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{{Short description|Russian writer
{{Redirect2|Tolstoy|Lev Tolstoy|other uses|Tolstoy (disambiguation)|and|Lev Tolstoy (disambiguation)}}
{{family name hatnote|Nikolayevich|Tolstoy|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
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| birth_place = [[Yasnaya Polyana]], [[Tula Governorate]], Russian Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1910|11|20|1828|09|09|df=y}}
| death_place =
| resting_place = Yasnaya Polyana
| occupation = {{cslist|Writer|religious thinker}}
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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 [[
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>
== Origins ==
{{main|Tolstoy family}}
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
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>
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Tolstoy's contemporaries paid him lofty tributes. [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], who died thirty years before Tolstoy, admired and was delighted by Tolstoy's novels (and, conversely, Tolstoy also admired Dostoyevsky's work).<ref name="Dosteoevsky">{{cite book | author = [[Lyubov Dostoevskaya|Aimée Dostoyevskaya]] | year = 1921 | title = Fyodor Dostoyevsky: A Study| location = Honolulu, Hawaii| publisher = University Press of the Pacific | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=n7fb7eH6nRUC&dq=dostoyevsky+admired+tolstoy&pg=PA218 p. 218] }}</ref> [[Gustave Flaubert]], on reading a translation of ''War and Peace'', exclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" [[Anton Chekhov]], who often visited Tolstoy at his country estate, wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." The 19th-century British poet and critic [[Matthew Arnold]] opined that "A novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life."<ref name="Britannica" /> [[Isaac Babel]] said that "if the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy."<ref name="Britannica" />
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 |
==Ethical, political and religious beliefs==
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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.
===Georgism===
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=== In films and television ===
''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]'' was adapted by [[Akira Kurosawa]] as ''[[Ikiru]]'' (1952).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Simone |first=R. Thomas |date=1975 |title=The Mythos of "The Sickness Unto Death" Kurosawa's "Ikiru" and Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43795380 |journal=Literature/Film Quarterly |volume=3 |pages=2-12 |access-date=April 27, 2024}}</ref> It was also the basis for ''[[Living (2022 film)| Living]]'' (2022), with a screenplay by [[Kazuo Ishiguro]].
In the ''[[George Lucas]]'
A 2009 film about Tolstoy's final year, ''[[The Last Station]]'', based on the 1990 novel by [[Jay Parini]], was made by director [[Michael Hoffman (American director)|Michael Hoffman]] with [[Christopher Plummer]] as Tolstoy and [[Helen Mirren]] as Sofya Tolstoya. Both performers were nominated for [[Academy Award|Oscars]] for their roles. There have been other films about the writer, including ''[[Departure of a Grand Old Man]]'', made in 1912 just two years after his death, ''How Fine, How Fresh the Roses Were'' (1913), and ''[[Lev Tolstoy (film)|Lev Tolstoy]]'', directed by and starring [[Sergei Gerasimov (film director)|Sergei Gerasimov]] in 1984.
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*[https://archive.org/details/@eddygra/lists/12/leo-tolstoy The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy (28 volumes published by Dana Estes & Company] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{Curlie|Arts/Literature/World_Literature/Russian/Authors/Tolstoy%2C_Leo/}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy}}
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[[Category:Children's writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Christian anarchists]]
[[Category:Christian
[[Category:Christianity and society|Vegetarianism]]
[[Category:Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Counts of the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Russia]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox writers]]
[[Category:Epistemologists]]
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[[Category:Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Georgists]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Letter writers from the Russian Empire]]
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[[Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Metaphysicians]]
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[[Category:Nonviolence advocates]]
[[Category:Novelists from the Russian Empire]]
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[[Category:Russian Christian pacifists]]
[[Category:Russian diarists]]
▲[[Category:Russian educators]]
[[Category:Russian Esperantists]]
[[Category:Russian historical novelists]]
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[[Category:Russian vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Schoolteachers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Social philosophers]]
[[Category:Tolstoy family|Leo]]
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