About the author
Leo Nikolayevitch Tolstoy
(September 9, 1828 – Novem-
ber 20, 1910) was a Russian
novelist, reformer, and moral
thinker, notable for his influence
on Russian literature and poli-
tics. As a count, Tolstoy was a
member of the Russian nobility.
Tolstoy was one of the giants
of 19th century Russian litera-
ture. His most famous works in-
clude the novels War and Peace
and Anna Karenina, and many
shorter works, including the no-
vella The Death of Ivan Ilyich
and "Ivan the Fool".
His autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth, his first
publications (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow
realization of the differences between him and his peasant playmates.
Although in later life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a
great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books still have relevance
for their telling of the universal story of growing up.
Tolstoy served as a second lieutenant in the Russian Army during
the Crimean War. His experiences in battle help develop his pacifism,
and gave him material for realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his
later work.
His fiction consistently attempts to convey realistically the Russian
society in which he lived. Cossacks (1863) describes the Cossack life
and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cos-
sack girl. Anna Karenina (1867) tells parallel stories of a woman trapped
by the conventions of society and of a philosophical landowner (much
like Tolstoy), who works alongside his serfs in the fields and seeks to
reform their lives.
Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace is another character whose life
reflects that of the author. War and Peace is famous for the breadth of
its canvas. Its title topics are only the beginning of its ambitious inclu-
siveness, but most of his works had strong stories, broad social descrip-
tion, and philosophical overtones. In The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1884),
Tolstoy faces his own fear of death.
Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of anarchist
thought. Prince Peter Kropotkin wrote of him in the article on Anar-
chism in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:
Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his prede-
cessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries, Chojecki, Denk and many others, took the anarchist
position as regards the state and property rights, deducing his conclu-
sions from the general spirit of the teachings of Jesus Christ and from
the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent he
made (especially in The Kingdom of God is Within You) a powerful
criticism of the church, the state and law altogether, and especially of
the present property laws. He describes the state as the domination of
the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far
less dangerous than a well-organized government. He makes a search-
ing criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the
benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing
distribution of property, and from the teachings of the Christ he de-
duces the rule of non-resistance and the absolute condemnation of all
wars. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with