Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Writer and Thinker

Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Writer and Thinker

• 1828-1910

Ivan Kramskoy Portrait of Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Born August 28 (Sept. 9) 1828 on family estate, Yasnaya Polyana

Childhood and Youth

• Born into an ancient noble family
• Parents die when
• Tolstoy is young
• Raised by his
• aunts
• Studies law at the
• Kazan’ University

Tolstoy’s Military Career: 1851-56

• Serves first in the
• Caucasus
• Then in an artillery
• regiment in
• Sebastopol, Crimea
• Writes and publishes
• his first fiction:
• Childhood (1852)
• Boyhood (1854)
• Youth (1857)

Literary Beginnings

• Moves to Petersburg, tries to integrate into literary circles
• In 1857 visits France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany
• Photo: Tolstoy in 1862

1859: Interest in education

• Upon his return from Europe, establishes schools for peasant children on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana
• 1860 goes to W. Europe to study schools

Sophia Andreevna Behrs (1844-1919)

• Tolstoy and Sophia marry in 1862
• They immediately settle in Yasnaya Polyana
• They have 13 children (only 9 survive)

Life with Tolstoy

• Sophia Andreevna:
• "I lived with Lev
• Nikolayevich
• for forty-eight years,
• but I never really
• learned what kind of
• man he was.“

The Tolstoys

Tolstoy, his children and grandchildren

• Tolstoy, his children and grandchildren