View source for Leo Tolstoy

{{Short description|Russian writer (1828–1910)}}
{{Redirect2|Tolstoy|Lev Tolstoy|other uses|Tolstoy (disambiguation)|and|Lev Tolstoy (disambiguation)}}
{{Pp-semi-indef}}
{{Pp-move}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Leo Tolstoy
| native_name      = Лев Толстой
| native_name_lang = ru
| image            = L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg
| alt              = Man with long white, whispy beard wearing a blue button-down shirt
| caption          = Tolstoy in 1908
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1828|09|09|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Yasnaya Polyana]], Russia
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1910|11|20|1828|09|09|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Lev Tolstoy (rural locality)|Astapovo]], Russia
| occupation       = {{cslist|Writer|religious thinker}}
| education        = [[Kazan Federal University|Imperial Kazan University]] (dropped out)
| period           = Modern
| movement         = [[Literary realism|Realism]]
| years_active     = 1847–1910
| genres           = {{plainlist|
*[[Novel]]
*[[novella]]
*[[short story]]
*[[Sketch story|sketch]]
*[[Play (theater)|play]]
*[[children's literature]]
*song
*[[polemic]]
*[[essay]]
*[[treatise]]
*[[epistle]]
*[[Literary criticism|literary]] and [[art criticism]]
*[[textbook]]
*[[autobiography]]
*[[diary]]
*translation
*correspondence}}
| subjects         = {{cslist|[[Christian anarchism]]|[[pacifism]]}}
| notableworks     = [[Leo Tolstoy bibliography|List]]
| awards           = [[Griboyedov Prize]] (1892)
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Sophia Tolstaya|Sophia Behrs]]|23 September 1862}}
| children         = 14
| signature        = Leo Tolstoy signature.svg
| module           = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename= Tolstoy Vremya prishlo.ogg |title= Leo Tolstoy's voice |type= speech |description= recorded 1908}}
}}

[[Count]] '''Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy'''<ref group=note>{{family name explanation|Nikolayevich|Tolstoy|lang=Eastern Slavic}} 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>{{multiref | {{Dictionary.com|Tolstoy}} |  {{Cite Collins|Tolstoy}} }}</ref> {{langx|ru|link=no|Лев Николаевич Толстой}},<ref group=note>Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as {{lang|ru-petr1708|Левъ Николаевичъ Толстой}} using [[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>

Born to an aristocratic family, Tolstoy achieved  acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''[[Childhood (Tolstoy novel)|Childhood]]'', ''[[Boyhood (novel)|Boyhood]]'' and ''[[Youth (Tolstoy novel)|Youth]]'' (1852–1856), and with ''[[Sevastopol Sketches]]'' (1855), based on his experiences in the [[Crimean War]]. His ''[[War and Peace]]'' (1869), ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (1878), and ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'' (1899), which is based on his youthful sins,<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> are often cited as pinnacles of [[Literary realism|realist]] fiction<ref name="Britannica" /> and three of the greatest novels ever written.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":7" /> His ''oeuvre'' includes short stories such as "[[Alyosha the Pot]]" (1911) and "[[After the Ball (short story)|After the Ball]]" (1911) and [[novella]]s such as ''[[Family Happiness]]'' (1859), ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]'' (1886), ''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]]'' (1889), ''[[The Devil (novella)|The Devil]]'' (1911),  and ''[[Hadji Murat (novella)|Hadji Murat]]'' (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 anarchist]] and [[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 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> [[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> [[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 [[James Bevel]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Rv-8E76FZWkC&dq=%22James+Bevel%22+Tolstoy+%22The+Children%22+Halberstam&pg=PT806 ''The Children'', 1999, David Halberstam]</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|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and [[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> 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. Tolstoy never being awarded a Nobel Prize remains a major [[Nobel Prize controversies#1902–1910|Nobel Prize controversy]].<ref>{{Cite news |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/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031102310/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1950/10/winning-the-nobel-prize/305480/ |archive-date=31 October 2020 |access-date=2023-12-28 |work=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lichtman |first=Marshall A. |date=2022-07-31 |title=Controversies in Selecting Nobel Laureates: An Historical Commentary |journal=Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal |volume=13 |issue=3 |page=e0022 |doi=10.5041/RMMJ.10479 |issn=2076-9172 |pmc=9345763 |pmid=35921488}}</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 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> 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>

== Life and career ==
[[File:Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy 1848.jpg|thumb|Leo Tolstoy at age 20, {{circa|1848}}|left]]
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>

His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met [[Victor Hugo]]. Tolstoy read Hugo's newly finished ''[[Les Misérables]]''. The similar evocation of battle scenes in Hugo's novel and Tolstoy's ''[[War and Peace]]'' indicates this influence. 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. Tolstoy reviewed Proudhon's forthcoming publication, ''La Guerre et la Paix'' ("''War and Peace''" in French), and later used the title for his masterpiece. The two men also discussed education, as Tolstoy wrote in his educational notebooks: "If I recount this conversation with Proudhon, it is to show that, in my personal experience, he was the only man who understood the significance of education and of the printing press in our time."

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]].

== Personal life ==
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>
[[File:Ge Sophia Tolstaya.jpg|thumb|Tolstoy's wife [[Sophia Tolstaya|Sophia]] and their daughter [[Alexandra Tolstaya|Alexandra]] ]]
* [[Sergei Tolstoy|Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy]] (1863–1947), composer and ethnomusicologist
* [[Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya|Countess Tatyana Lvovna Tolstaya]] (1864–1950), wife of Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin
* [[Ilya Tolstoy|Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy]] (1866–1933), writer
* [[Lev Lvovich Tolstoy|Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy]] (1869–1945), 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)
* [[Alexandra Tolstaya|Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya]] (1884–1979)
* 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.<ref name=nyt /> Even so, their early married life was happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom and the support system to compose ''War and Peace'' and ''Anna Karenina'', with Sonya acting as his secretary, editor, and financial manager. Sonya was copying and hand-writing his epic works time after time. Tolstoy would continue editing ''War and Peace'' and had to have clean final drafts to be delivered to the publisher.<ref name=nyt /><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo20274891.html|title=War and Peace and Sonya|access-date=8 July 2017|archive-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223070150/https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo20274891.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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. This saw him seeking to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works.

When he was finishing up the last installments of ''Anna Karenina'' Tolstoy was in an anguished state of mind and he began putting away guns and ropes out of fear that he would kill himself.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacFarquhar |first=Larissa |author-link=Larissa MacFarquhar |date=2015 |title=Strangers Drowning : Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=277 |isbn=9780143109785}}</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]] are among Leo Tolstoy's Swedish descendants.<ref>Nikolaj 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>

== Novels and fictional works ==
[[File:Leon tolstoi.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of Leo Tolstoy by [[Ivan Kramskoi]], 1873]]
Tolstoy is considered one of the giants of Russian literature; his works include the novels ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' and novellas such as ''[[Hadji Murat (novel)|Hadji Murad]]'' and ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]''. Tolstoy's earliest works, the autobiographical novels [[Childhood (Tolstoy novel)|''Childhood'']], [[Boyhood (novel)|''Boyhood'']], and [[Youth (Tolstoy novel)|''Youth'']] (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the chasm between himself and his peasants. Though he later rejected them as sentimental, a great deal of Tolstoy's own life is revealed. They retain their relevance as accounts of the universal story of growing up. Tolstoy served as a [[Podporuchik|second lieutenant]] in an artillery regiment during the [[Crimean War]], recounted in his ''[[Sevastopol Sketches]]''. His experiences in battle helped stir his subsequent pacifism and gave him material for realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his later work.<ref>Leo Tolstoy (1990), ''Government is Violence: essays on anarchism and pacifism''. Phoenix Press.</ref>

His fiction consistently attempts to convey realistically the Russian society in which he lived.<ref>Edward Crankshaw (1974), ''Tolstoy: The Making of a Novelist'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson.</ref> ''[[The Cossacks (novel)|The Cossacks]]'' (1863) describes the [[Cossack]] life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl. ''Anna Karenina'' (1877) tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner (much like Tolstoy), who works alongside the peasants in the fields and seeks to reform their lives. Tolstoy not only drew from his own life experiences but also created characters in his own image, such as Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei in ''War and Peace'', Levin in ''Anna Karenina'' and to some extent, Prince Nekhlyudov in ''Resurrection''. [[Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky|Richard Pevear]], who translated many of Tolstoy's works, said of Tolstoy's signature style, "His works are full of provocation and irony, and written with broad and elaborately developed rhetorical devices."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tolstoy|first=L.|title=War and Peace (Vintage Classic Russians Series)|publisher=Random House|year=2011|isbn=978-1446484166|location=United Kingdom|page=xviii}}</ref>

{{Multiple image
 | header = ''[[The Power of Darkness]]''
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 200
 | footer = 2015 at Vienna's [[Akademietheater]]
 | image1 = Die Macht der Finsternis 2354-Peralta.jpg
 | alt1 =
 | caption1 =
 | image2 =Die Macht der Finsternis 2417-Peralta.jpg
 | alt2 =
 | caption2 =
 | image3 =Die Macht der Finsternis 2465-Peralta.jpg
 | alt3 =
 | caption3 =
}}
''War and Peace'' is generally thought to be one of the greatest novels ever written, remarkable for its dramatic breadth and unity. Its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical with others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]], from the court of [[Alexander I of Russia]] to the battlefields of [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]] and [[Battle of Borodino|Borodino]]. Tolstoy's original idea for the novel was to investigate the causes of the [[Decembrist revolt]], to which it refers only in the last chapters, from which can be deduced that [[Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky|Andrei Bolkonsky]]'s son will become one of the Decembrists. The novel explores Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander. Somewhat surprisingly, Tolstoy did not consider ''War and Peace'' to be a novel (nor did he consider many of the great Russian fictions written at that time to be novels). This view becomes less surprising if one considers that Tolstoy was a novelist of the [[realism (arts)|realist]] school who considered the novel to be a framework for the examination of social and political issues in nineteenth-century life.<ref>G. Lukacs. "Tolstoy and the Development of Realism". ''Marxists on Literature: An Anthology'', London: Penguin, 1977.</ref> ''War and Peace'' (which is to Tolstoy really an [[Epic poetry|epic]] in prose) therefore did not qualify. Tolstoy called ''Anna Karenina'' his first novel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Christian |first=R. F. |title=Tolstoy's Letters, Volume 1: 1828–1879 |year=2015 |publisher=Faber & Faber |location=London |isbn=9780571324071 |page=261 |url=https://archive.org/details/tolstoyslettersv0000chri |access-date=2024-12-08 }}</ref>

After ''Anna Karenina'', Tolstoy concentrated on Christian themes, and his later novels such as ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' (1886) and ''[[What Is to Be Done? (Tolstoy)|What Is to Be Done?]]'' develop a radical [[anarcho-pacifist]] Christian philosophy which led to his [[excommunication]] from the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] in 1901.<ref>L. Tolstoy, ''Church and State''.&nbsp;– On Life and Essays on Religion, 1934.</ref> After his religious conversion, Tolstoy came to reject most modern Western culture, including his novels ''War and Peace'' and ''Anna Karenina'', as elitist "counterfeit art" with different aims from the Christian art of universal brotherly love he sought to express.{{sfn|Bartlett|2011|p=369}}

In his novel ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]'', Tolstoy attempts to expose the injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of an institutionalized church. Tolstoy also explores and explains the economic philosophy of [[Georgism]], of which he had become a very strong advocate towards the end of his life.

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>

== Critical appraisal by other authors ==
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]] wrote 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 |newspaper=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" />

==Ethical, political and religious beliefs==
[[File:L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg|thumb]]

===Schopenhauer===

After reading [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]]'s ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', Tolstoy gradually became converted to the ascetic morality upheld in that work as the proper spiritual path for the upper classes. In 1869 he writes: "Do you know what this summer has meant for me? Constant raptures over Schopenhauer and a whole series of spiritual delights which I've never experienced before....no student has ever studied so much on his course, and learned so much, as I have this summer."<ref>Tolstoy's Letter to A.A. Fet, 30 August 1869</ref>

In Chapter VI of ''[[Confession (Leo Tolstoy)|Confession]]'', Tolstoy quoted the final paragraph of Schopenhauer's work. It explains how a complete [[self-denial|denial of self]] causes only a relative nothingness which is not to be feared. Tolstoy was struck by the description of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu ascetic renunciation as being the path to holiness. After reading passages such as the following, which abound in Schopenhauer's ethical chapters, the Russian nobleman chose poverty and formal denial of the will: <blockquote> But this very necessity of involuntary suffering (by poor people) for [[eternal salvation]] is also expressed by that utterance of the Savior ([[Matthew 19:24]]): "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Therefore, those who were greatly in earnest about their eternal salvation, chose [[simple living|voluntary poverty]] when fate had denied this to them and they had been born in wealth. Thus Buddha [[Sakyamuni]] was born a prince, but voluntarily took to the mendicant's staff; and [[Francis of Assisi]], the founder of the [[mendicant orders]] who, as a youngster at a ball, where the daughters of all the notabilities were sitting together, was asked: "Now Francis, will you not soon make your choice from these beauties?" and who replied: "I have made a far more beautiful choice!" "Whom?" "''La povertà'' (poverty)": whereupon he abandoned every thing shortly afterwards and wandered through the land as a mendicant.<ref>Schopenhauer, ''[[Parerga and Paralipomena]]'', Vol. II, §&nbsp;170</ref></blockquote>

===Christianity===

In 1884, Tolstoy wrote a book called ''What I Believe'', in which he openly confessed his Christian beliefs. He affirmed his belief in Jesus Christ's teachings and was particularly influenced by the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and the injunction to [[turn the other cheek]], which he understood as a "commandment of non-resistance to evil by force" and a doctrine of [[pacifism]] and [[nonviolence]]. In his work ''The Kingdom of God Is Within You'', he explains that he considered mistaken the Church's doctrine because they had made a "perversion" of Christ's teachings. Tolstoy also received letters from American [[Quakers]] who introduced him to the non-violence writings of Quaker Christians such as [[George Fox]], [[William Penn]], and [[Jonathan Dymond]]. Later, various versions of "Tolstoy's Bible" were published, indicating the passages Tolstoy most relied on, specifically, the reported words of Jesus himself.<ref>Orwin, Donna T. ''The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy''. Cambridge University Press, 2002</ref>

[[File:Gandhi Tolstoy Farm.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|Mohandas K. Gandhi]] and other residents of [[Tolstoy Farm]], South Africa, 1910]]

Tolstoy believed that a true Christian could find lasting happiness by striving for inner perfection through following the [[Great Commandment]] of loving one's neighbor and God, rather than guidance from the Church or state. Another distinct attribute of his philosophy based on Christ's teachings is [[nonresistance]] during conflict. This idea in Tolstoy's book ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'' directly influenced [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and therefore also nonviolent resistance movements to this day.

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>

===Christian anarchism===

Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of [[Christian anarchist]] thought.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/TheContemporaryRelevanceOfLeoTolstoy |title=The Contemporary Relevance of Leo Tolstoy's Late Political Thought |author-last=Christoyannopoulos |author-first=Alexandre |author-link=Alexandre Christoyannopoulos |year=2009 |quote=Tolstoy articulated his Christian anarchist political thought between 1880 and 1910, yet its continuing relevance should have become fairly self-evident already. |publisher=International Political Science Association }}</ref> Tolstoy believed being a Christian required him to be a pacifist; the apparently inevitable waging of war by governments is why he is considered a philosophical anarchist. The [[Tolstoyan]]s were a small Christian anarchist group formed by Tolstoy's companion, [[Vladimir Chertkov]] (1854–1936), to spread Tolstoy's religious teachings. From 1892, he regularly met with the student-activist [[Vasily Maklakov]] who would defend several Tolstoyans; they discussed the fate of the [[Doukhobors]]. Philosopher [[Peter Kropotkin]] wrote of Tolstoy in the article on anarchism in the ''[[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]'':
<blockquote>Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the 15th and 16th centuries, [[Petr Chelčický|Chojecki]], [[Hans Denck|Denk]] and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the [[State (polity)|state]] and [[property right]]s, deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of Jesus and from the necessary dictates of reason.
With all the might of his talent, Tolstoy 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 law]]s.
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 searching 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 Jesus he deduces the rule of nonresistance and the absolute condemnation of all wars.
His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Anarchism |volume=1 |author-last=Kropotkin |author-first=Peter Alexeivitch |author-link=Peter Kropotkin |pages=914–919; see page 918 }}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Tolstoy organising famine relief in Samara, 1891.jpg|thumb|Tolstoy organising [[Russian famine of 1891–92|famine relief]] in Samara, 1891]]

[[File:Leo Tolstoy-1908.webm|thumb|right|Film by [[Alexander Drankov|Aleksandr Osipovich Drankov]] of Tolstoy's 80th birthday (1908) at Yasnaya Polyana, showing his wife Sofya (picking flowers in the garden) daughter Aleksandra (sitting in the carriage in the white blouse); his aide and confidante V. Chertkov (bald man with the beard and mustache); and students.]]

In hundreds of essays over the last 20 years of his life, Tolstoy reiterated the anarchist critique of the state and recommended books by [[Kropotkin]] and [[Proudhon]] to his readers, while rejecting anarchism's espousal of [[propaganda of the deed|violent revolutionary means]]. In the 1900 essay, "On Anarchy," he wrote: "The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power ... There can be only one permanent revolution{{snd}}a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man." Despite his misgivings about [[anarchist violence]], Tolstoy took risks to circulate the prohibited publications of [[anarchism in Russia|anarchist thinkers in Russia]], and corrected the proofs of Kropotkin's "Words of a Rebel", illegally published in St Petersburg in 1906.<ref>{{cite book|title=[[Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel]] |author-first1=G. |author-last1=Woodcock |author-first2=I. |author-last2=Avakumović |date=1990}}</ref>
[[File:Leo Tolstoi v kabinetie.05.1908.ws.jpg|thumb|right|Tolstoy in his study in 1908 (age 80)]]

===Pacificism===

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 [[Laozi]]. 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 as Japan had done. Tolstoy and Gu opposed the [[Hundred Days' 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 |page=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 |page=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 denounced the intervention by the [[Eight-Nation Alliance]] (which included Russia) in the Boxer Rebellion in [[Qing dynasty|China]],<ref name="Orwin2002">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SC9suBt-Vm4C&q=Tolstoy+boxers&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 |pages=37–}}</ref><ref name="Tolstoy(graf)1978">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TVgAAAAMAAJ&q=Boxer |title=Tolstoy's Letters: 1880–1910 |author-first1=Leo |author-last1=Tolstoy |author-first2=Reginald Frank |author-last2=Christian |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group, Limited |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-485-71172-1 |page=580}}</ref> the [[Philippine–American War|Filipino-American War]], and the [[Second Boer War]].<ref>Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova. ''The Russians and the Anglo Boer War.'' Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1998. p. 181</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.

===Georgism===

Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became 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 Times]]'' of London (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 economy]]. Because Georgism requires an administration to collect [[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> ''Resurrection'', in which the nobleman Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov realizes that the earth cannot really be owned and that everyone should have equal access to its resources and advantages, hints that Tolstoy had such a view. Other works, such as Tolstoy's unfinished play ''The Light that Shines in the Darkness'' and the short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?”, suggest Tolstoy's approval of small communities with local governance to manage the collective land rents for common goods, and heavily criticize [[State (polity)|state]] institutions such as the [[justice system]].

===Hunting===

Tolstoy was introduced to [[hunting]] by his father, who was an avid huntsman.<ref name="Barlett 2011">Bartlett, Rosamund (2011). ''Tolstoy: A Russian Life''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37-38. {{ISBN|978-0547545875}}</ref> He was trained to hunt from a young age and became a passionate huntsman himself. He was known to shoot [[duck]], [[quail]], snipe, [[woodcock]] and otters.<ref>Tolstoy, Sergei (1961). ''Tolstoy Remembered by His Son''. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 73</ref><ref>Citati, Pietro (1986). ''Tolstoy''. Schocken Books. p. 22, p. 153. {{ISBN|978-0805240214}}</ref> For example, Tolstoy wrote in his diary on 23 March 1852, "the weather was marvellous; went out hunting, rode up and down the undulating country till one. Killed two ducks."<ref>Christian, Reginald Frank (1985). ''Tolstoy's Diaries: Volume 1''. Athlone Press. p. 47</ref> His novel ''War and Peace'' includes hunting scenes.<ref name="Barlett 2011"/> Tolstoy spent decades hunting, but stopped sometime in the 1880s and became a staunch opponent of hunting due to ethical concerns about killing.<ref name="LeBlanc 85">LeBlanc, Ronald D. ''Tolstoy's Way of No Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism and Christian Physiology''. In Musya Glants, Joyce Toomre (1997). ''Food in Russian History and Culture''. Indiana University Press. pp. 81-91. {{ISBN|0-253-33252-4}}</ref> In 1890 Tolstoy wrote a preface for [[Vladimir Chertkov]]'s anti-hunting pamphlet ''Zlaia zabava: Mysli ob okhote'' (An Evil Pastime: Thoughts about Hunting).<ref name="LeBlanc 98">LeBlanc, Ronald D. ''Tolstoy's Way of No Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism and Christian Physiology''. In Musya Glants, Joyce Toomre (1997). ''Food in Russian History and Culture''. Indiana University Press. p. 98. {{ISBN|0-253-33252-4}}</ref> Although Tolstoy in his later life opposed hunting, he never abandoned his love for [[horse-riding]].<ref name="Barlett 2011"/>

===Vegetarianism===

Tolstoy first became interested in [[vegetarianism]] in 1882; however, his conversion to a vegetarian diet was a long and gradual process.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> William Fay (Vladimir Konstantinovich Geins), who visited Tolstoy in Autumn 1885,  influenced Tolstoy to become vegetarian.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> In 1887, Tolstoy was lapsing from a vegetarian diet by occasionally eating [[meat]].<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> It was only from 1890 that Tolstoy adopted a strict vegetarian diet which he was alleged to have never consciously betrayed.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> Tolstoy's wife Sophia argued that his vegetarian diet did not provide him enough nourishment and contributed to his digestive ailments, however, Tolstoy stated that his health was not deprived on the diet but had improved.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> Critics of Tolstoy such as I. S. Listovsky suggested that Tolstoy's writing talent went into decline after he adopted a meatless diet.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/>

Tolstoy became a vegetarian for ethical and spiritual reasons, associating a meatless diet with "high moral views on life".<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> He viewed both hunting and eating meat as a moral evil as they involve unnecessary cruelty to animals and regretted his former habits.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> In 1891, Tolstoy obtained a copy of [[Howard Williams (humanitarian)|Howard Williams]]'s book ''The Ethics of Diet'' from Chertkov. His daughters translated the book into Russian and Tolstoy wrote an introductory essay titled "[[The First Step (essay)|The First Step]]", published in 1893.<ref>LeBlanc, Ronald D. ''Tolstoy's Way of No Flesh: Abstinence, Vegetarianism and Christian Physiology''. In Musya Glants, Joyce Toomre (1997). ''Food in Russian History and Culture''. Indiana University Press. pp. 99-100. {{ISBN|0-253-33252-4}}</ref> In his introductory essay, he described a cruel experience he had witnessed at a visit to a [[slaughterhouse]] in Tula. The cruelty he had witnessed confirmed his belief that meat should be removed from the diet.<ref name="LeBlanc 85"/> In the essay he wrote that meat eating is "simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling – killing".<ref>Portmess, Lisa (1999). ''Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer''. State University of New York Press. p. 97. {{ISBN|0-7914-4043-5}}</ref>

Whilst on his vegetarian diet, Tolstoy was eating [[Egg as food|eggs]] daily but was questioned by one of his friends if eating eggs amounts to taking life. He commented that "Yes, I ought to have stopped taking eggs. At least from now I shall stop it".<ref>Satchidananda, Swami (1979). [https://archive.org/details/Olls_the-gospel-of-swami-ramdas-recorded-by-swami-satchidananda-2nd-edition-anandashram-kasargod/page/202/mode/2up ''Gospel of Swami Ramdas'']. Praja Printers Private. p. 202</ref> By 1903, Tolstoy had removed eggs from his diet. [[Vasily Rozanov]] who had visited Tolstoy noted that vegetarianism was a way of living for Tolstoy and at the dinner table surrounded by family and guests who were eating meat and scrambled eggs, Tolstoy was eating [[kasha]].<ref>Glants, Musya; Toomre, Joyce (1997). ''Introduction''. In ''Food in Russian History and Culture''. Indiana University Press. p. xvi. {{ISBN|0-253-33252-4}}</ref> In a letter to A. D. Zutphen (a Dutch medical student), Tolstoy wrote that "My health not only has not suffered; it has in fact improved significantly since I have given up milk, butter and eggs, as well as sugar, tea, and coffee."<ref name="LeBlanc 98"/> Tolstoy described his vegetarian diet consisting of [[oatmeal]] porridge, [[whole wheat]] bread, cabbage or potato soup, [[buckwheat]], a boiled or fried potato and an apple prune [[compote]].<ref>LeBlanc, Ronald Denis (2009). ''Slavic Sins of the Flesh: Food, Sex, and Carnal Appetite in Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction''. University of New Hampshire Press. p. 279. {{ISBN|978-1-58465-767-5}}</ref>

== Death ==
[[File:Tula YasnayaPolyana asv2019-09 img12 LNTolstoy grave.jpg|thumb|right|Tolstoy's grave with flowers at [[Yasnaya Polyana]]]]

Tolstoy died on 20 November 1910 at the age of 82. Just before his death, his health was of concern to his family, who cared for him daily. In his last days, he spoke and wrote about dying. Renouncing his aristocratic lifestyle, he left home one winter night.<ref>''The last days of Tolstoy''. VG Chertkov. 1922. Heinemann</ref> His secretive departure was an apparent attempt to escape from his wife's tirades. She spoke out against many of his teachings, and in recent years had grown envious of his attention to [[Tolstoyan]] followers. 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 stationmaster took Tolstoy to his apartment, and his personal doctors arrived and gave him injections of [[morphine]] and [[camphor]]. The police took extra precautions to minimize dissent during the funeral ceremonies. They were inconspicuous but looming during the funeral itself, which two thousand people attended without incident. Three choirs sang. There were no eulogies, per the family's request, although 100 students had asked to speak.{{sfn|Nickell|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RtnamU-MJ0EC&pg=PA125 125]}} According to some sources, Tolstoy spent the last hours of his life preaching love, non-violence, and [[Georgism]] to fellow passengers on the train.<ref name="Wenzer 1997 pp. 639–667" />

== Legacy ==
[[File:Leotolstoy castlegar.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Statue of Tolstoy in [[Castlegar, British Columbia]]]]
[[File:Пам'ятник .Толстому Л.М, письменникові.JPG|thumb|Bust of Tolstoy in [[Mariupol]], Ukraine, 2011]]
[[File:Munomento León Tolstoi.jpg|thumb|Bust of Tolstoy in [[Montevideo]], Uruguay]]
Although Tolstoy was primarily regarded as a [[Christian anarchist]], his ideas and works still influenced other [[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|url-access=subscription}}</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 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, when 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|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== In Soviet Russia ===
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; however, Russian law at the time decreed that property could only be inherited by one individual.<ref name=":1" />

Following the [[Russian Civil War]] in 1917, writings that were formerly censored could now be published, since all literary works were nationalized in November 1918.<ref name=":1" /> Alexandra worked during these years to publish sets of Tolstoy's works, and she worked with Zadruga Publishing House from 1917 to 1919 to publish thirteen booklets on Tolstoy's writings, which had previously been censored under Russia's imperial rule; however, publishing a complete collection of Tolstoy's works proved to be more difficult. In December 1918, the Commissariat of Education granted Chertkov a 10 million rouble subsidy to publish a complete edition of his works, which never materialized due to government control of publication rights.<ref name=":1" /> Cooperatives were additionally made illegal in Russia in 1921, creating another obstacle for Alexandra and Chertkov.<ref name=":1" />

In the 1920s, Tolstoy's estate, [[Yasnaya Polyana]], was sanctioned by the Soviet state to exist as a commune for Tolstoyans. The government permitted this Christian-oriented community because they felt that religious sects like the Tolstoyans were models for the Russian peasantry.<ref name=":1" /> The Soviet government owned the estate, which was deemed a memorial for the late Russian writer, but Alexandra had jurisdiction over the education offered at Yasnaya Polyana. Unlike most Soviet schools, the schooling at Yasnaya Polyana did not offer militaristic training and did not teach atheism. Over time, though, local communists – as opposed to the state government, which financially supported the institution – often denounced the estate and called for frequent inspections. After 1928, a change in cultural policy in the Soviet regime led to a takeover of local institutions, including Tolstoy's estate. When Alexandra stepped down from her role as head of Yasnaya Poliana in 1929, the Commissariat of Education and Health took control.<ref name=":1" />

In 1925, the Soviet government created its first Jubilee Committee to celebrate the centennial of Tolstoy's birth, which originally consisted of 13 members but grew to 38 members after a second committee formed in 1927.<ref name=":1" /> Alexandra was not content with the funds provided by the government and met with Stalin in June 1928. During the meeting, Stalin said the government could not provide the one million roubles requested by the committee;<ref name=":1" /> however, an agreement was reached with the State Publishing House in April 1928 for the publishing of a 92-volume collection of Tolstoy's works.<ref name=":1" /> During the Jubilee Celebration, [[Anatoly Lunacharsky|Anatoly Luncharsky]] – the head of the [[People's Commissariat for Education]] – gave a speech in which he denied reports that claimed the Soviet government was hostile towards Tolstoy and his legacy. Instead of focusing on the aspects of Tolstoy's works that pitted him against the Soviet regime, he instead focused on the unifying aspects, such as Tolstoy's love for equality and labor as well as his disdain for the state and private property.<ref name=":1" /> More than 400 million copies of Tolstoy's works were printed in the Soviet Union, making him the best-selling author in Soviet Russia.<ref name=NYTIMES1987>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0DB1E30F936A25751C0A961948260 New York Times] February 15, 1987</ref>

=== Influence ===

[[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|url-access=subscription}}</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" />
Additionally, Lenin thought Tolstoy's concept of nonresistance to evil hindered the 1905 revolution's success 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" />

Tolstoy's philosophy of nonresistance to evil made an impact on [[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|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

=== In film 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 |issue=1 |pages=2–12 |jstor=43795380 |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]] 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]]. In the made-for-TV movie ''Travels with Father'' (1996), he 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>

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. There is also a famous [[lost film]] of Tolstoy made a decade before he died. In 1901, the American travel lecturer [[Burton Holmes]] visited Yasnaya Polyana with [[Albert J. Beveridge]], the U.S. senator and historian. As the three men conversed, Holmes filmed Tolstoy with his 60-mm movie camera. Afterwards, Beveridge's advisers succeeded in having the film destroyed, fearing that the meeting with the Russian author might hurt Beveridge's chances of running for the U.S. presidency.<ref>Wallace, Irving, 'Everybody's Rover Boy', in ''The Sunday Gentleman''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965. p. 117.</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Main|Leo Tolstoy bibliography}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Russia|Biography|Politics}}
* [[Anarchism and religion]]
* [[Christian vegetarianism]]
* [[Leo Tolstoy and Theosophy]]
* [[List of peace activists]]
* [[Henry David Thoreau]]
* [[War & Peace (2016 TV series)|''War & Peace'' (2016 TV series)]]
{{clear}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last=Bayley|first=John|year=1997|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UVvDwAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-07463-0744-1}}
* {{cite book|editor-last=Bloom|editor-first=Harold|year=2009|orig-year=2003|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jhw9Bg42pSMC|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-14381-1328-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Dillon|first=Emile Joseph|year=1934|title=Count Leo Tolstoy: A New Portrait|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmgVAAAAQAAJ|publisher=Hutchinson}}
* {{cite book|last=Moulin|first=Daniel|year=2014|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1WCBAAAQBAJ|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|isbn=978-14725-0484-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Rowe|first=William W.|year=1986|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBp8AAAAIAAJ|publisher=[[Twayne Publishers]]|isbn=978-08057-6623-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Simmons|first=Ernest Joseph|year=1946|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxR8AAAAIAAJ|publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]]}}
* {{cite book|last=Zorin|first=Andrei|year=2020|title=Leo Tolstoy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kc3ADwAAQBAJ|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-17891-4256-3}}
* Craraft, James. ''Two Shining Souls: Jane Addams, Leo Tolstoy, and the Quest for Global Peace'' (Lanham: Lexington, 2012). 179 pp.
* {{cite journal|last1=Lednicki|first1=Waclaw|title=Tolstoy through American eyes|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.185585/2015.185585.The-Slavonic-Reviewvol64#page/n455/mode/2up|journal=The Slavonic and East European Review|date=April 1947|volume=25|issue=65}}
* {{cite book |last1=Leon |first1=Derrick |title=Tolstoy His Life and Work |date=1944 |publisher=Routledge |location=London}}
* [http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/12/tols-d02.html ''Trotsky's 1908 tribute to Leo Tolstoy''] Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).
* [https://archive.org/details/lifetolstoy00maudgoog ''The Life of Tolstoy: Later years''] by [[Aylmer and Louise Maude|Aylmer Maude]], Dodd, Mead and Company, 1911 at Internet Archive
* [https://archive.org/details/whywefailaschri00huntgoog ''Why We Fail As Christians''] by Robert Hunter, The Macmillan Company, 1919 at Google Books
* {{Cite book |last1=Nickell |first1=William S. |title=The Death of Tolstoy: Russia on the Eve, Astapovo Station, 1910 |date=2011 |language=en |isbn=978-0-8014-6254-2 |publisher=Cornell University Press }}

== External links ==
<!--Note: all links should comply with Wikipedia's external links guideline at [[Wikipedia:External links]]. To keep this section from ballooning, please only include links of general interest -->
{{Sister project links
|wikt=no
|b=no
|q=Leo Tolstoy
|s=Author:Leo Tolstoy
|commons=Category:Leo Tolstoy
|n=no
|v=no
|species=no
|d=y}}
*[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]]
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=136| name=Leo Tolstoy}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Leo Tolstoy}}
* {{Librivox author |id=217}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=160|name=Leo Tolstoy}}
* [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/49435 Tolstoy by Romain Rolland]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/035924}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Tolstoy, Leo |volume= 26 |last= Wright |first= Charles Theodore Hagberg |author-link= Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright | pages = 1053–1061 }}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFop7471uqs Waltz in F major] ([[:ru:Вальс фа мажор (Лев Толстой)|Page on Russian Wikipedia]]), Tolstoy's only known musical composition.

{{Leo Tolstoy|state=expanded}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Associated subjects
|list1=
{{War and Peace}}
{{Anna Karenina}}
{{The Kreutzer Sonata}}
{{Resurrection}}
{{The Living Corpse}}
{{Father Sergius}}
{{The Death of Ivan Ilyich}}
}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolstoy, Leo}}
[[Category:Leo Tolstoy| ]]
[[Category:1828 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:19th-century dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century educators from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century journalists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century letter writers]]
[[Category:19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:19th-century short story writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:20th-century anarchists]]
[[Category:20th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:20th-century letter writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian educators]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian short story writers]]
[[Category:Anarchist writers]]
[[Category:Anarcho-pacifists]]
[[Category:Art critics from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Children's writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Christian anarchists]]
[[Category:Christian vegetarians]]
[[Category:Christian writers]]
[[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]]
[[Category:Essayists from the Russian Empire]]
[[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]]
[[Category:Literary critics from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Metaphysicians]]
[[Category:Nonviolence advocates]]
[[Category:Novelists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Ontologists]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church]]
[[Category:People from Tula Oblast]]
[[Category:People from Tula Governorate]]
[[Category:Philanthropists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Philosophers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Philosophers of culture]]
[[Category:Philosophers of education]]
[[Category:Philosophers of history]]
[[Category:Philosophers of literature]]
[[Category:Philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:Russian philosophers of religion]]
[[Category:Russian political philosophers]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 4th class]]
[[Category:Russian-language writers]]
[[Category:Russian anarchists]]
[[Category:Russian Christian pacifists]]
[[Category:Russian diarists]]
[[Category:Russian Esperantists]]
[[Category:Russian historical novelists]]
[[Category:Russian magazine editors]]
[[Category:Russian male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Russian male essayists]]
[[Category:Russian male journalists]]
[[Category:Russian male novelists]]
[[Category:Russian male short story writers]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of the Caucasian War]]
[[Category:Russian military personnel of the Crimean War]]
[[Category:Russian opinion journalists]]
[[Category:Russian vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Schoolteachers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Social philosophers]]
[[Category:Tolstoy family|Leo]]
[[Category:Tolstoyans]]
[[Category:Translators from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
<!-- [[Category:Literary realism]] -->