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Leo Tolstoy or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian Author, Essayist and Philosopher, who was regarded highly among the greatest of novelists. His greatest works are War and Peace, which examines the absurdity, hypocrisy, and shallowness of war and aristocratic society, and Anna Karenina......

After Anna Karenina was published, Tolstoy went through a period of despair and emerged from it a fundamentalist Christian who rejected all churches and all authority. His Christian beliefs centered on the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the injunction to turn the other cheek, which he saw as a justification for pacifism, non-violence and non-resistance. Tolstoy believed that a true Christian could find lasting happiness by striving for inner self-perfection through following the Great Commandment of loving one's neighbor and God rather than looking outward to the church or state for guidance and meaning.

Almost one hundred years after his death, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and War and Peace were placed on Time Magazine’s, "Ten Greatest Novels of all Time," list in January of 2007. And Canadian actor Christopher Plummer was nominated for a 2009 Spirit Award, for best supporting actor for his role as the aging Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station.

Tolstoy continued to struggled with his identity; where he had come from and who he had become, and wrote in his diary:

His belief in non-resistance (non-violence) when faced with conflict is another distinct attribute of his philosophy based on Christ's teachings. Having embraced the pacifist doctrine of non-resistance as per the teachings of Jesus outlined in the gospels, Tolstoy gave up meat, tobacco, alcohol and preached chastity. He wrote The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1893), titled after Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament. When Mahatma Gandhi read it he was profoundly moved and wrote to Tolstoy regarding the Passive Resistance movement. Tolstoy was involved with many causes and appealed to the Tsar to avoid civil war at all costs.

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Tolstoy was born on September 9^th, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyanam, Russia, to Count Nicolay Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Maria Volkonsky. He was the fourth on five siblings. His parents died when he was a child, leaving him to be brought up by relatives. He was born into nobility, but spent much of his life as a champion of Russia's peasant class, notably in the field of education. In 1844, Tolstoy began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University. Dissatisfied with the university’s conventional system of learning; left without obtaining his degree, and returned toYasnaya Polyana.

While at Sevastopol, the horror of war really got to him. His experience at Sevastopol, and especially of fighting the French, under conditions that were not different from the Napoleonic warfare, gave him the insight to write War and Peace, which was published in six volumes in Moscow in 1868. Tolstoy’s other major work is Anne Karenina, which was published in 1878. In September, 1862, he married Sofia ‘Sonya’ Andreyevna Behrs--they had thirteen children.

Leo Tolstoy's final years were filled with worldwide acclaim and great unhappiness, as he was caught in the strife between his convictions, his followers, and his family. He set out on his last pilgrimage in October, 1910, accompanied by his youngest daughter, Alexandra, and his physician. The trip proved too much, and he died of pneumonia in the home of the stationmaster of the small depot at Astapovo on November 20th, 1910, at the age of 82. He was buried at Yasnaya Polyana.

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He started living a troublesome lifestyle while traveling between his estate and Moscow and St. Petersburg. He was addicted to gambling, racking up huge debts; having to sell possessions to pay them off including parts of his estate. He would go on drinking binges and associated with various characters of ill-repute. In 1851, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother Nikolay to the Caucasus, and joined an artillery regiment, as an opportunity to change his life. In April 1855, he was sent to Sevastopol during the Crimean war as an artillery officer--the elite of the Russian army. After, he decided a professional military career was not for him, but nevertheless finished out his service.

Posted: December 20th, 2009

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“I am now suffering the torments of hell: I am calling to mind all the infamies of my former life-these reminiscences do not pass away and they poison my existence. Generally people regret that the individuality does not retain memory after death. What a happiness that it does not! What an anguish it would be if I remembered in this life all the evil, all that is painful to the conscience, committed by me in a previous life….What a happiness that reminiscences disappear with death and that there only remains consciousness.”