Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist and thinker, born on 28 August 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate where he spent much of his life. He came from the landed nobility, served briefly in the army, and began writing while still young. His long novels, above all War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are often counted among the greatest ever written. They combine a huge range of characters with close attention to ordinary feelings, family life and the movement of history.

In later years Tolstoy turned toward questions of faith, conscience and how to live. He wrote essays and shorter fiction on these themes, and his ideas about nonviolence and simple living drew followers in Russia and abroad. He died on 7 November 1910. Readers still value him for his honest, deeply human view of love, death and moral struggle.