Leo Tolstoy: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Russian writer and activist (1828–1910)}}

| death_place = Astapovo, [[Ryazan Governorate]], Russian Empire<br/>(now [[Lev Tolstoy (rural locality)|Lev TolstoyAstapovo]], [[LipetskRyazan OblastGovernorate]], [[Russia]])Russian Empire

[[Count]] '''Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy'''<ref group=note>Tolstoy pronounced his first name as {{IPA-ru|lʲɵf|}}, which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. ({{cite book |last=Nabokov |first=Vladimir |title= Lectures on Russian literature |page=216 }})</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|oʊ|l|s|t|ɔɪ|,_|ˈ|t|ɒ|l|-}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tolstoy "Tolstoy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060552/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tolstoy |date=4 March 2016 }}. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-ru|link=no|Лев Николаевич Толстой}},<ref group=note>In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as {{lang|ru-petr1708|Левъ Николаевичъ Толстой}} in [[Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution reform|pre-reform Russian orthography]].</ref> {{IPA-ru|ˈlʲef nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj|IPA|Ru-Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.ogg}}; {{OldStyleDate|9 September|1828|28 August}}{{snd}} {{OldStyleDate|20 November|1910|7 November}}),<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Leo Tolstoy |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-Tolstoy |access-date=4 September 2018 |archive-date=28 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928115028/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-Tolstoy |url-status=live }}</ref> usually referred to in English as '''Leo Tolstoy''', was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Burt |first=Daniel S. |url=https://archive.org/details/literary100ranki0000burt_v6e1/mode/2up |title=The Literary 100, Revised Edition: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time |publisher=Facts On File |year=2009 |pages=13–16 |language=en |author-link=Daniel Burt (author)}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Popova |first=Maria |date=2012-01-30 |title=The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/01/the-greatest-books-of-all-time-as-voted-by-125-famous-authors/252209/ |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=5 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505193840/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/01/the-greatest-books-of-all-time-as-voted-by-125-famous-authors/252209/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He received nominations for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1901, 1902, and 1909.

Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels ''[[War and Peace]]'' (1869) and ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (1878),<ref>{{cite magazine |url= https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/facing-death-with-tolstoy |title= Facing death with Tolstoy |magazine= [[The New Yorker]] |last= Beard |first= Mary |date= 5 November 2013 |access-date= 4 September 2018 |archive-date= 16 May 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230516135025/http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/facing-death-with-tolstoy |url-status= live }}</ref> often cited as pinnacles of [[Literary realism|realist]] fiction,<ref name="Britannica" /> and two of the greatest books of all time.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":7" /> He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''[[Childhood (Tolstoy novel)|Childhood]]'', ''[[Boyhood (novel)|Boyhood]]'', and ''[[Youth (Leo Tolstoy novel)|Youth]]'' (1852–1856), and ''[[Sevastopol Sketches]]'' (1855), based upon his experiences in the [[Crimean War]]. His fiction includes dozens of short stories such as "[[After the Ball (short story)|After the Ball]]" (1911), and several [[novella]]s such as ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]'' (1886), ''[[Family Happiness]]'' (1859) and ''[[Hadji Murat (novel)|Hadji Murad]]'' (1912). He also wrote [[play (theater)|plays]] and essays concerning philosophical, moral and religious themes.

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 ''[[Confession (Leo Tolstoy)|Confession]]'' (1882). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the [[Sermon on the Mount]], caused him to become a fervent [[Christian anarchism|Christian anarchist]] and [[anarchoAnarcho-pacifistpacifism|pacifist]].<ref name="Britannica" /> His ideas on [[nonviolent resistance]], expressed in such works as ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'' (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal [[20th century|20th-century]] figures as [[Mahatma Gandhi]],<ref name="ResistNotEvil">{{cite web |url=http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/opinion/Resist_Not.html |first=Martin E. |last=Hellman |title=Resist Not Evil |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=6 September 2023 |archive-date=20 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120182926/http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/opinion/Resist_Not.html |url-status=live }} Originally published in {{cite book |title=World Without Violence |editor-first=Arun |editor-last=Gandhi |editor-link=Arun Manilal Gandhi |publisher=M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence |year=1994}}</ref> [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{cite book | last1=King | first1=Martin Luther Jr. |first2=Clayborne | last2= Carson | title = The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. |volume=V: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959&nbsp;– December 1960 | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2005 | pages = 149, 269, 248 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TU_HozbJSC8C&pg=PA269 | isbn = 978-0-520-24239-5 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> and [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Monk |first=Ray |title=Ludwig Wittgenstein: the duty of genius |date=1991 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-015995-0 |location=New York |page=115 et passim}}</ref> He also became a dedicated advocate of [[Georgism]], the economic philosophy of [[Henry George]], which he incorporated into his writing, particularly in his novel ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'' (1899).

Tolstoy received praise from countless authors and critics, both during his lifetime and after. [[Virginia Woolf]] called Tolstoy "the greatest of all novelists",<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Tolstoy |first=Leo |date=2023 |title=First Recollections |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/154/article/901453 |journal=New England Review |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=180–182 |doi=10.1353/ner.2023.a901453 |issn=2161-9131}}</ref> whileand [[Gary Saul Morson]] referred to ''War and Peace'' as the greatest of all novels.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Morson |first=Gary Saul |date=2019 |title=The greatest of all novels |url=https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/3/the-greatest-of-all-novels |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=The New Criterion |language=en |archive-date=28 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228224433/https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/3/the-greatest-of-all-novels |url-status=live }}</ref> Tolstoy never having won a Nobel Prize during his lifetime was a major [[Nobel Prize controversies#1902–1910|Nobel Prize controversy]], and continues to remainremains one.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hedin |first=Naboth |date=1950-10-01 |title=Winning the Nobel Prize |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1950/10/winning-the-nobel-prize/305480/ |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=31 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031102310/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1950/10/winning-the-nobel-prize/305480/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lichtman |first=Marshall A. |date=2022-07-31 |title=Controversies in Selecting Nobel Laureates: An Historical Commentary |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9345763/ |journal=Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=e0022 |doi=10.5041/RMMJ.10479 |issn=2076-9172 |pmc=9345763 |pmid=35921488 }}</ref>

The [[Tolstoy family|Tolstoys]] were a well-known family of old [[Russian nobility]] who traced their ancestry to a mythical<ref name="Barlett 2011 14">{{cite book |last=Bartlett |first=Rosamund |year=2011 |title=[[Tolstoy: A Russian Life]] |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |page=14 |isbn=978-0547545875}}</ref> nobleman named Indris described by [[Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy|Pyotr Tolstoy]] as arriving "from Nemec, from the lands of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]" to [[Chernigov]] in 1353 along with his two sons Litvinos (or Litvonis) and Zimonten (or Zigmont) and a [[druzhina]] of 3000 people.<ref name='rummel'>''Vitold Rummel, Vladimir Golubtsov (1886)''. [http://www.runivers.ru/lib/book3148/10056/ Genealogical Collection of Russian Noble Families in 2 Volumes. Volume 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212084437/http://www.runivers.ru/lib/book3148/10056/ |date=12 December 2017 }} – The Tolstoys, Counts and Noblemen. Saint Petersburg: A.S. Suvorin Publishing House, p. 487</ref><ref name='bunin'>[[Ivan Bunin]], ''The Liberation of Tolstoy: A Tale of Two Writers'', p. 100</ref> While the word "Nemec" has been long used to describe Germans only, at that time it was applied to any foreigner who did not speak Russian (from the word ''nemoy'' meaning ''mute'').<ref>[http://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=19618 Nemoy/Немой] word meaning from the [[Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language|Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary]] (in Russian)</ref> Indris was then converted to [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]], under the name of Leonty, and his sons as Konstantin and Feodor. Konstantin's grandson Andrei Kharitonovich was nicknamed Tolstiy (translated as ''fat'') by [[Vasily II of Moscow]] after he moved from Chernigov to Moscow.<ref name='rummel' /><ref name='bunin' />

Because of the pagan names and the fact that Chernigov at the time was ruled by [[Demetrius I Starshy]], some researchers concluded that they were [[Lithuanians]] who arrived from the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].<ref name='rummel' /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7kDJ3s1mcZcC&q=tolstoy+lithuanian&pg=PA8|title=Tolstoy|isbn=978-0-8021-3768-5|last1=Troyat|first1=Henri|year=2001|publisher=Grove Press|access-date=23 October 2020|archive-date=22 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322204938/https://books.google.com/books?id=7kDJ3s1mcZcC&q=tolstoy+lithuanian&pg=PA8#v=snippet&q=tolstoy%20lithuanian&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/06/books/six-centuries-of-tolstoys.html|title=Six Centuries of Tolstoys|date=6 November 1983|newspaper=The New York Times|last1=Robinson|first1=Harlow|access-date=10 February 2017|archive-date=21 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170421203216/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/06/books/six-centuries-of-tolstoys.html|url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, no mention of Indris was ever found in the 14th-to-16th-century documents, while the [[Old Russian Chronicles|Chernigov Chronicles]] used by Pyotr Tolstoy as a reference were lost.<ref name='rummel' /> The first documented members of the Tolstoy family also lived during the 17th century, thus Pyotr Tolstoy himself is generally considered the founder of the noble house, being granted the title of [[count]] by [[Peter the Great]].<ref>[https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/162.html Tolstoy coat of arms] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212193058/https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/162.html |date=12 December 2017 }} by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 2, 30 June 1798 (in Russian)</ref><ref>[https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/ЭСБЕ/Толстые The Tolstoys] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106175830/https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%A1%D0%91%D0%95/%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8B%D0%B5 |date=6 January 2017 }} article from [[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]], 1890–1907 (in Russian)</ref>

Tolstoy was born at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], a family estate {{convert|12|km|mi}} southwest of [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], and {{convert|200|km|mi}} south of Moscow. He was the fourth of five children of [[Count]] Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794–1837), a veteran of the [[French invasion of Russia|Patriotic War of 1812]], and Princess Mariya Tolstaya (née [[Volkonsky|Volkonskaya]]; 1790–1830). His mother died when he was two and his father when he was nine.<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> Tolstoy and his siblings were brought up by relatives.<ref name="Britannica" /> In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at [[Kazan University]], where teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn".<ref name="AuthorDataSheet">{{cite web |url=http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ads.leotolstoy.pdf |title=Author Data Sheet, Macmillan Readers |publisher=Macmillan Publishers Limited |access-date=22 October 2010 |archive-date=7 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807174656/http://www.macmillanreaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ads.leotolstoy.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle.<ref name="Britannica" /> He began writing during this period,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> including his first novel ''[[Childhood (Tolstoy novel)|Childhood]]'', a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1852.<ref name="Britannica" /> In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the [[Caucasus (geographic region)|Caucasus]] and joined the [[Imperial Russian Army|army]]. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the [[Crimean War]] and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long [[Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55)|siege of Sevastopol]] in 1854–55,<ref name="BBCTen" /> including the [[Battle of the Chernaya]]. During the war he was recognised for his courage and promoted to lieutenant.<ref name="BBCTen">"[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3GL3DPct7D5GPQzB7GlrrBW/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-tolstoy Ten Things You Didn't Know About Tolstoy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519213807/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3GL3DPct7D5GPQzB7GlrrBW/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-tolstoy |date=19 May 2023 }}". BBC.</ref> He was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare,<ref name="AuthorDataSheet" /> and left the army after the end of the Crimean War.<ref name="Britannica" />

His experience in the army, and two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61 converted Tolstoy from a dissolute and privileged society author to a non-violent and spiritual [[Anarchism|anarchist]]. 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 marked the rest of his life. In a letter to his friend [[Vasily Botkin]], Tolstoy wrote: "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."<ref>A.N. Wilson, ''Tolstoy'' (1988), p. 146</ref> Tolstoy's concept of [[non-violence]] or [[ahimsa]] was bolstered when he read a [[Tirukkural translations into German|German version]] of the [[Tirukkural]].<ref name="PearlsOfInsp_Rajaram">{{cite book| last = Rajaram| first = M.| title = Thirukkural: Pearls of Inspiration| publisher = Rupa Publications| date = 2009| location = New Delhi | isbn = 978-81-291-1467-9| pages = xviii–xxi}}</ref><ref name="Walsh2018">{{cite book| last = Walsh| first = William| title = Secular Virtue: for surviving, thriving, and fulfillment | publisher = Will Walsh| date = 2018| location = | isbn = 978-06-920-5418-5| pages = }}</ref> He later instilled the concept in [[Mahatma Gandhi]] through his "''[[A Letter to a Hindu]]''" when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice.<ref name="Walsh2018"/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/| title = A Letter to A Hindu: The Subjection of India-Its Cause and Cure| last = Tolstoy| first = Leo| date = 14 December 1908| publisher = The Literature Network| access-date = 12 February 2012| quote = The Hindu Kural| archive-date = 10 November 2006| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061110204732/http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/| url-status = live}}</ref><ref name=gandhi>{{Citation| last = Parel| first = Anthony J.| author-link = Anthony Parel| contribution = Gandhi and Tolstoy|editor=M.P. Mathai |editor2=M.S. John |editor3=Siby K. Joseph| title = Meditations on Gandhi: a Ravindra Varma festschrift| pages = 96–112| publisher = Concept| place = New Delhi | year = 2002| contribution-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kcpDOVk5Gp8C&pg=PA96 |access-date=8 September 2012}}</ref>

Fired by enthusiasm, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for the children of Russia's peasants, who had just been [[Emancipation reform of 1861|emancipated from serfdom in 1861]]. Tolstoy described the schools' principles in his 1862 essay "The School at Yasnaya Polyana".<ref>{{cite book | last = Tolstoy | first = Lev N. | translator-first = Leo | translator-last = Wiener | title = The School at Yasnaya Polyana – The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy: Pedagogical Articles. Linen-Measurer, Volume IV | publisher = Dana Estes & Company | year = 1904 | page = 227 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4cQnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA227 | access-date = 25 October 2015 | archive-date = 22 March 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240322204904/https://books.google.com/books?id=4cQnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status = live }}</ref> His educational experiments were short-lived, partly due to harassment by the [[Russian Empire|Tsarist]] secret police. However, as a direct forerunner to [[A.S. Neill]]'s [[Summerhill School]], the school at Yasnaya Polyana<ref>{{cite book | last = Wilson | first = A.N. | title = Tolstoy | publisher = W.W. Norton | year = 2001 | page = xxi | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=imYmH8myBUsC&pg=PR19 | isbn = 978-0-393-32122-7 | access-date = 25 October 2015 | archive-date = 22 March 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240322204943/https://books.google.com/books?id=imYmH8myBUsC&pg=PR19#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status = live }}</ref> can justifiably be claimed the first example of a coherent theory of [[democratic education]].

The death of his brother Nikolay in 1860 had an impact on Tolstoy, and led him to a desire to marry.<ref name=AuthorDataSheet /> On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married [[Sophia Tolstaya|Sophia Andreevna Behrs]], who was sixteen years his junior and the daughter of a court physician. She was called Sonya, the Russian diminutive of Sofia, by her family and friends.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/19/books/the-wife-of-the-genius.html|first=Susan|last=Jacoby|title=The Wife of the Genius|date=19 April 1981|work= [[The New York Times]]|access-date=30 August 2022|archive-date=28 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100228001730/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/19/books/the-wife-of-the-genius.html|url-status=live}}</ref> They had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood:<ref>Feuer, Kathryn B. ''Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace'', Cornell University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-8014-1902-6}}</ref>

Some members of the Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], or after the establishment of the Soviet Union following the 1917 [[October Revolution]], and many of Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants today live in Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Tolstoy's son, Count [[Lev Lvovich Tolstoy]], settled in Sweden and married a Swedish woman, and their descendants with family names including Tolstoy, [[Paus family|Paus]] and Ceder still live in Sweden. The Paus branch of the family is also closely related to [[Henrik Ibsen]].<ref>[[Jørgen Haave]], ''Familien Ibsen'', Museumsforlaget, 2017, ISBN 9788283050455</ref> Leo Tolstoy's last surviving grandchild, Countess [[Tatiana Tolstoy-Paus]], died in 2007 at [[Herresta]] manor in Sweden, which is owned by Tolstoy's descendants.<ref>"Tanja Paus och Sonja Ceder till minne," ''[[Svenska Dagbladet]]'', 11 March 2007</ref> Swedish writer Daria Paus and jazz singer [[Viktoria Tolstoy]] isare also descended fromamong Leo Tolstoy's Swedish descendants.<ref>NikolaiNikolaj Pavlovič Puzin, ''The Lev Tolstoy House-Museum In Yasnaya Polyana'' (with a list of Leo Tolstoy's descendants), 1998</ref>

One of his great-great-grandsons, Vladimir Tolstoy (born 1962), has been a director of the [[Yasnaya Polyana]] museum since 1994 and an adviser to the [[President of Russia]] on cultural affairs since 2012.<ref>[http://ypmuseum.ru/en/2011-04-13-17-30-44/mhistory/65-2011-08-19-09-30-03.html Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223225741/http://ypmuseum.ru/en/2011-04-13-17-30-44/mhistory/65-2011-08-19-09-30-03.html |date=23 February 2019 }} at the official [[Yasnaya Polyana]] website</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.kremlin.ru/catalog/persons/311/biography|title=Persons ∙ Directory ∙ President of Russia|website=President of Russia|access-date=27 February 2018|archive-date=11 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611164029/http://en.kremlin.ru/catalog/persons/311/biography|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ilya Tolstoy]]'s great-grandson, [[Pyotr Olegovich Tolstoy|Pyotr Tolstoy]], is a well-known Russian journalist and TV presenter as well as a [[7th State Duma|State Duma]] deputy since 2016. His cousin [[Fyokla Tolstaya]] (born Anna Tolstaya in 1971), daughter of the acclaimed Soviet [[Slavist]] Nikita Tolstoy ([[:ru:Толстой, Никита Ильич|ru]]) (1923–1996), is also a Russian journalist, TV and radio host.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/45825/|title=Толстые / Телеканал "Россия – Культура"|website=tvkultura.ru|access-date=27 February 2018|archive-date=9 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809072325/http://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/45825/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Tolstoy also tried writing poetry, with several soldier songs written during his military service, and fairy tales in verse such as ''Volga-bogatyr'' and ''Oaf'' stylized as national folk songs. They were written between 1871 and 1874 for his ''Russian Book for Reading'', a collection of short stories in four volumes (total of 629 stories in various genres) published along with the ''New Azbuka'' textbook and addressed to schoolchildren. Nevertheless, he was skeptical about poetry as a genre. As he famously said, "Writing poetry is like ploughing and dancing at the same time." According to [[Valentin Bulgakov]], he criticised poets, including [[Alexander Pushkin]], for their "false" epithets used "simply to make it rhyme."<ref>''Leo Tolstoy (1874)''. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xr0kDAAAQBAJ Russian Book for Reading in 4 Volumes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205108/https://books.google.com/books?id=xr0kDAAAQBAJ |date=22 March 2024 }}. Moscow: Aegitas, 381 pages.</ref><ref>''[[Valentin Bulgakov]]'' (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=v9InDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA3-PA28 ''Diary of Leo Tolstoy's Secretary''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322204910/https://books.google.com/books?id=v9InDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA3-PA28 |date=22 March 2024 }}. Moscow: Zakharov, 352 pages, p. 29. {{ISBN|978-5-8159-1435-3}}.</ref>

Later novelists continued to appreciate Tolstoy's art, but sometimes also expressed criticism. [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] wrote, "I am attracted by his earnestness and by his power of detail, but I am repelled by his looseness of construction and by his unreasonable and impracticable mysticism."<ref name="ACD">{{cite magazine|last1=Doyle|first1=Arthur Conan|title=My Favourite Novelist and His Best Book|date= January 1898|magazine=[[Munsey's Magazine]]|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1306981h.html|access-date=6 October 2017|archive-date=6 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006212159/http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1306981h.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Virginia Woolf]] declared him "the greatest of all novelists."<ref name="Britannica" /> [[James Joyce]] noted that, "He is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical!" [[Thomas Mann]] wrote of Tolstoy's seemingly guileless artistry: "Seldom did art work so much like nature." [[Vladimir Nabokov]] heaped superlatives upon ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]]''; he questioned, however, the reputation of ''[[War and Peace]]'', and sharply criticized ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'' and ''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]]''. However, Nabokov called Tolstoy the "greatest Russian writer of prose fiction".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Frank |first=Joseph |date=1981-11-15 |title=Vladimir Nabokov Reads the Russian Masters |language=en-US |worknewspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1981/11/15/vladimir-nabokov-reads-the-russian-masters/7f30bba2-b61f-40a4-892d-0ad82ee34e2e/ |access-date=2023-12-28 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221210223056/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1981/11/15/vladimir-nabokov-reads-the-russian-masters/7f30bba2-b61f-40a4-892d-0ad82ee34e2e/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Critic [[Harold Bloom]] called ''[[Hadji Murat (novella)|Hadji Murat]]'' "my personal touchstone for the sublime in prose fiction, to me the best story in the world."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloom |first=Harold |title=[[The Western Canon]] |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace]] |year=1994 |location=New York}}</ref> When [[William Faulkner]] was asked to list what he thought were the three greatest novels, he replied: "''Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina'', and ''Anna Karenina''".<ref name=":5" /> Critic [[Gary Saul Morson]] referred to ''War and Peace'' as the greatest of all novels.<ref name=":6" />

[[File:L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg|thumb|Tolstoy on 23 May 1908 at [[Yasnaya Polyana]],<ref>[http://www.tolstoy-studies-journal.com/tolstoy-in-color "Tolstoy in Color"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628044119/http://www.tolstoy-studies-journal.com/tolstoy-in-color |date=28 June 2018 }}, ''Tolstoy Studies Journal,'' a publication of the Tolstoy Society of North America, n.d. Retrieved 27 June 2018.</ref> [[Lithograph]] print by [[Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky]]]]

Tolstoy believed that the aristocracy was a burden on the poor.<ref>{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ie2vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102|title = Russian Writers and Society in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century|isbn = 978-1349044184|last1 = Andrew|first1 = Joe|date = 18 June 1982| publisher = Springer|access-date = 23 January 2022|archive-date = 22 March 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205412/https://books.google.com/books?id=ie2vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status = live}}</ref> He opposed [[private property|private]] land ownership and the institution of marriage, and valued chastity and sexual abstinence (discussed in ''[[Father Sergius]]'' and his preface to ''The Kreutzer Sonata''), ideals also held by the young Gandhi. Tolstoy's passion from the depth of his austere moral views is reflected in his later work.<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Sommers |author-first=Aaron |url=http://coastlinejournal.com/2009/09/08/why-leo-tolstoy-wouldn%E2%80%99t-super-size-it/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123060912/http://coastlinejournal.com/2009/09/08/why-leo-tolstoy-wouldn%E2%80%99t-super-size-it/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 November 2017 |title=Why Leo Tolstoy Wouldn't Supersize It |publisher=Coastlinejournal.com |date=8 September 2009 |access-date=16 May 2010}}</ref> One example is the sequence of the temptation of Sergius in ''Father Sergius''. [[Maxim Gorky]] relates how Tolstoy once read this passage before him and Chekhov, and Tolstoy was moved to tears by the end of the reading. Later passages of rare power include the personal crises faced by the protagonists of ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'', and of ''[[Master and Man (short story)|Master and Man]]'', where the main character in the former and the reader in the latter are made aware of the foolishness of the protagonists' lives.

In 1886, Tolstoy wrote to the Russian [[List of Russian explorers|explorer]] and anthropologist [[Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay]], who was one of the first anthropologists to refute [[polygenism]], the view that the different [[Race (human categorization)|races of mankind]] belonged to different species: "You were the first to demonstrate beyond question by your experience that man is man everywhere, that is, a kind, sociable being with whom communication can and should be established through kindness and truth, not guns and spirits."<ref>{{cite news |title=Nicholas Maclay: Russian Polymath |url=https://www.harbourtrust.gov.au/en/our-story/harbour-history/digitales/nicholas-maclay/ |work=Harbourtrust.gov.au |date=29 September 2020 |access-date=10 August 2022 |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628025609/https://www.harbourtrust.gov.au/en/our-story/harbour-history/digitales/nicholas-maclay/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1908, Tolstoy wrote ''[[A Letter to a Hindu]]''<ref>{{citation|author-last=Parel |author-first=Anthony J. |author-link=Anthony Parel |contribution=Gandhi and Tolstoy |editor-first1=M. P. |editor-last1=Mathai |editor-first2=M.S. |editor-last2=John |editor-first3=Siby K. |editor-last3=Joseph |title=Meditations on Gandhi: a Ravindra Varma festschrift |pages=96–112 |publisher=Concept |place=New Delhi |year=2002 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kcpDOVk5Gp8C&pg=PA96}}</ref> outlining his belief in non-violence as a means for India to gain [[Indian independence movement|independence]] from [[British Raj|colonial rule]]. In 1909, Gandhi read a copy of the letter when he was becoming an activist in South Africa. He wrote to Tolstoy seeking proof that he was the author, which led to further correspondence.<ref name="PearlsOfInsp_Rajaram" /> Tolstoy's ''The Kingdom of God Is Within You'' also helped to convince Gandhi of [[nonviolent resistance]], a debt Gandhi acknowledged in his autobiography, calling Tolstoy "the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced". Their correspondence lasted only a year, from October 1909 until Tolstoy's death in November 1910, but led Gandhi to give the name Tolstoy Colony to his second [[ashram]] in South Africa.<ref>{{cite book|title=Tolstoy and Gandhi, men of peace: a biography |author-first=M.B. |author-last=Green |date=1983 |publisher=Basic Books}}</ref> Both men also believed in the merits of [[vegetarianism]], the subject of several of Tolstoy's essays.<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Tolstoy |author-first=Leo |title=The First Step |year=1892 |access-date=21 May 2016 |url=http://www.ivu.org/history/tolstoy/the_%20first_step.html |quote= ... if [a man] be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ... its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling – killing |archive-date=28 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828031414/https://ivu.org/history/tolstoy/the_%20first_step.html |url-status=live }}. Preface to the Russian translation of [[Howard Williams (humanitarian)|Howard William's]] [http://www.ivu.org/history/williams/index.html ''The Ethics of Diet''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124121214/http://ivu.org/history/williams/index.html |date=24 November 2010 }}</ref>

The [[Boxer Rebellion]] stirred Tolstoy's interest in Chinese philosophy.<ref name="Bodde1967">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=STFaAAAAYAAJ&q=Boxer |title=Tolstoy and China |author-first=Derk |author-last=Bodde |publisher=Johnson Reprint Corporation |year=1967 |pages=25, 44, 107 |isbn=9780384048959 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205558/https://books.google.com/books?id=STFaAAAAYAAJ&q=Boxer |url-status=live }}</ref> He was a famous [[sinophile]], and read the works of [[Confucius]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3YPAaFfUp9oC&q=lev+tolstoy+sinophile&pg=PA314 |title=The Bear Watches the Dragon |author-last1=Lukin |author-first1=Alexander |year=2003 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0-7656-1026-3 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205605/https://books.google.com/books?id=3YPAaFfUp9oC&q=lev+tolstoy+sinophile&pg=PA314#v=snippet&q=lev%20tolstoy%20sinophile&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nU2lErM3VgwC&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion&pg=PA37 |title=The Cambridge companion to Tolstoy |author-first=Donna |author-last=Tussing Orwin |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-521-52000-3 |page=37 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205414/https://books.google.com/books?id=nU2lErM3VgwC&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion&pg=PA37 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UipgAAAAMAAJ&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion+confucianism |title=Tolstoy and China |author-first=Derk |author-last=Bodde |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1950 |page=25 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205415/https://books.google.com/books?id=UipgAAAAMAAJ&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion+confucianism |url-status=live }} (Original from the University of Michigan)</ref> and Lao Zi. Tolstoy wrote ''Chinese Wisdom'' and other texts about China. Tolstoy corresponded with the Chinese intellectual [[Gu Hongming]] and recommended that China remain an agrarian nation, and not reform like Japan. Tolstoy and Gu opposed the [[Hundred Day's Reform]] by [[Kang Youwei]] and believed that the reform movement was perilous.<ref name="Lee2005">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1jlOQc8BumIC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA10 |title=Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese |author-first=Khoon Choy |author-last=Lee |publisher=World Scientific |year=2005 |isbn=978-981-256-618-8 |pages=10– |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205458/https://books.google.com/books?id=1jlOQc8BumIC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA10#v=snippet&q=Tolstoy%20boxers&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Tolstoy's ideology of non-violence shaped the thought of the Chinese anarchist group Society for the Study of Socialism.<ref name="Campbell2009">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWHrWq2Kd-UC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA194 |title=The Britannica Guide to Political and Social Movements That Changed the Modern World |author-first=Heather M. |author-last=Campbell |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-61530-016-7 |pages=194– |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205416/https://books.google.com/books?id=gWHrWq2Kd-UC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA194#v=snippet&q=Tolstoy%20boxers&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tolstoy praised the Boxer Rebellion and harshly criticized the atrocities of the Russian, German, American, Japanese, and other troops of the Eight-Nation alliance. He heard about the looting, rapes, and murders, and accused the troops of slaughter and "Christian brutality." He named the monarchs most responsible for the atrocities as [[Nicholas II of Russia|Tsar Nicholas II]] and [[Wilhelm II of Germany|Kaiser Wilhelm II]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1_iAAAAMAAJ&q=he+praised+the+Chinese+for+their+heroic+patience.+When+he+learned+about+the+%22orgy+of+murder,+raping,+and+looting%22+committed+by+the+Western+powers+in+quelling+the+Boxer+rebellion,+he+raged+against+the+brutality+of+the+Christians |title=The Russian review |volume=19 |author-first=William Henry |author-last=Chamberlin |editor-first1=Michael |editor-last1=Karpovich |author-first2=Dimitri Sergius |author-last2=Von Mohrenschildt |year=1960 |publisher=Blackwell |page=115}} (Original from the University of Michigan)</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MFtDxmZVB7gC&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion&pg=PA3 |title=An age of progress?: clashing twentieth-century global forces |author-first=Walter G. |author-last=Moss |year=2008 |publisher=Anthem Press |page=3 |isbn=978-1-84331-301-4 |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322210106/https://books.google.com/books?id=MFtDxmZVB7gC&q=tolstoy+boxer+rebellion&pg=PA3 |url-status=live }}</ref> He described the intervention as "terrible for its injustice and cruelty".<ref name="CohenStachel1974">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OvK9orJNezwC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA606 |title=For Dirk Struik: Scientific, Historical and Political Essays in Honour of Dirk J. Struik |author-first1=Robert S. |author-last1=Cohen |author-first2=J.J. |author-last2=Stachel |author-first3=Marx W. |author-last3=Wartofsky |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=1974 |isbn=978-90-277-0393-4 |pages=606– |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322210218/https://books.google.com/books?id=OvK9orJNezwC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA606#v=snippet&q=Tolstoy%20boxers&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The war was also criticized by other intellectuals such as [[Leonid Andreyev]] and Gorky. As part of the criticism, Tolstoy wrote an epistle called ''To the Chinese people''.<ref name="Gamsa2008">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffkU0KocpEYC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA14 |title=The Chinese Translation of Russian Literature: Three Studies |author-first=Mark |author-last=Gamsa |publisher=Brill |year=2008 |isbn=978-90-04-16844-2 |pages=14– |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322205942/https://books.google.com/books?id=ffkU0KocpEYC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA14#v=snippet&q=Tolstoy%20boxers&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1902, he wrote an open letter describing and denouncing Nicholas II's activities in China.<ref name="FlathSmith2011">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K71PjjQAy6EC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA125 |title=Beyond Suffering: Recounting War in Modern China |author-first1=James |author-last1=Flath |author-first2=Norman |author-last2=Smith |publisher=UBC Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7748-1957-2 |pages=125– |access-date=23 October 2020 |archive-date=22 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322210149/https://books.google.com/books?id=K71PjjQAy6EC&q=Tolstoy+boxers&pg=PA125#v=snippet&q=Tolstoy%20boxers&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tolstoy also became a major supporter of the [[Esperanto]] movement. He was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the [[Doukhobors]] and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community, after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895.<ref>Bartolf, Christian / Dominique Miething: "Flame of Truth": the global significance of Doukhobor Pacifism. ''Russian Journal of Church History''. 2023;4(4):6-27. https://doi.org/10.15829/2686-973X-2023-142</ref> He aided the Doukhobors to migrate to Canada.<ref>{{cite magazine|author-last=Mays |author-first=H.G. |title=Resurrection: Tolstoy and Canada's Doukhobors |magazine=The Beaver |issue=79 |date=October–November 1999 |pages=38–44}}</ref> He also provided inspiration to the [[Mennonites]], another religious group with anti-government and anti-war sentiments.<ref>{{cite web |title=Some of the Resources of Canada |url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=414 |author-first=Peter |author-last=Kropotkin |author-link=Peter Kropotkin |publisher=The Nineteenth Century |website=revoltlib.com |date=March 1898 |pages=494–514 |access-date=3 November 2019 |archive-date=3 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103012618/http://www.revoltlib.com/%3Fid%3D414 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Leo Tolstoy and the Mennonites | url=https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/532 |author-first=Levi |author-last=Miller |publisher=Journal of Mennonite Studies |website=jms.uwinnipeg.ca |date=1 January 1998 |access-date=3 November 2019 |archive-date=3 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103014305/https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/532 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1904, Tolstoy condemned the ensuing [[Russo-Japanese War]] and wrote to the Japanese Buddhist priest [[Soyen Shaku]] in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement.

Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy become occupied with the economic theory and social philosophy of [[Georgism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Tolstoy: Principles For A New World Order |author-first=David |author-last=Redfearn}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wealthandwant.com/auth/Tolstoy.htm|title=Tolstoy|website=www.wealthandwant.com|access-date=30 May 2015|archive-date=23 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123002754/http://www.wealthandwant.com/auth/Tolstoy.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prosper.org.au/about/geoists-in-history/leo-tolstoy/ |title=Leo Tolstoy |work=Prosper Australia |access-date=30 May 2015 |archive-date=31 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531032049/https://www.prosper.org.au/about/geoists-in-history/leo-tolstoy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He incorporated it approvingly into works such as ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'' (1899), the book that was a major cause for his excommunication.<ref name="Wenzer 1997 pp. 639–667">{{cite journal|author-last=Wenzer |author-first=Kenneth C. |title=Tolstoy's Georgist Spiritual Political Economy (1897–1910): Anarchism and Land Reform |journal=[[The American Journal of Economics and Sociology]] |volume=56 |issue=4 |date=October 1997 |pages=639–667 |doi=10.1111/j.1536-7150.1997.tb02664.x |jstor=3487337 |oclc=5550194757}}</ref> He spoke with great admiration of [[Henry George]], stating once that "People do not argue with the teaching of George; they simply do not know it. And it is impossible to do otherwise with his teaching, for he who becomes acquainted with it cannot but agree."<ref>"A Great Iniquity," letter to the London ''[[The Times|Times]]'' (1905)</ref> He also wrote a preface to George's journal ''[[Social Problems]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/tolstoy-leo_preface-to-henry-george-social-problems-1883.html |title=Preface to the book ''Social Problems by Henry George'' |author-first=Leo |author-last=Tolstoy |access-date=30 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115174640/http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/tolstoy-leo_preface-to-henry-george-social-problems-1883.html |archive-date=15 January 2013 }}</ref> Tolstoy and George both rejected private property in land (the most important source of income for Russian aristocracy that Tolstoy heavily criticized). They also rejected a centrally planned [[socialist]] economy. Because Georgism requires an administration to collect [[economic rent|land rent]] and spend it on infrastructure, some assume that this embrace moved Tolstoy away from his [[anarchist]] views. However, anarchist versions of Georgism have been proposed since then.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anti-state.com/geo/foldvary1.html |title=Geoanarchism |author-link=Fred E. Foldvary |author-first=Fred E. |author-last=Foldvary |access-date=15 April 2009 |date=15 July 2001 |publisher=anti-state.com |archive-date=18 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018190159/http://www.anti-state.com/geo/foldvary1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Tolstoy's 1899 novel ''Resurrection'' explores his thoughts on Georgism and hints that Tolstoy had such a view. It suggests small communities with local governance to manage the collective land rents for common goods, while still heavily criticising [[Sovereign state|state]] institutions such as the [[justice system]].

Tolstoy died of [[pneumonia]]<ref>''Leo Tolstoy''. EJ Simmons – 1946 – Little, Brown and Company</ref> at [[Lev Tolstoy (rural locality)|Astapovo]] railway station, after a day's train journey south.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n14/james-meek/some-wild-creature|title=James Meek reviews 'The Death of Tolstoy' by William Nickell, 'The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy' translated by Cathy Porter, 'A Confession' by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Anthony Briggs and 'Anniversary Essays on Tolstoy' by Donna Tussing Orwin · LRB 22 July 2010|pages=3–8|newspaper=London Review of Books|date=22 July 2010|last1=Meek|first1=James|access-date=11 April 2013|archive-date=28 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328032450/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n14/james-meek/some-wild-creature|url-status=live}}</ref> The station master took Tolstoy to his apartment, and his personal doctors arrived and gave him injections of [[morphine]] and [[camphor]].

Although Leo Tolstoy was regarded as a [[Christian anarchism|Christian anarchist]] and not a socialist, his ideas and works still influenced socialist thinkers throughout history. He held an unromantic view of governments as being essentially violent forces held together by intimidation from state authority, corruption on behalf of officials, and the indoctrination of people from a young age.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Higgs|first=Robert|date=2015|title=Tolstoy's Manifesto on the State, Christian Anarchy, and Pacifism|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24564569|journal=The Independent Review|volume=19|issue=3|pages=471–479|jstor=24564569|issn=1086-1653|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=15 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815171933/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24564569|url-status=live}}</ref> In regard to his view of economics, he advocated for a return to [[subsistence agriculture]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=McLean|first=Hugh|title=In Quest of Tolstoy |chapter=A Clash of Utopias|date=2008|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1zxsjx2.15|pages=181–194|publisher=Academic Studies Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt1zxsjx2.15|jstor=j.ctt1zxsjx2.15|isbn=978-1-934843-02-4|access-date=2020-11-24|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420044300/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1zxsjx2.15|url-status=live}}</ref> In his view, a simplified economy would afford a lesser need for the exchange of goods, and as such, factories and cities – the centers of industry – would become obsolete.<ref name=":0" />

In 1944, literary historian and Soviet medievalist Nikolai Gudzii wrote a biography of Tolstoy that spanned 80 pages. It was designed to show readers that Tolstoy would have revised his pacifistic and anti-patriotic sentiments if he were alive amid World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Emerson|first=Caryl|title=Remarkable Tolstoy, from the Age of Empire to the Putin Era (1894–2006)|date=2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26633177|journal=The Slavic and East European Journal|volume=60|issue=2|pages=252–271|doi=10.30851/60.2.007|jstor=26633177|issn=0037-6752|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420044301/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26633177|url-status=live}}</ref> At around the same time, literary scholar and historian [[Boris Eikhenbaum]] – in a stark contrast from his earlier works on Tolstoy – portrayed the Russian novelist as someone whose ideas aligned with those of early utopian socialists such as [[Robert Owen]] and [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Henri Saint-Simon]]. Eikenbaum suggested that these influences can be seen in Tolstoy's emphases on individual happiness and peasant welfare.<ref name=":4" /> The discrepancies in Eikenbaum's portrayals of Tolstoy can be attributed to the political pressure in Soviet Russia at the time: public officials pressured literary scholars to conform with party doctrine.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Any|first=Carol|date=1990|title=Boris Eikhenbaum's Unfinished Work on Tolstoy: A Dialogue with Soviet History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/462559|journal=PMLA|volume=105|issue=2|pages=233–244|doi=10.2307/462559|jstor=462559|s2cid=163911913 |issn=0030-8129|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420044300/https://www.jstor.org/stable/462559|url-status=live}}</ref>

From Tolstoy's writings the [[Tolstoyan movement]] was birthed, and its members used his works to promote non-violence, anti-urbanism and opposition to the state.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Croskey|first=Robert M.|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015080856431|title=The legacy of Tolstoy :Alexandra Tolstoy and the Soviet regime in the 1920s /|series=Donald W. Treadgold studies on Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia|date=c. 2008|publisher=Seattle|hdl=2027/mdp.39015080856431|isbn=978-0295988771|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=22 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322210046/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080856431|url-status=live}}</ref> While Tolstoy himself never associated with the movement, as he was opposed to joining any organization or group, he named his thirteenth child [[Alexandra Tolstaya|Alexandra (Sasha) L'vovna Tolstaya]] the heir to his works with the intention that she would publish them for the Russian people.<ref name=":1" /> Meanwhile, Tolstoy designated [[Vladimir Chertkov]] – who kept many of Tolstoy's manuscripts – as the editor of his works. Originally Tolstoy wanted to make the Russian people the heirs to his writings, but Russian law at the time decreed that property could only be inherited by one individual.<ref name=":1" />

[[Vladimir Lenin]] wrote several essays about Tolstoy, suggesting that a contradiction exists within his critique of Russian society. According to Lenin, Tolstoy – who adored the peasantry and voiced their discontent with imperial Russian society – may have been revolutionary in his critiques, but his political consciousness was not fully developed for a revolution.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Boer|first=Roland|date=2014|title=Lenin on Tolstoy: Between Imaginary Resolution and Revolutionary Christian Communism|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583606|journal=Science & Society|volume=78|issue=1|pages=41–60|doi=10.1521/siso.2014.78.1.41|jstor=24583606|issn=0036-8237|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420044303/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583606|url-status=live}}</ref> Lenin uses this line of thinking to suggest that the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], which he called a "peasant bourgeois revolution," failed because of its backwardness: the revolutionaries wanted to dismantle the existing medieval forms of oppression and replace them with an old and patriarchal village-commune.<ref name=":2" /> Tolstoy's concept of non-resistance to evil additionally hindered the 1905 revolution's success, Lenin thought, because the movement was not militant and had thus allowed the autocracy to crush them.<ref name=":2" /> Nevertheless, Lenin concludes in his writings that despite the many contradictions in Tolstoy's critiques, his hatred for feudalism and capitalism mark the prelude to proletarian socialism.<ref name=":2" />

Additionally, Tolstoy's philosophy of non-resistance to evil made an impact on [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi's]] political thinking. Gandhi was deeply moved by Tolstoy's concept of truth, which, in his view, constitutes any doctrine that reduces suffering.<ref name=":3" /> For both Gandhi and Tolstoy, truth is God, and since God is universal love, truth must therefore also be universal love. The Gujarati word for Gandhi's non-violent movement is "satyagraha", derived from the word "sadagraha" – the "sat" portion translating to "truth", and the "agraha" translating to "firmness".<ref name=":3" /> Gandhi's conception of satyagraha was birthed from Tolstoy's understanding of Christianity, rather than from Hindu tradition.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last1=Gray|first1=Stuart|last2=Hughes|first2=Thomas M.|title=Gandhi's Devotional Political Thought|date=2015|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43830813|journal=Philosophy East and West|volume=65|issue=2|pages=375–400|doi=10.1353/pew.2015.0051|jstor=43830813|s2cid=142595907|issn=0031-8221|access-date=20 April 2021|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420044302/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43830813|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the ''[[George Lucas]]'s' television show, ''[[The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles|]]'', later retitled ''The Adventures of Young Indiana'' Jones]], a fictional Tolstoy appears as a mentor figure and friend of [[Indiana Jones (character)|Indiana Jones]]. inIn the made for TV movie, from 1996, ''Travels with Father.'' (1996), Hehe is portrayed by [[Michael Gough]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father (1996) |url=https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/the-adventures-of-young-indiana-jones-travels-with-father-1996 |access-date=2023-08-28 |website=The A.V. Club |language=en |archive-date=28 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828223043/https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/the-adventures-of-young-indiana-jones-travels-with-father-1996 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Category:Christian vegetarianismvegetarians]]

[[Category:Non19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian Empire]]