Tolstoy read in a newspaper about a woman who, believing her lover had betrayed her, threw herself under a train. 

Title page of first edition of Anna Karenina

The character of Levin is based on Tolstoy himself. Anna's lover, Vronsky mirrored the younger Tolstoy with his debonair style and gambling debts. 

During the period when he wrote Anna Karenina, Tolstoy's pious Aunt Tatiana, who had been an important influence on him, died. He also lost two children and his wife was ill. The suffering helped him with his understanding of human nature. 

In 1900 Leo Tolstoy wrote Resurrection, his first novel for twenty years. It was written in support of the Dukhobors, an Anabaptist group of 12,000 undergoing persecution by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. He donated all proceeds to finance their emigration to Canada. 

Tolstoy left 45 volumes of diaries and correspondence. More would have been left but in 1910 manuscripts were destroyed in a fire at his family mansion.

BELIEFS 

After leaving university Tolstoy lost his faith in religion and prayer.

By 1880 the 52-year-old Tolstoy had experienced a spiritual transformation in which he rejected authority and private ownership and returned to a basic mystical Christianity. He started living by a code of non-violence, universal love and simplicity. 

Tolstoy became a strict vegetarian. He believed that meat was not a suitable diet for humans as it excited the mortal lusts and involved pain and death for animals. Instead, Tolstoy existed mainly on oatmeal porridge, bread and vegetable soup.

The great Russian novelist's code attracted many followers who called themselves "Tolstoians". He started to distribute his land amongst his wife and children, and disclaimed his title, his wealth and the copyrights to his books.

In 1892 there was a terrible famine in Russia and Leo Tolstoy set up 370 kitchens feeding 16,000 daily. He personally raised 141,000 roubles (including half a million dollars from the USA). 

Tolstoy organizing famine relief in Samara, 1891

Tolstoy's 1900 novel Resurrection advocated his ascetic Christianity and "resist not evil" was his message to mankind. Chapter 40 outlines some of his theology which shows Tolstoy being against the "blasphemous incantation over the bread and wine" (e.g. transubstantiation). He also claimed Jesus had forbidden men to call other men their master or to pray in temples and instead had commanded each to pray in Spirit and Truth. 

Tolstoy retranslated the Gospels into Russian, throwing out the Old Testament and much of the New and instead using the Sermon on the Mount as his basic creed. He rejected the idea of Jesus as part of a Holy Trinity, instead he referred to him as an inspired sage who happened to have divined truths about life.

RELATIONSHIPS 

As a young army officer Tolstoy collected a string of mistresses and frequented whorehouses. He participated in drunken orgies and several times contacted venereal disease. 

On September 23, 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, daughter of a German physician, who was 16 years his junior. 

Four days before their wedding Tolstoy insisted that his fiancee read his diaries in which he'd dutifully recorded his sexual relations with his serfs. The diary included the fact that he had fathered a child by a woman, Axinya, who still was serving on the Yasnaya Polyana estate. 

Sophia Tolstaya and daughter Alexandra Tolstaya

Sophia was pregnant 16 times and she gave birth to 13 children (The other 3 were still born.). She still found the energy to work as her husband's unpaid assistant deciphering and copying his drafts. Tolstoy described his wife as "good, loving and beloved".

Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical. By the 1880s, his family life was disrupted, his intentions to give his land away split his household. By this stage Tolstoy was preaching Christian love to the world but was inclined to be spiteful to his loyal wife. 

Tolstoy several times took a public vow of chastity and asked for separate bedrooms. 

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER 

Tolstoy was short, thick set, with a broad nose and thick lipped. He grew a beard to cover his somewhat ugly features. In his older days it developed into a very long white beard.

Tolstoy in May 1908

After going through a spiritual change Tolstoy adopted the peasant's standard attire. To identify with the common people he put on peasant clothes and made his own shoes.

In his old age, Tolstoy had an immense aura of inward peace.

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS 

Whenever Tolstoy was confronted by a problem he attempted to resolve it whilst playing Solitaire. For instance he let a game of Solitaire decide whether Katyvisha should marry Nekhlyndov in Resurrection.

Tolstoy renounced his favourite sport of hunting after undergoing his spiritual change.

Even in his late seventies Tolstoy had not abandoned his habit of vigorous exercise, spending nearly every afternoon in riding, walking and in spare moments indoors playing battle-dore and shuttlecock with his daughter or amusing himself with cup and ball. 

HOMES 

Yasnaya Polyana the former home of Leo Tolstoy is 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Moscow.

House of Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. By Celest.ru 

Tolstoy was born in the Yasnaya Polyana house, and wrote both War and Peace and Anna Karenina there. He called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold". He is buried nearby. 

In June 1921, the estate was nationalized and formally became his memorial museum.

DEATH 

Tolstoy hated the concept of wills and in his last days he signed several to close every loophole. The last one he wrote on a forest stump to avoid family spying. His land and literary estates went "to the people" through his sole family ally, his daughter Shaha. 

Leo Tolstoy, after rowing with his wife stealthily left home one evening, caught pneumonia and lay dying in a waiting room siding at Astapovo Railway Station. He was urged to return to the fold of the Russian Orthodox Church before it is too late. Tolstoy mumbled "Even in the valley of the shadow of death, 2 and 2 do not make 6." 

Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910 at the station master's apartment. 

Thousands of peasants turned out to line the streets at Tolstoy's funeral.

Sources Philip Yancey Soul Survivor,  The Penguin Book of Interviews