WORLD TOP WRITER LEO TOLSTOY -
THE GURU OF MAHATMA GANDHI
BORN 1828 SEPTEMBER 9
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1828 – 20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.
| Leo Tolstoy | |
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Tolstoy in May, 1908, four months before his 80th birthday (photographed at Yasnaya Polyana by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky; the first colour photograph taken in Russia)
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| Native name | Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й |
| Born | Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy September 9, 1828 Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire |
| Died | November 20, 1910 (aged 82) Astapovo, Russian Empire |
| Resting place | Yasnaya Polyana |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist |
| Language | Russian, French |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Period | 1852–1910 |
| Notable works | War and Peace Anna Karenina A Confession The Kingdom of God Is Within You Resurrection |
| Spouse | Sophia Tolstaya (m. 1862; his death 1910) |
| Children | 14 |
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Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels
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War and Peace (1869) and
Anna Karenina (1877), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.
He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War.
Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.
In the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist.
Tolstoy's ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi,
[2] Martin Luther King, Jr.,[3] and James Bevel.
Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia and 200 kilometers (120 mi) south of Moscow. The Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility, tracing their ancestry to a mythical Lithuanian noble Indris.
[4][5] He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya (Volkonskaya). Tolstoy's parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives.
In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. His teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn."[6] Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. It was about this time that he started writing.
His conversion from a dissolute and privileged society author to the non-violent and spiritual anarchist of his latter days was brought about by his experience in the army as well as two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61.
Others who followed the same path were
Alexander Herzen,
Mikhail Bakunin and
Peter Kropotkin.
During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere."
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| MAXIM GORKY AND TOLSTOY |
[7] Tolstoy's concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural. He later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice.[8]
His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugo's newly finished Les Misérables.
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| ANTAN SEGAV |
Tolstoy's political philosophy was also influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels. Apart from reviewing Proudhon's forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace in French), whose title Tolstoy would borrow for his masterpiece, the two men discussed education,
Fired by enthusiasm, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for children of Russia's peasants, who had just been emancipated from serfdom in 1861. Tolstoy described the school's principles in his 1862 essay
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| ANNA KAREENA - REAL LIFE |
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| Tolstoy's grave with flowers at Yasnaya Polyana |
Tolstoy died in 1910, at the age of 82. Just prior to his death, his health had been a concern of his family, who were actively engaged in his care on a daily basis. During his last few days, he had spoken and written about dying. Renouncing his aristocratic lifestyle, he had finally gathered the nerve to separate from his wife, and left home in the middle of winter, in the dead of night.
[11] His secretive departure was an apparent attempt to escape unannounced from Sophia's jealous tirades. She was outspokenly opposed to many of his teachings, and in recent years had grown envious of the attention which it seemed to her Tolstoy lavished upon his Tolstoyan "disciples".
Tolstoy died of pneumonia[12] at Astapovo train station, after a day's rail journey south.[13] The station master took Tolstoy to his apartment, and his personal doctors were called to the scene. He was given injections of morphine and camphor.
The police tried to limit access to his funeral procession, but thousands of peasants lined the streets. Still, some were heard to say that, other than knowing that "some nobleman had died", they knew little else about Tolstoy.[14]
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| NIKOLA TSLA |
According to some sources, Tolstoy spent the last hours of his life preaching love, nonviolence, and Georgism to his fellow passengers on the train.[15]
Personal life
On September 23, 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, who was 16 years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. She was called Sonya, the Russian diminutive of Sofia, by her family and friends.[16] They had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood:[17]
Tolstoy's wife Sophia and their daughter Alexandra
Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy (July 10, 1863 – December 23, 1947), composer and ethnomusicologist
Countess Tatyana Lvovna Tolstaya (October 4, 1864 – September 21, 1950), wife of Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin
Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy (May 22, 1866 – December 11, 1933), writer
Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy (June 1, 1869 – October 18, 1945), writer and sculptor
Countess Maria Lvovna Tolstaya (1871–1906), wife of Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky
Count Peter Lvovich Tolstoy (1872–1873), died in infancy
Count Nikolai Lvovich Tolstoy (1874–1875), died in infancy
Countess Varvara Lvovna Tolstaya (1875–1875), died in infancy
Count Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy (1877–1916), served in the Russo-Japanese War
Count Michael Lvovich Tolstoy (1879–1944)
Count Alexei Lvovich Tolstoy (1881–1886)
Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya (July 18, 1884 – September 26, 1979)
Count Ivan Lvovich Tolstoy (1888–1895)
The marriage was marked from the outset by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity when Tolstoy, on the eve of their marriage, gave her his diaries detailing his extensive sexual past and the fact that one of the serfs on his estate had borne him a son.[16] Even so, their early married life was happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, proofreader and financial manager.[16]
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| Sophia Tolstoy Penkrat, associate director, ... |
However, their later life together has been described by A. N. Wilson as one of the unhappiest in literary history.
Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.
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| Leo Tolstoy s descendants Tatiana left and Sergei right Stock Photo |
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| Films_Tolstoy Sofya Tolstoy (Helen Mirren) and Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer). Stephan Rabold photo, |
The Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union, and Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants today live in Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Among them are Swedish singer Viktoria Tolstoy and Swedish landowner Christopher Paus, Herresta.
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