Tolstoy Leo was born on September 9, 1828. He was the son of Count Nikolay Ilyich Tolstoy, who came from a prominent noble family dating back from the time of Peter I in the 14th century.
Like Tolstoy’s grandfather, his father was a gambler and exhausted their family wealth by gambling. However, a twist occurred when his father Nikolay married Maria Volonsky, an heiress to a fortune and holder of a great name. Maria’s fortune included Yasnaya Polyana in Tula province, which also happened to be Tostloy Leo’s place of birth.
Childhood, Early Life, and Family
Leo Tolstoy’s mother died when he was only two years old, and Tatyana Ergolsky, his father’s distant cousin, cared for him and his siblings.
His father died later in 1837, at which point his aunt Alexander Osten-Saken became his and siblings’ legal guardian.
Alexander died a few years later, and Leo’s family was cared for in Kazan by Palageya Yushkov, another aunt.
Leo was schooled at home by tutors and later joined Kazan University to study law and oriental languages but left with no degree. Leo Tolstoy was a rebel who had a long life and remained at loggerhead with his family, the government, church, and literary norms and traditions.
Leo Tolstoy’s experience in the army and trips around Europe largely contributed to his conversion to a spiritual anarchist.
Literary Career and Publications
Leo Tolstoy wrote and published several major stories based on his Caucasus experiences. He’s also known for his lifelong concern with the morality of observing other people’s suffering, which he demonstrated in his three sketches during the Crimean war. He anonymously submitted one of his early writings, Childhood, to be published in Sovremennih (“The Contemporary ”).
This publication received positive criticism and praises in the literary arena. After that, Leo published more stories, including Nabeg 1853. His most famous publications are War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which fall under realist fiction.
During his literary career, Leo Tolstoy condemned the works of the world’s most renowned writers like William Shakespear and himself.
His other late work includes Vlast tmy, 1886 (The Power of Darkness), and satirical drama Zhivoi trup, 1900(The Living Corpse).
Final Years And Legacy
Leo’s once happy life turned to hell with endless hostility from his wife, who did not appreciate his lifestyle, disciples, and teachings. The negative turn to his once happy marriage tormented him, leading him to escape privately from Yasnaya Polyana in 1910. His doctor and daughter Aleksandra accompanied him.
Although Loe desired utmost privacy during his incognito escape, the international press was able to locate and report his movements in no time. Unfortunately, he contracted Pneumonia during this time, and he died of cardiac arrest at the railroad station, Astapovo.
Leo Tolstoy’s specialization in the unconscious process remains one of his greatest legacies and distinguishing aspect from other psychological writers. To date, his name remains to be associated with contingency as he explored skepticism, dogmatism, and various approaches to human experiences. Some of his unpublished works that were known after his death include the novella Khadji-Murat (1904; Hadji-Murad)
Tolstoy’s portrait excludes a deeply introspective questioning of the accident of existence with its cruel yet livable choices. His face and specifically his eyes screamed the narrative he witnesses and lived. In a word he has been there!