Facts about Leo Tolstoy
- 05
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time, with Anna Karenina frequently cited alongside War and Peace as a pinnacle of realist fiction.
- 04
At age 82, Tolstoy fled his home in November 1910 and died just ten days later at a remote railway station in Astapovo, abandoning his family in a final act of spiritual renunciation.
- 03
Tolstoy's personal diaries, spanning over 60 years from 1847 to 1910, reveal his internal moral struggles and philosophical evolution that shaped his literary masterpieces.
- 02
Tolstoy gave away his vast estate and copyrights in 1891, renouncing wealth to pursue ascetic spiritual ideals during his final decades.
- 01
In 1869, Leo Tolstoy completed War and Peace after six years of intensive writing and research across 1,200 manuscript pages.