Where did Leo Tolstoy spend much of his life and write many of his major works?

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Portrait of Leo Tolstoy with a long white beard, wearing a dark shirt and looking slightly to the side. — Leo Tolstoy Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest novelists. His masterpieces are *War and Peace* (1865–69) and *Anna Karenina* (1875–77).

Leo Tolstoy spent the better part of his life and wrote many of his most important works at Yasnaya Polyana, his family estate located about 100 miles (160 km) south of Moscow in the Tula region of Russia.12

Born at the estate in 1828, Tolstoy returned there after his marriage in 1862 and lived there for another 48 years. It was at Yasnaya Polyana that he reached the height of his creative powers, writing his great novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. The estate also served as a site for his pedagogical experiments, where he organized a school for peasant children. Following his death in 1910, he was buried on the grounds of the estate.134