The Leo Tolstoy Collection

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was born into a noble Russian family at Yasnaya Polyana. Orphaned early, he enrolled at Kazan University to study Oriental languages, then law, but left without a degree. He served in the army during the Crimean War, where he began to write. In 1862, he married Sofia Behrs, a doctor's daughter 16 years his junior. They had 13 children, though only eight survived infancy. Sofia was his copyist, editor, and often his first reader. Their marriage, once close, later became tense—strained by Tolstoy's spiritual crisis and renunciation of wealth and religion. After War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy turned away from fiction toward moral and philosophical writing. He preached pacifism, vegetarianism, and simple living, often clashing with Church and State. In 1910, at age 82, he left home suddenly, seeking peace. He died of pneumonia at a remote train station, with his wife arriving too late to say goodbye. Tolstoy's life was shaped by contradiction—between faith and doubt, family and solitude, fame and renunciation.