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On September 9, 1828, Leo Tolstoy [Lev Nikolayevich], Russian novelist (Anna Karenina, War and Peace), was born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia (d. 1910). From the article:
"Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia, and 200 kilometers (120 mi) south of Moscow. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794–1837), a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya (née Volkonskaya; 1790–1830). After his parents died during his childhood,[14] Tolstoy and his siblings were brought up by relatives.[3] In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. His time there was not a success however, with teachers describing him as "both unable and unwilling to learn."[14] Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies,[14] returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle.[3] He began writing during this period,[14] including his first novel Childhood, a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1952.[3] In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854–55,[15] including the Battle of the Chernaya. During the war he was recognised for his bravery and courage and promoted to lieutenant.[15] He was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare,[14] and left the army after the end of the Crimean War.[3]
His conversion from a dissolute and privileged society author to the non-violent and spiritual anarchist of his latter days was brought about by his experience in the army as well as two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61. Others who followed the same path were Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere."[16] Tolstoy's concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural.[17] He later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice.[18][19]
His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugo's newly finished Les Misérables. 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. Apart from reviewing Proudhon's forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace in French), whose title Tolstoy would borrow for his masterpiece, the two men discussed education, 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 emancipated from serfdom in 1861. Tolstoy described the school's principles in his 1862 essay "The School at Yasnaya Polyana".[20] Tolstoy's educational experiments were short-lived, partly due to harassment by the Tsarist secret police. However, as a direct forerunner to A. S. Neill's Summerhill School, the school at Yasnaya Polyana[21] can justifiably be claimed the first example of a coherent theory of democratic education."
"Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula, Russia, and 200 kilometers (120 mi) south of Moscow. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794–1837), a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, and Countess Mariya Tolstaya (née Volkonskaya; 1790–1830). After his parents died during his childhood,[14] Tolstoy and his siblings were brought up by relatives.[3] In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. His time there was not a success however, with teachers describing him as "both unable and unwilling to learn."[14] Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies,[14] returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle.[3] He began writing during this period,[14] including his first novel Childhood, a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1952.[3] In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854–55,[15] including the Battle of the Chernaya. During the war he was recognised for his bravery and courage and promoted to lieutenant.[15] He was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare,[14] and left the army after the end of the Crimean War.[3]
His conversion from a dissolute and privileged society author to the non-violent and spiritual anarchist of his latter days was brought about by his experience in the army as well as two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61. Others who followed the same path were Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that would mark the rest of his life. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere."[16] Tolstoy's concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural.[17] He later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice.[18][19]
His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugo's newly finished Les Misérables. 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. Apart from reviewing Proudhon's forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix (War and Peace in French), whose title Tolstoy would borrow for his masterpiece, the two men discussed education, 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 emancipated from serfdom in 1861. Tolstoy described the school's principles in his 1862 essay "The School at Yasnaya Polyana".[20] Tolstoy's educational experiments were short-lived, partly due to harassment by the Tsarist secret police. However, as a direct forerunner to A. S. Neill's Summerhill School, the school at Yasnaya Polyana[21] can justifiably be claimed the first example of a coherent theory of democratic education."
Leo Tolstoy - Wikipedia
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Leo Tolstoy was a remarkable novelist in part because he believed in the novel as a tool for social reform, something that would enable us to become kinder, ...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that September 9 in the anniversary of the birth of Russian writer Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy) who is rightly regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.
Image: Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sonya.
Background from historythings.com/one-greatest-authors-time-leo-tolstoy/
"Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy) was a renowned Russian author and one of the greatest authors of all time. He is best known for his two novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy also wrote dozens of short stories and novellas, along with a semi-autobiographical trilogy that he achieved literary success with in the 1850s.
On September 9, 1828, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born at his family’s estate, Yasnaya Polyana, near Tula, Russia. The Tolstoys came from a long line of Russian nobility, and he was the fourth of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Mariya Tolstaya’s five children. His parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings grew up with other relatives.
Tolstoy began to study law and oriental languages in 1844 at Kazan University. He ended up leaving in the middle of his studies though, as his teachers said he was “both unable and unwilling to learn.” So, he returned home to Yasnaya Polyana but began spending much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. He racked up heavy debts from gambling in 1851, so him and his brother went to join the army in Caucasus. Tolstoy also took up writing around this same time.
Along with joining the army, Tolstoy also travelled Europe twice. The first trip in 1857 and the second from 1860-61. While he was in Paros in 1857, he witnessed a public execution. The event was very traumatizing for him and stayed with him for the rest of his life. When he read the Tirukkural in German, his ideas of non-violence (Ahimsa) were strengthened. During the second European trip, his political and literary development were even further strengthened when he met Victor Hugo, the acclaimed French author. Tolstoy praised the author for his talents after reading his latest novel, Les Misérables. In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Hugo’s influence is shown by the way he wrote battle scenes. Tolstoy also met and was influenced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French anarchist. Proudhon was about to publish La Guerre et la Paix, which means War and Peace in french. Tolstoy borrowed the title for his own future work.
Upon his return to Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy founded thirteen schools for the children of peasants in Russia after discussing education with Proudhon. His experiments with education did not, however, last long. This was in part due to the the Tsarist secret police harassing him.
Tolstoy married eighteen year old Countess Sophia Andreyevna Behrs on September 23, 1862 in Moscow. Her family and friends called her Sonya and she was sixteen years younger than Tolstoy and her father was a court physician. The couple had thirteen children, eight of which survived into adulthood: Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy (1863-1947), Countess Tatyana Lvovna Tolstaya (1864-1950), Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy (1866-1933), Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy (1869-1945), Countess Maria Lvovna Tolstaya (1871-1906), Count Peter Lvovich Tolstoy (1872-73), Count Nikolai Lvovich Tolstoy (1874-75), Countess Varvara Lvovna Tolstaya (1875-75), Count Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy (1877-1916), Count Michael Lvovich Tolstoy (1879-1944), Count Alexei Lvovich Tolstoy (1881-86), Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya (1884-1979), and Count Ivan Lvovich Tolstoy (1888-95).
During the early years of their marriage, they were happy and Tolstoy was given time to work on his two novels as much as possible. Sonya even acted as his secretary and financial adviser and proofread Anna Karenina and War and Peace for him. A.N. Wilson described their later life as one of the unhappiest in literary history. While his beliefs became even more radical, his relationship with Sonya deteriorated.
On November 20, 1910, eighty-two year old Leo Tolstoy. His health had been worsening and a few days before his death, he had been writing and speaking about death. Shortly before, he had separated his wife and fled their home in the middle of the night, despite it being the dead of winter. When he died, he was at Astapovo train station and had been ill with pneumonia.
Tolstoy is considered to be one of the most influential figures in Russian literature and one of the greatest authors of all time with Anna Karenina and War and Peace, along with written notable novellas like The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Hadji Murad. Famous author Virginia Woolf even once called him “the greatest of all novelists.” Many other authors of his day and more recently have praised him.
His first works were a set of semi-autobiographical novels called Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). The novels were about the son of a rich landowner as he slowly realized the differences between himself and the peasants. In Sevastopol Sketches (1855), which were three short stories, he recounted his time in an artillery regiment as a second lieutenant.
Tolstoy wrote The Cossacks in 1863 in an attempt to realistically portray what life was like in Russian society. This novel was about the Cossack people and their lives and how a Russian aristocrat falls in love with one of them. In 1877, Anna Karenina was published and tells a similar story of a woman committing adultery but who is trapped by society and a philosophical landowner that was similar to Tolstoy himself.
War and Peace, published in 1865 as a serial, remains to be Tolstoy’s most notable work and is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. It tells the story of family life, Napoleon’s headquarters, Alexander I of Russia’s court, and the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. Many of the characters were based on himself and other family members and friends. Tolstoy did not consider it to be a novel though and thought it more of an epic. He believed that Anna Karenina, which he published about a decade later, was his first true novel."
LITERATURE: Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy was a remarkable novelist in part because he believed in the novel as a tool for social reform, something that would enable us to become kinder, more thoughtful and more generous towards others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr6DYLBkyG0
Thanks for mentioning me my friend SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
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Image: Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sonya.
Background from historythings.com/one-greatest-authors-time-leo-tolstoy/
"Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoy) was a renowned Russian author and one of the greatest authors of all time. He is best known for his two novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy also wrote dozens of short stories and novellas, along with a semi-autobiographical trilogy that he achieved literary success with in the 1850s.
On September 9, 1828, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born at his family’s estate, Yasnaya Polyana, near Tula, Russia. The Tolstoys came from a long line of Russian nobility, and he was the fourth of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Mariya Tolstaya’s five children. His parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings grew up with other relatives.
Tolstoy began to study law and oriental languages in 1844 at Kazan University. He ended up leaving in the middle of his studies though, as his teachers said he was “both unable and unwilling to learn.” So, he returned home to Yasnaya Polyana but began spending much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. He racked up heavy debts from gambling in 1851, so him and his brother went to join the army in Caucasus. Tolstoy also took up writing around this same time.
Along with joining the army, Tolstoy also travelled Europe twice. The first trip in 1857 and the second from 1860-61. While he was in Paros in 1857, he witnessed a public execution. The event was very traumatizing for him and stayed with him for the rest of his life. When he read the Tirukkural in German, his ideas of non-violence (Ahimsa) were strengthened. During the second European trip, his political and literary development were even further strengthened when he met Victor Hugo, the acclaimed French author. Tolstoy praised the author for his talents after reading his latest novel, Les Misérables. In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Hugo’s influence is shown by the way he wrote battle scenes. Tolstoy also met and was influenced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French anarchist. Proudhon was about to publish La Guerre et la Paix, which means War and Peace in french. Tolstoy borrowed the title for his own future work.
Upon his return to Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy founded thirteen schools for the children of peasants in Russia after discussing education with Proudhon. His experiments with education did not, however, last long. This was in part due to the the Tsarist secret police harassing him.
Tolstoy married eighteen year old Countess Sophia Andreyevna Behrs on September 23, 1862 in Moscow. Her family and friends called her Sonya and she was sixteen years younger than Tolstoy and her father was a court physician. The couple had thirteen children, eight of which survived into adulthood: Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy (1863-1947), Countess Tatyana Lvovna Tolstaya (1864-1950), Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy (1866-1933), Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy (1869-1945), Countess Maria Lvovna Tolstaya (1871-1906), Count Peter Lvovich Tolstoy (1872-73), Count Nikolai Lvovich Tolstoy (1874-75), Countess Varvara Lvovna Tolstaya (1875-75), Count Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy (1877-1916), Count Michael Lvovich Tolstoy (1879-1944), Count Alexei Lvovich Tolstoy (1881-86), Countess Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya (1884-1979), and Count Ivan Lvovich Tolstoy (1888-95).
During the early years of their marriage, they were happy and Tolstoy was given time to work on his two novels as much as possible. Sonya even acted as his secretary and financial adviser and proofread Anna Karenina and War and Peace for him. A.N. Wilson described their later life as one of the unhappiest in literary history. While his beliefs became even more radical, his relationship with Sonya deteriorated.
On November 20, 1910, eighty-two year old Leo Tolstoy. His health had been worsening and a few days before his death, he had been writing and speaking about death. Shortly before, he had separated his wife and fled their home in the middle of the night, despite it being the dead of winter. When he died, he was at Astapovo train station and had been ill with pneumonia.
Tolstoy is considered to be one of the most influential figures in Russian literature and one of the greatest authors of all time with Anna Karenina and War and Peace, along with written notable novellas like The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Hadji Murad. Famous author Virginia Woolf even once called him “the greatest of all novelists.” Many other authors of his day and more recently have praised him.
His first works were a set of semi-autobiographical novels called Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), and Youth (1857). The novels were about the son of a rich landowner as he slowly realized the differences between himself and the peasants. In Sevastopol Sketches (1855), which were three short stories, he recounted his time in an artillery regiment as a second lieutenant.
Tolstoy wrote The Cossacks in 1863 in an attempt to realistically portray what life was like in Russian society. This novel was about the Cossack people and their lives and how a Russian aristocrat falls in love with one of them. In 1877, Anna Karenina was published and tells a similar story of a woman committing adultery but who is trapped by society and a philosophical landowner that was similar to Tolstoy himself.
War and Peace, published in 1865 as a serial, remains to be Tolstoy’s most notable work and is considered to be one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. It tells the story of family life, Napoleon’s headquarters, Alexander I of Russia’s court, and the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. Many of the characters were based on himself and other family members and friends. Tolstoy did not consider it to be a novel though and thought it more of an epic. He believed that Anna Karenina, which he published about a decade later, was his first true novel."
LITERATURE: Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy was a remarkable novelist in part because he believed in the novel as a tool for social reform, something that would enable us to become kinder, more thoughtful and more generous towards others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr6DYLBkyG0
Thanks for mentioning me my friend SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
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SGT (Join to see) good read/share on Leo Tolstoy, well received and much appreciated!
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