Classic Authors: Leo Tolstoy
© Susan Jensen
Tolstoy’s early education came from private tutors. In 1844, he began studying law and Oriental languages at Kazan University. He left the school three years later without a degree. Dissatisfied with his studies, he returned home and spent much of the next few years traveling in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1851, after accruing heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied his brother to the Caucasus, where they both joined the army. While in the service, he began his literary career. Although he had been keeping a diary for several years, he had yet to publish any of his writing. That would all change with Childhood(1852), a short semi-autobiographical novel which he published under a pseudonym. Two more volumes in the series followed: Boyhood(1854) and Youth(1857).
After completing his stint in the military, Tolstoy traveled to France, Switzerland and Germany to learn about society and educational theory. When he returned to Russia, he began a school for peasant children. He also spent much of his time reading everything on his bookshelf, from Plato to George Eliot.
In 1862, he married Sonya Andreyevna Behrs, with whom he had 13 children. Not only did she care for him and their children, but Sonya also served as Tolstoy’s scribe. Like him, she kept a journal for much of her life, leaving the world with a telling history of their lives together. The couple settled at Yasnaya Polyana, and Tolstoy concentrated on writing his masterpiece, War and Peace(1863-69).
Tolstoy’s epic novel about Napoleon’s invasion of Russia appeared in the 1860s. During the next decade, he published Anna Karenina(1875-77), the story of a married woman who follows her lover, and ultimately commits suicide. Although he wrote numerous other stories, plays, articles, essays and novels, Leo Tolstoy is most widely known for these two classic works.
During the 1880s, Russia saw another side of the great writer. After undergoing a severe spiritual crisis, Tolstoy turned to his own brand of religion. He had given up his Orthodox Christian faith years ago; now he embraced a doctrine consisting of 5 tenets (summarized by britannica.com): 1) Love your enemies, 2) Do not be angry, 3) Do not lust, 4) Do not fight evil with evil and 5) Do not take oaths. Several of these beliefs caused great controversy for himself and his family. His relationship with his wife, especially, became strained. This period of Tolstoy’s career is marked by numerous religious and moral works (“What People Live By” [1882] and “Where Love Is, God Is” [1885]) as well as volumes geared more toward the educated, such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and Father Sergius(1898).
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