Leo Tolstoy

Introduction & Top Questions
Early years
First publications
The period of the great novels (1863–77)
- War and Peace
- Anna Karenina
Conversion and religious beliefs
Fiction after 1880
Last years
Legacy

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Portrait of Leo Tolstoy with a long white beard, wearing a dark shirt and looking slightly to the side.

Large white estate house with a green roof, surrounded by grass and trees, at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, former home of Leo Tolstoy.

Tatiana Sukhotina-Tolstaya sits outdoors in a dark coat, looking toward the camera with a slight smile.

A bearded man in a dark suit and bowler hat, identified as the son of Leo Tolstoy, stands outdoors in front of a brick wall holding a small book.

Leo Tolstoy stands beside wooden steps outdoors, wearing a long dark coat and boots, with foliage and vines in the background.

Leo Tolstoy with his grandchildren, c. 1900

Alexandra Tolstaya, wearing a dark dress with a patterned scarf and a dark hat, stands indoors holding a pair of glasses in her right hand.

At a Glance

Leo Tolstoy summary

Quizzes

Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

The Literary World

Summer red bird, Tanager from The Birds of America by John James Audubon, 4 vol. (435 hand-coloured plates, 1827-38), pl. 44, London. Engraver Robert Havell. Engraving, hand-colored.

Authors of Classic Literature

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

Related Questions

How did Leo Tolstoy die at Astapovo railroad station?
How did Leo Tolstoy explain nonresistance to evil?
How did Leo Tolstoy first publish Childhood?
How did Leo Tolstoy portray ordinary soldiers in the Sevastopol sketches?
How did Leo Tolstoy use the royalties from Resurrection to help the Dukhobors?
How did Leo Tolstoy’s diaries influence his later fiction?
How did Leo Tolstoy’s experiences in the Crimean War influence his writing?
How did Leo Tolstoy’s ideas influence Mahatma Gandhi?
How did the deaths of Leo Tolstoy’s parents affect his childhood?
How does Anna Karenina contrast romantic love with family love?
How does Father Sergius question the pursuit of sainthood?
How does Leo Tolstoy portray Napoleon in War and Peace?
How long did Leo Tolstoy spend writing War and Peace?
How many children did Leo Tolstoy and Sofya Andreyevna Bers have?
What caused Leo Tolstoy’s religious crisis after completing Anna Karenina?
What five moral teachings did Leo Tolstoy emphasize in his later Christianity?
What happens to Prince Andrey Bolkonsky at the Battle of Austerlitz in War and Peace?
What ideas did Leo Tolstoy publish in the journal Yasnaya Polyana?
What role does Platon Karataev play in Pierre Bezukhov’s life in War and Peace?
What subjects did Leo Tolstoy study at the University of Kazan?
What was distinctive about the school Leo Tolstoy organized at Yasnaya Polyana?
When and where was Leo Tolstoy born?
When did Leo Tolstoy marry Sofya Andreyevna Bers?
When was Anna Karenina published?
When was War and Peace published?
Where did Leo Tolstoy spend much of his life and write many of his major works?
Which early work of Leo Tolstoy was based on his childhood memories?
Which historical events form the background of War and Peace?
Which journal published Leo Tolstoy’s first work, Childhood?
Which three Sevastopol sketches did Leo Tolstoy write about the Crimean War?
Which three families are connected in Anna Karenina?
Which traditional Christian beliefs did Leo Tolstoy reject?
Which two novels are Leo Tolstoy best known for?
Which war did Leo Tolstoy fight in as a young army officer?
Which writers and philosophers influenced Leo Tolstoy as a young man?
Why did Leo Tolstoy become a pacifist?
Why did Leo Tolstoy begin keeping a diary in 1847?
Why did Leo Tolstoy criticize governments and military service?
Why did Leo Tolstoy criticize his own earlier novels after his religious conversion?
Why did Leo Tolstoy leave the University of Kazan without a degree?
Why did Leo Tolstoy wear a medallion with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s portrait?
Why did critics say that Leo Tolstoy’s novels feel like pieces of life?
Why does Anna Karenina leave Aleksey Karenin and her son?
Why does Pierre Bezukhov join the Freemasons in War and Peace?
Why is The Death of Ivan Ilyich considered an important novella?
Why was Leo Tolstoy excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901?
Why was Leo Tolstoy’s story “Sevastopol in December” praised by the tsar?
Why is Leo Tolstoy significant?
What was Leo Tolstoy’s childhood like?
How did Leo Tolstoy die?
What is John Steinbeck known for?
What were John Steinbeck’s political views?
What are John Steinbeck’s most famous books?
What is James Baldwin known for?
Where did James Baldwin live?
Why is Sylvia Plath important?
When was Sylvia Plath married?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists L-Z

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External Websites

ABC listen - Saturday Extra - Leo Tolstoy
International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts - Leo Tolstoy's Novels : study of art, symbolism and imagery
Encyclopedia of Ukraine - Biography of Leo Tolstoy
The Guardian - Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett ï¿½ review
Humanities LibreTexts - Introduction- Leo Tolstoy and "The Death of Ivan Ilich"
BBC News - The secret to a happy life - courtesy of Tolstoy

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Leo Tolstoy - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Leo Tolstoy

Russian writer

Also known as: Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoi

Written by

Gary Saul Morson

Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities; Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Author of Anna Karenina in Our Time, Hidden...

Gary Saul Morson

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Leo Tolstoy (born August 28 [September 9, New Style], 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Tula province, Russian Empire—died November 7 [November 20], 1910, Astapovo, Ryazan province) was a Russian author, a master of realistic fiction, and one of the world’s greatest novelists. He is best known for his two longest works, War and Peace (1865–69) and Anna Karenina (1875–77), which are commonly regarded as among the finest novels ever written. War and Peace in particular virtually defines...

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