Tolstoy, Leo

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[[Image:LeoTolstoy.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life]]
  
[[Image:LeoTolstoy.jpg|thumb|200px|Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life]]
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Count '''Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: '''Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й'''; commonly referred to in [[English language|English]] as '''Leo Tolstoy''') (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) was a [[Russia|Russian]] [[novel|novelist]], [[social reformer]], [[pacifism|pacifist]], [[anarchism|Christian anarchist]], and moral thinker. Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]].'' In their scope, breadth, insight into human motives, and realistic depiction of Russian life, these two books stand at the summit of [[realism|realistic fiction]].
  
Count '''Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy''' {{Audio|Ru-Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.ogg|listen}} ([[Russian language|Russian]]: '''Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й'''; commonly referred to in [[English language|English]] as '''Leo Tolstoy''') ([[September 9]], [[1828]] – [[November 20]], [[1910]]; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, [[Julian calendar|O.S.]]) was a [[Russia|Russian]] [[novelist]], [[social reformer]], [[pacifism|pacifist]], [[Christian anarchism|Christian anarchist]], [[vegetarianism|vegetarian]], moral thinker and an influential member of the [[Tolstoy|Tolstoy family]].
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In his later writings he distanced himself from realism as an aesthetic goal. Tormented between a strict religious temperament and his sensual cravings, Tolstoy came to embrace a life of personal austerity based on Christian love and an idealized image of the Russian peasantry. His later fiction is informed by a more didactic tone, and he turned increasingly to essays and treatises. In his book ''What is Art?'' (1898) Tolstoy condemned [[Shakespeare]], [[Beethoven]], and [[Dante]], arguing that art has as its purpose the transmission of the highest and best feelings to encourage good actions.  
  
Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]]''; in their scope, breadth and realistic depiction of Russian life, the two books stand at the peak of [[realism|realistic fiction]]. As a moral philosopher he was notable for his ideas on [[nonviolent resistance]] through his work ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'', which in turn influenced such twentieth-century figures as [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Martin Luther King]].
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Following the pacifist doctrine of nonresistance he found in the Christian [[Gospel]]s, Tolstoy rejected all forms of coersion, both in government and in the church, leading to his [[excommunication]] from the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] in 1901. In a final dramatic act, the 83-year-old count renounced his rank and privileges, giving his estate to his family; he donned the garb of a Russian [[peasant]], and set out on foot, trusting to inspiration. He caught a chill soon after and, with the world press arriving to report on the remarkable event, died at the railroad stationmaster’s house at Astapovo on November 20, 1910.
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Tolstoy's stature as a literary master and his uncompromising advocacy of nonviolence expanded his reputation in Russia and abroad, and his estate became a place of pilgrimage. As a moral philosopher his ideas on [[nonviolent resistance]] in his work ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]],'' influenced such twentieth-century figures as [[M. K Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Martin Luther King, Jr]].
  
 
==Early life==
 
==Early life==
Tolstoy was born at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], the family estate situated in the region of [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], [[Russia]]. He was the fourth of five children in his family. His parents died when he was young, so he was brought up by relatives. Tolstoy studied law and [[Oriental]] languages at [[Kazan University]] in [[1844]], but never earned a degree. He returned in the middle of his studies to Yasnaya Polyana, and spent much of his time in [[Moscow]] and [[Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg]]. After contracting heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother to the [[Caucasus]] in [[1851]] and joined the [[Russian Army]]. Tolstoy began writing literature around this time. In [[1862]] he married Sofia Andreevna Bers, and together they had thirteen children.
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Tolstoy was born at [[Yasnaya Polyana]], his family estate situated in the region of Tula, [[Russia]]. He was the fourth of five children in his family. His parents died when he was young, so he was brought up by relatives. Tolstoy studied law and [[Oriental]] languages at [[Kazan University]] in 1844, but never earned a degree. He returned in the middle of his studies to Yasnaya Polyana, and spent much of his time in [[Moscow]] and [[Saint Petersburg]]. After contracting heavy [[gambling]] debts, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother to the [[Caucasus]] in 1851 and joined the [[Russian Military|Russian Army]]. Tolstoy began writing literature around this time. In 1862 he married Sofia Andreevna Bers, and together they had 13 children.
  
His marriage has been described by [[A.N.Wilson]] as one of the unhappiest in literary history, and was marked from the outset by Tolstoy on the eve of his marriage giving his diaries to his fiancee. These detailed Tolstoy's sexual relations with his serfs. His relationship with his wife further deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.
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His marriage became progressively more difficult. It has been described by A.N. Wilson as one of the unhappiest in literary history, marked from the outset by Tolstoy's decision on the eve of his marriage to give his diaries to his fiancée. These detailed Tolstoy's sexual relations with his [[serf]]s. His relationship with his wife further deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.
  
==Novels and Fictional Works==
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==Early works==
Tolstoy was one of the giants of [[19th century]] [[Russian literature]]. His most famous works include the novels ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]]'', and many shorter works, including the [[novella|novellas]] ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilych]]'' and ''[[Hadji Murad]]''.
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Tolstoy was one of the giants of nineteenth-century [[Russian literature]]. Among his most famous works are the novels ''[[War and Peace]]'' and ''[[Anna Karenina]],'' and many shorter works including the [[novella]]s ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilych]]'' and ''[[Hadji Murad]].''
His contemporaries paid him lofty tributes: [[Dostoevsky]] thought him the greatest of all living novelists while [[Gustave Flaubert]] gushed: "What an artist and what a psychologist!".  Later critics and novelists would concede.  [[Virginia Woolf]] went on to declare him "greatest of all novelists" and [[Thomas Mann]] wrote of his seemingly guileless artistry: "Seldom did art work so much like nature", sentiments shared in part by many others, including [[Marcel Proust]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]] and [[William Faulkner]].
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His contemporaries paid him lofty tributes: [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]] thought him the greatest of all living novelists. His other admirers included [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[Virginia Woolf]], and [[Thomas Mann]].  
  
His [[autobiographical novel|autobiographical novels]], ''Childhood'', ''Boyhood'', and ''Youth'' (1852–1856), his first publications, tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his [[peasant]] playmates. Although in later life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books still have relevance for their telling of the universal story of growing up.
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His first publications, the [[autobiographical novel]]s, ''Childhood,'' ''Boyhood,'' and ''Youth'' (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his [[peasant]] playmates. Although later in his life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books are still recognized for their contribution to the coming-of-age genre.
  
Tolstoy served as a [[second lieutenant]] in an artillery regiment during the [[Crimean War]], recounted in his ''[[Sevastapol Sketches]]''. His experiences in battle helped develop his [[pacifism]], and gave him material for realistic depiction of the horrors of [[war]] in his later work.
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Tolstoy served as a [[second lieutenant]] in an artillery regiment during the [[Crimean War]], recounted in his ''[[Sevastapol Sketches]].'' His experiences in battle helped develop his [[pacifism|pacifist beliefs]], and gave him material for the realistic depiction of the horrors of [[war]] in his later work.
  
His [[fiction]] consistently attempts to convey realistically the Russian society in which he lived.  ''[[The Cossacks]]'' (1863) describes the [[Cossack]] life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl.  ''Anna Karenina'' (1877) tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner (much like Tolstoy), who works alongside his [[serf]]s in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.
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His [[fiction]] is one of the greatest examples of the genre of [[realism]]. Realism is a literary technique that uses detailed verbal descriptions of places and things to imply attributes of character. Tolstoy’s description of Russian aristocratic society, like the lavish restaurant scene between Levin and Count Oblonsky in ''Anna Karenina,'' is unparalleled.
  
Tolstoy not only drew from his experience of life but created characters in his own image, such as Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei in ''War and Peace'', Levin in ''Anna Karenina'' and to some extent, Prince Nekhlyudov in ''Resurrection''.
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==War and Peace==
  
''War and Peace'' is generally thought to be one of the greatest [[novel]]s ever written, remarkable for its breadth and unity. Its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]], from the court of [[Alexander I of Russia]] to the battlefields of [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]] and [[Borodino]]. It was written with the purpose of exploring Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander. Somewhat surprisingly, Tolstoy did not consider ''War and Peace'' to be a novel (nor did he consider many of the great Russian fictions written at that time to be novels). This view becomes less surprising if one considers that Tolstoy was a novelist of the [[Realism|realist]] school who considered the novel to be a framework for the examination of social and political issues in nineteenth-century life. ''War and Peace'' (which is to Tolstoy really an [[epic]] in prose) therefore did not qualify. Tolstoy thought that ''Anna Karenina'' was his first true novel, and it is indeed one of the greatest of all realist novels.
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''[[War and Peace]]'' is generally thought to be one of the greatest [[novel]]s ever written, although Tolstoy did not consider ''War and Peace'' to be a novel, but an [[epic]] in prose. Remarkable for its breadth and unity, its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, and others fictional. Its depiction of the battle scenes are noteworthy for Tolstoy's narrative technique, which would come to be known as ''ostranenie,'' or "making it strange." Tolstoy deliberately explains ordinary, customary, or usual phenomena as though they were extraordinary, exceptional, or unusual. (Victor Shklovsky, [[formalism| formalist]] literary critic developed this notion in a famous essay.)
  
After ''Anna Karenina'', Tolstoy concentrated on [[Christian]] themes, and his later novels such as ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' (1886) and ''What Then Must We Do?'' develop a radical [[Anarchy|anarcho]]-[[pacifism|pacifist]] Christian [[philosophy]] which led to his [[excommunication]] from the [[Orthodox church]] in 1901.
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The story moves from family life to the headquarters of [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon]], from the court of [[Alexander I of Russia]] to the battlefields of [[Battle of Austerlitz|Austerlitz]] and [[Battle of Borodino|Borodino]]. It follows the lives and fate of a group of aristocratic families—the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys—although the central character that emerges is Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son and heir of the wealthy Count Cyril Bezukhov. Tolstoy began writing in 1863 and did not finish until 1869. The general tenor of the novel is patriotic, anti-Napoleonic. It portrays a united front against the invader that belies some of the historical tensions that existed, including some peasant uprisings and sympathy for Napoleon on the part of some liberals.
  
==Religious and political beliefs==
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The novel was written with the purpose of exploring Tolstoy's theory of history, which ironically in a novel dedicated to the [[Napoleonic Wars]], rejected the significance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander in the greater scheme of things. Tolstoy rejects the “great man” theory of history in favor of the view that larger, more impersonal forces are at work. As a counterpoint to the dominant figure of Napoleon, Tolstoy introduces into the novel the peasant [[philosopher]], Platon Karataev. Pierre Bezukhov comes across Platon (clearly an allusion to the Greek philosopher [[Plato]]) when he is captured by the French. While in prison together, Platon, a long-time soldier, tells him a story that would anticipate some of Tolstoy's later pacifist and quietist beliefs. Karataev, while apparently insignificant, serves as the spiritual center of the novel.
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==Anna Karenina==
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Tolstoy thought that ''Anna Karenina'' was his first true novel, and it is ranked as one of the greatest of all [[realism|realist]] novels. ''Anna Karenina'' (1877) begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ''Anna Karenina'' tells parallel stories of two families, one happy and one unhappy. The Shcherbatskys are the happy therefore "good" family. Dolly is married to the amiable, but philandering Oblonsky. Her sister, Kitty, after being spurned by Count Vronsky, marries Count Levin and learns to be happy. Levin, a landowner, an alter-ego of Tolstoy, works alongside his serfs in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.
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Anna, a striking beauty married to an older, high-ranking government official, Alexei Karenina, is trapped in a loveless marriage. She feels confined by the conventions and falsities of society. She falls in love with Count Vronsky and leaves her husband and son to live the life of a mistress. [[Anna Karenina]] is a closed moral universe. Her action against not only the prevailing social mores, but against the natural order at work in the novel, dooms her in the end. When she throws herself under a train and dies near the end of the narrative, it is already a foregone conclusion. Her situation has become so completely untenable that it is not so much a question of what she will do, but when.
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After his two great novels, Tolstoy wrote a number of first-rate short stories, including ''The Death of Ivan Ilich,'' ''The Kreutzer Sonata,'' and ''Master and Man''. In ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' (1886) Tolstoy addressed a theme that personally haunted him, death. Not long after, he underwent a spiritual crisis and transformation. This is evident in his later works which often took the form of folk tales and moral aphorisms, such as ''What Then Must We Do?'' and ''How Much Land Does One Man Need?'' In turn, he developed a radical [[anarchism|anarcho]]-[[pacifism|pacifist]] Christian [[philosophy]] which led to his [[excommunication]] from the [[Orthodox Church]] in 1901.
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==Theory of Art==
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After Tolstoy’s religious conversion, his view of art also changed dramatically. His book on art, ''What is Art?'' is an iconoclastic treatment that dismisses much of the canons of Western art. The proper role of art, he concluded, is to inspire moral vision in its audience. Not surprisingly, he reserved his strongest invective for modern art, which emphasized artifice and the formal properties of the artistic medium over the message. Modern art was artificial, not spontaneous, and thus immoral in Tolstoy’s interpretation. Ironically, by his new standards, much of his own work did not qualify as true art, including the novels for which he is beloved. Even Shakespeare did not escape criticism in Tolstoy’s moral aestheticism.
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==Religious and Political Beliefs==
 
[[Image:Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887).jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) by [[Ilya Yefimovich Repin]]]]
 
[[Image:Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887).jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) by [[Ilya Yefimovich Repin]]]]
Tolstoy's Christian beliefs were based on the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and particularly on the comment about turning your cheek, which he saw as a justification of pacifism. These beliefs came out of a middle aged crisis that began with a [[clinical depression|depression]] so severe that if he saw a rope it made him think of [[hanging]] himself, and he had to hide his guns to stop himself from committing [[suicide]].  
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Tolstoy's Christian beliefs were based on the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and particularly on the comment about turning your cheek, which he saw as a justification for [[pacifism]]. These beliefs came out of a middle-aged crisis that began with a [[clinical depression|depression]] so severe that if he saw a rope he would remark that it made him think of hanging himself, and which forced him to hide his guns to prevent himself from committing [[suicide]].  
  
Yet out of this depression came his radical and very original new ideas about Christianity. He believed that a Christian should look inside his or her own heart to find inner happiness rather than looking outward toward the church or state. His belief in [[nonviolence]] when facing oppression is another distinct attribute of his philosophy. By directly influencing [[Mahatma Gandhi]] with this idea through his work ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'' [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html], Tolstoy has had a huge influence on the nonviolent resistance movement to this day. He believed that the aristocracy were a burden on the poor, and that the only solution to how we live together is through [[Christian anarchism|anarchy]]. He also opposed private property and the institution of marriage and valued the ideals of [[chastity]] and [[sexual abstinence]] (discussed in ''[[Father Sergius]]''). He was a [[pacifism|pacifist]] and [[vegetarianism|vegetarian]].
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Yet, this depression led Tolstoy to a radical and original approach to Christianity. He rejected the institution of the church in favor of a more personalized orientation. His belief in nonviolence as a positive feature of Jesus’ teaching characterized his beliefs. By directly influencing [[M. K Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] with this idea through his work ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'', Tolstoy has had a huge influence on [[nonviolent resistance]] to this day. Although himself an aristocrat, he came to believe that the aristocracy posed a burden on the poor. He embraced some elements of [[anarchism]], such as the abolition of private property and the institution of marriage. Although he led a profligate youth, he came to value the ideals of [[chastity]] and [[sexual abstinence]] as discussed in ''[[Father Sergius]].'' He was not only a [[pacifism|pacifist]] but also a [[vegetarianism|vegetarian]].
  
Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of [[Christian anarchism|anarchist]] thought.  Prince [[Peter Kropotkin]] wrote of him in the article on [[Christian anarchism|anarchism]] in the [[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]:
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==Influence==
  
:Without naming himself an [[anarchism|anarchist]], Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, [[Chojecki]], [[Denk]] and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the [[state]] and [[property right]]s, deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of [[Jesus]] and from the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent he made (especially in ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'' [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html]) a powerful criticism of the [[church]], the state and law altogether, and especially of the present [[property law]]s. He describes the state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized [[government]]. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing distribution of property, and from the teachings of Jesus he deduces the rule of non-resistance and the absolute condemnation of all [[war|wars]]. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike.
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As well as [[pacifism]], Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of [[Christian anarchism]] and anarchist thought. Prince [[Peter Kropotkin]] wrote of him in the article on Christian anarchism in the 1911 ''Encyclopedia Britannica'':
  
A letter Tolstoy wrote to an [[India]]n newspaper entitled "[http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_a_Hindu_-_Leo_Tolstoy A Letter to a Hindu]" resulted in a long-running correspondence with [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], who was in [[South Africa]] at the time and was beginning to become an activist. The correspondence with Tolstoy strongly influenced Gandhi towards the concept of [[nonviolent resistance]], a central part of Tolstoy's view of Christianity. Along with his growing idealism, he also became a major supporter of the [[Esperanto]] movement. Tolstoy was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the [[Doukhobor|Doukhobors]] and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community, after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895.  He aided the Doukhobors in migrating to Canada.
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<blockquote>Without naming himself an [[anarchism|anarchist]], Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, [[Chojecki]], [[Denk]] and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the [[state]] and [[property right]]s*, deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of [[Jesus]] and from the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent he made (especially in ''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'' [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html]) a powerful criticism of the [[church]], the state and law altogether, and especially of the present [[property law]]s. He describes the state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized [[government]]. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing distribution of property, and from the teachings of Jesus he deduces the rule of non-resistance and the absolute condemnation of all [[war]]s. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike.</blockquote>
  
In [[1904]], during the [[Russo-Japanese War]], Tolstoy condemned the war and wrote to the [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] priest [[Soyen Shaku]] in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement.  
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A letter Tolstoy wrote to an [[India]]n newspaper entitled "[http://sources.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_a_Hindu_-_Leo_Tolstoy A Letter to a Hindu]" resulted in a long-running correspondence with [[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas Gandhi]], who was at the time a young activist in [[South Africa]]. The correspondence with Tolstoy strongly influenced Gandhi towards adopting the method of [[nonviolent resistance]]. Through Gandhi, Tolstoy also influenced a young [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] and the American [[Civil Rights Movement]]. He also became a major supporter of the [[Esperanto]] movement. Tolstoy was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the [[Doukhobor]]s* and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895. He aided the Doukhobors in migrating to [[Canada]].
  
Tolstoy was an extremely wealthy member of the [[Russia]]n nobility. He came to believe that he was undeserving of his inherited wealth, and was renowned among the peasantry for his generosity.  He would frequently return to his country estate with vagrants whom he felt needed a helping hand, and would often dispense large sums of money to street beggars while on trips to the city, much to his wife's chagrin.  
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In 1904, during the [[Russo-Japanese War]], Tolstoy condemned the war and wrote to the [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] priest [[Soyen Shaku]] in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement.
  
He died of pneumonia at Astapovo station in [[1910]] after leaving home in the middle of winter at the age of 82. His death came only days after gathering the nerve to abandon his family and wealth and take up the path of a wandering ascetic&mdash;a path that he had agonized over not pursuing for decades. Thousands of peasants turned out to line the streets at his funeral.
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==Final Days==
  
==Bibliography== [[Image:Moszhuserge.jpg|thumb|225px|[[Ivan Mozzhukhin]] in the [[1917]] screen version of ''[[Father Sergius]]''.]]
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Toward the end of his life, Tolstoy rejected his wealth and privilege. He came to believe that he was undeserving of his inherited wealth, and was renowned among the peasantry for his generosity. He would frequently return to his country estate with vagrants whom he felt needed a helping hand. He would often dispense large sums of money to street beggars while on trips to the city, much to his wife's chagrin.
*''[[Childhood (novel)|Childhood]]'' (''Детство'' [''Detstvo'']; [[1852]])  
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He died of pneumonia at Astapovo Station in 1910 after leaving home in the middle of winter at the age of 82. His death came only days after gathering the nerve to abandon his family and wealth and take up the path of a wandering [[asceticism|ascetic]]—a path that he had agonized over not pursuing for decades. Thousands of peasants turned out to line the streets at his funeral. In 1921 his estate Yasnaya Polyana was turned into a museum, and preserved as it was at the time of his residence there, including his library of over 22,000 volumes.
*''[[Boyhood (novel)|Boyhood]]'' (''Отрочество'' [''Otrochestvo'']; [[1854]])
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*''[[Youth (novel)|Youth]]'' (''Юность'' [''Yunost<nowiki>'</nowiki>'']; [[1856]])
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==List of Tolstoy’s works==  
*''[[Sevastopol Stories]]'' (''Севастопольские рассказы'' [''Sevastolpolskye Rasskazi'']; [[1855]]&ndash;[[1856|56]])
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[[Image:Moszhuserge.jpg|thumb|225px|[[Ivan Mozzhukhin]] in the 1917 screen version of ''[[Father Sergius]].'']]
*''[[Family Happiness]]'' ([[1859]])
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*''[[Childhood (novel)|Childhood]]'' (''Детство'' [''Detstvo'']; 1852)  
*''[[The Cossacks]]'' (''Казаки'' [''Kazaki'']; [[1863]])
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*''[[Boyhood (novel)|Boyhood]]'' (''Отрочество'' [''Otrochestvo'']; 1854)
*''[[Ivan the Fool]]'': A Lost Opportunity'' ([[1863]])
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*''[[Youth (novel)|Youth]]'' (''Юность'' [''Yunost<nowiki>'</nowiki>'']; 1856)
*''[[Polikushka]]'' ([[1863]])
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*''[[Sevastopol Stories]]'' (''Севастопольские рассказы'' [''Sevastolpolskye Rasskazi'']; 1855&ndash;1856)
*''[[War and Peace]]'' (''Война и мир''; [''Voyna i mir''] [[1865]]&ndash;[[1869|69]])
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*''[[Family Happiness]]'' (1859)
*''[[A Prisoner in the Caucasus]]'' (''Кавказский Пленник''; [[1872]])
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*''[[The Cossacks]]'' (''Казаки'' [''Kazaki'']; 1863)
*''[[Father Sergius]]'' (''Отец Сергий''; [[1873]])
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*''[[Ivan the Fool]]'': A Lost Opportunity'' (1863)
*''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (''Анна Каренина''; [[1875]]&ndash;[[1877|77]])
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*''[[Polikushka]]'' (1863)
*''[[A Confession (novel)|A Confession]]'' ([[1882]])
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*''[[War and Peace]]'' (''Война и мир''; [''Voyna i mir''] 1865&ndash;1869)
*''[[Kholstomer|Strider: The Story of a Horse]]'' ([[1864]], [[1886]])
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*''[[A Prisoner in the Caucasus]]'' (''Кавказский Пленник''; 1872)
*''[[The Death of Ivan Ilych]]'' ([[1886]])
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*''[[Father Sergius]]'' (''Отец Сергий''; 1873)
*''[[How Much Land Does a Man Need?]]'' ([[1886]])
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*''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (''Анна Каренина''; 1875&ndash;1877)
*''[[The Power of Darkness]]'' (Власть тьмы [Vlast' t'my]; [[1886]]), drama
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*''[[A Confession (novel)|A Confession]]'' (1882)
*''[[The Fruits of Culture]]'' (play) ([[1889]])
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*''[[Kholstomer|Strider: The Story of a Horse]]'' (1864, 1886)
*''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]] and other stories'' (''Крейцерова соната'' [''Kreutzerova Sonata'']; [[1889]])
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*''[[The Death of Ivan Ilych]]'' (1886)
*''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'' [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html] ([[1894]])
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*''[[How Much Land Does a Man Need?]]'' (1886)
*''[[Master and Man]] and other stories'' ([[1895]])
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*''[[The Power of Darkness]]'' (Власть тьмы [Vlast' t'my]; 1886), drama
*''[[The Gospel in Brief]] ([[1896]])
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*''[[The Fruits of Culture]]'' (play) (1889)
*''[[What Is Art?]]'' ([[1897]])
+
*''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]] and other stories'' (''Крейцерова соната'' [''Kreutzerova Sonata'']; 1889)
*''[[Resurrection (novel)|Resurrection]]'' (''Воскресение'' [''Voskresenie'']; [[1899]])
+
*''[[The Kingdom of God is Within You]]'' [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html] (1894)
*''[[The Living Corpse]]'' (''Живой труп'' [''Zhivoi trup'']; published [[1911]]), drama
+
*''[[Master and Man]] and other stories'' (1895)
*''[[Hadji Murad]]'' (''Хаджи-Мурат''; written in [[1896]]-[[1904]], published [[1912]])
+
*''[[The Gospel in Brief]]'' (1896)
 +
*''[[What Is Art?]]'' (1897)
 +
*''[[Resurrection (novel)|Resurrection]]'' (''Воскресение'' [''Voskresenie'']; 1899)
 +
*''[[The Living Corpse]]'' (''Живой труп'' [''Zhivoi trup'']; published 1911), drama
 +
*''[[Hadji Murad]]'' (''Хаджи-Мурат''; written in 1896-1904, published 1912)
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
 
*[[Christian anarchism]]
 
*[[Christian anarchism]]
*[[Mahatma Gandhi]] ([[1929]]) ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]'' (available at [[wikisource:An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth|wikisource]])
+
*[[M. K Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]] (1929) ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]''  
 
*[[Tolstoy|Tolstoy family]]
 
*[[Tolstoy|Tolstoy family]]
 
*[[Tolstoyan]]
 
*[[Tolstoyan]]
 
*[[Vladimir Chertkov]]
 
*[[Vladimir Chertkov]]
 +
 +
==References==
 +
* Jones, W. Gareth. ''Tolstoy: What Is Art?'' London: Duckworth Publishers, 1997.
 +
ISBN 1853993816  introduction to translation in English.
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
{{Wikisource author}}
+
All links retrieved October 25, 2022.
{{Wikiquote}}
+
 
{{Commons|Leo Tolstoy}}
+
* [http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/Tolstoy%20On%20Life,%20Death,%20And%20Religious%20Belief.htm Tolstoy On Life, Death, & Belief] - an article at Philosophical Society.com.
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/anna/timeline_text.html Leo Tolstoy's Life] - Tolstoy's personal, professional and world event timeline, from [[Masterpiece Theatre]].
+
* [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Tolstoy%2C+Leo&amode=start Online Books by Leo Tolstoy]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/anna/tg_history.html Synopsis of Leo Tolstoy's Life] - from Masterpiece Theatre.
 
* [http://www.ltolstoy.com/ Leo Tolstoy] - A comprehensive site with pictures, [http://www.ltolstoy.com/etext/ e-texts], biography, genealogy, etc.
 
* [http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Archives/Tolstoy%20On%20Life,%20Death,%20And%20Religious%20Belief.htm Tolstoy On Life, Death & Belief] - an article at Philosophical Society.com.
 
* [[Project Gutenberg]] e-texts of [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Tolstoy%2C+Leo&amode=start some of Leo Tolstoy's works]
 
 
* [http://ilibrary.ru/author/tolstoy/ Full texts of some Leo Tolstoy's works in the original Russian]
 
* [http://ilibrary.ru/author/tolstoy/ Full texts of some Leo Tolstoy's works in the original Russian]
* [http://www.kingdomnow.org/withinyou.html The Kingdom of God Is Within You - free e-text]
 
* [http://www.bruderhof.com/e-books/WalkInTheLight.htm Walk in the Light - free e-book]
 
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ltolstoi.htm Brief bio]
 
* [http://www.peacemakersguide.org/peace/Peacemakers/Leo-Tolstoy.htm Bruderhof Peacemakers Guide profile on Leo Tolstoy]
 
 
* [http://www.linguadex.com/tolstoy/ The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy]
 
* [http://www.linguadex.com/tolstoy/ The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy]
* [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/CheTols.html Illustrated Biography online] at University of Virginia
+
* [http://www.ccel.org/t/tolstoy/ Leo Tolstoy] CCEL
* [http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/tolstoy/ Tolstoy] at The Anarchist Library
 
* [http://books.mirror.org/gb.tolstoy.html Tolstoy] at Great Books Online
 
* [http://www.ccel.org/t/tolstoy/ Tolstoy] at CCEL
 
* [http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Tolstoy/ Links to works online]
 
* [http://www.geocities.com/cmcarpenter28/Biography/tragedy.html Aleksandra Tolstaya, "Tragedy of Tolstoy"]
 
 
* [http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/tolstoj/tolstoy.htm Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 1]  
 
* [http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/tolstoj/tolstoy.htm Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 1]  
 
* [http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/tolstoj/tolstoy2.htm#contents Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 2]  
 
* [http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/tolstoj/tolstoy2.htm#contents Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 2]  
 
[[Category:1828 births|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:1910 deaths|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Anarchists|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Russian essayists|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Russian novelists|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Russian short story writers|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Autodidacts|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Vegetarians|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
[[Category:Anti-war people|Tolstoy, Leo]]
 
 
[[be:Леў Талстой]]
 
[[cs:Lev Nikolajevič Tolstoj]]
 
[[da:Leo Tolstoj]]
 
[[de:Lew Nikolajewitsch Tolstoi]]
 
[[et:Lev Tolstoi]]
 
[[es:León Tolstói]]
 
[[eo:Lev TOLSTOJ]]
 
[[fr:Léon Tolstoï]]
 
[[he:לב טולסטוי]]
 
[[io:Lev Tolstoy]]
 
[[it:Lev Nikolaevic Tolstoj]]
 
[[ko:레프 톨스토이]]
 
[[nl:Leo Tolstoj]]
 
[[ja:レフ・トルストイ]]
 
[[no:Leo Tolstoj]]
 
[[os:Толстой, Николайы фырт Лев]]
 
[[pl:Lew Tołstoj]]
 
[[pt:Liev Tolstói]]
 
[[ru:Толстой, Лев Николаевич]]
 
[[sk:Lev Nikolajevič Tolstoj]]
 
[[sl:Lev Nikolajevič Tolstoj]]
 
[[sr:Лав Николајевич Толстој]]
 
[[fi:Leo Tolstoi]]
 
[[sv:Lev Tolstoj]]
 
[[zh:列夫·托爾斯泰]]
 
 
 
Leo Tolstoy
 
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
 
(Redirected from Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich)
 
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Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life
 
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy listen [▶] (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910; August 28, 1828 – November 7, 1910, O.S.) was a Russian novelist, social reformer, pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, moral thinker and an influential member of the Tolstoy family.
 
Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina; in their scope, breadth and depiction of Russian aristocracy, the two books stand at the peak of realistic fiction. As a moral philosopher he was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through his work The Kingdom of God is Within You, which in turn influenced such twentieth-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
 
Contents[hide]· 1 Early life · 2 Novels and Fictional Works · 3 Religious and political beliefs · 4 Bibliography · 5 See also · 6 External links
 
[edit]
 
Early life
 
Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate situated in the region of Tula, Russia. He was the fourth of five children in his family. His parents died when he was young, so he was brought up by relatives. Tolstoy studied law and Oriental languages at Kazan University in 1844, but never earned a degree. He returned in the middle of his studies to Yasnaya Polyana, and spent much of his time in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After contracting heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother to the Caucasus in 1851 and joined the Russian Army.  Tolstoy began writing literature around this time. In 1862 he married Sofia Andreevna Bers, and together they had thirteen children.
 
His marriage has been described by A.N.Wilson as one of the unhappiest in literary history.  It was marked for trouble from the outset.  On the eve of his marriage, Tolstoy gave his diaries, detailing his sexual relations with his serfs, to his fiancee.. His relationship with his wife further deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.
 
[edit]
 
Novels and Fictional Works
 
Tolstoy was one of the giants of 19th century Russian literature. His most famous works include the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and many shorter works, including the novellas The Death of Ivan Ilych and Hadji Murad.
 
Tolstoy’s first publications, his autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), tell the story of a rich landowner's son who is slow to realize the differences between him and his peasant playmates. Although in later life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books are still recognized as significant contributions to the coming of age genre.
 
Tolstoy served as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War.  His experiences are recounted in his Sevastapol Sketches. His experiences in battle helped develop his pacifism, and gave him material for the realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his later work.  The Cossacks (1863) describes the Cossack life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl.
 
Tolstoy is one of the greatest examples of the genre of realism.  Realism is a literary technique that uses detailed verbal descriptions of places and things to imply attributes of character.  Tolstoy’s description of Russian aristocratic society, like the lavish restaurant scence between Levin and Count Oblonsky in Anna Karenina, is unparalleled. 
 
War and Peace 1869 is generally thought to be one of the greatest novels ever written, remarkable for its breadth and unity. Its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoleon, from the court of Alexander I of Russia to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. It was written with the purpose of exploring Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander. Tolstoy rejects the “great man” theory of history in favor of the view that larger, more impersonal  forces are at work.  Somewhat surprisingly, Tolstoy did not consider War and Peace to be a novel, but an examination of social and political issues in nineteenth-century life. War and Peace (which Tolstoy considered an epic in prose) therefore did not qualify. Tolstoy thought that Anna Karenina was his first true novel, and it is indeed one of the greatest of all realist novels.
 
Anna Karenina (1877) begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  Anna Karenina tells parallel stories of two families, one happy and one unhappy.  Anna, trapped in a loveless marriage, feels trapped by the conventions and falsities of society.  She falls in love with the dashing Count Vronsky and leaves her husband to live the life of a mistress.  Count Levin, after an unsuccessful romance, marries Kitty and lives the life of a philosophical landowner (much like Tolstoy), who works alongside his serfs in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.
 
In The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) Tolstoy addressed a theme that personally haunted him, death.  Not long after he underwent a spiritual crisis and spiritual transformation.  His later works often took the form of folk tales and moral aphorisms, such as What Then Must We Do?and How Much Land Does One Man Need?.  He developed a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy which led to his excommunication from the Orthodox church in 1901.
 
[edit]
 
 
 
Religious and political beliefs
 
 
 
Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) by Ilya Yefimovich Repin
 
Tolstoy's Christian beliefs were based on the Sermon on the Mount, and particularly on Jesus’s instruction to turn the other cheek.  Tolstoy saw in this teaching a mandate for pacifism. Tolstoy’s religious conversion began as a middle aged crisis, including a depression so severe that if he saw a rope it made him think of hanging himself.  He had to hide his guns to stop himself from committing suicide.
 
Yet this depression led Tolstoy to a radical and very original new approach to Christianity. He rejected the institution of the church in favor of of a more personalized orientation.  In particular, his belief in nonviolence as a positive feature of Jesus’ teaching characterized his beliefs.  Although himself an aristocract, he came to believe that the aristocracy posed a burden on the poor, and to embrace some elements of anarchism, like the abolition of private property and the institution of marriage.  Although he led a profligate youth, he came to value the ideals of chastity and sexual abstinence (discussed in Father Sergius). He also became a vegetarian.
 
Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of anarchist thought. Prince Peter Kropotkin wrote of him in the article on anarchism in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
 
Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Chojecki, Denk and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the state and property rights, deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of Jesus and from the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent he made (especially in The Kingdom of God is Within You [2]) a powerful criticism of the church, the state and law altogether, and especially of the present property laws. He describes the state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized government. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing distribution of property, and from the teachings of Jesus he deduces the rule of non-resistance and the absolute condemnation of all wars. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike.
 
A letter Tolstoy wrote to an Indian newspaper entitled "A Letter to a Hindu" resulted in a long-running correspondence with Mohandas Gandhi, who was at the time a young activist in South Africa. The correspondence with Tolstoy strongly influenced Gandhi towards adopting the method of nonviolent resistance.  Tolstoy also became a major supporter of the Esperanto movement. He was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the Doukhobors and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community, after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895. He aided the Doukhobors’ migration to Canada.
 
 
Theory of Art
 
After Tolstoy’s religious conversion, his view of art also changed dramatically.  His book on art, What is Art? is an iconoclastic treatment that dismisses much of the canons of Western art.  The proper role of art, he concluded, is to inspire moral vision in its audience.  Not surprisingly, he reserved his strongest invective for modern art, which emphasized artifice and the formal properties of the artistic medium over the message.  Modern art was artificial, not spontaneous, and thus immoral in Tolstoy’s interpretation.  Ironically, by his new standards, much of his own work did not qualify as true art, including the novels for which he is beloved.  Even Shakespeare did not escape criticism in Tolstoy’s moral aestheticism. 
 
 
Final Days
 
Toward the end of his life, Tolstoy rejected his wealth and privilege.  He came to believe that he was undeserving of his inherited wealth, and was renowned among the peasantry for his generosity. He would frequently return to his country estate with vagrants whom he felt needed a helping hand, and would often dispense large sums of money to street beggars while on trips to the city, much to his wife's chagrin.
 
He died of pneumonia at Astapovo station in 1910 after leaving home in the middle of winter at the age of 82. His death came only days after gathering the nerve to abandon his family and wealth and take up the path of a wandering ascetic—a path that he had agonized over not pursuing for decades. Thousands of peasants turned out to line the streets at his funeral.
 
[edit]
 
Bibliography
 
 
 
Ivan Mozzhukhin in the 1917 screen version of Father Sergius.
 
· Childhood (Детство [Detstvo]; 1852)
 
· Boyhood (Отрочество [Otrochestvo]; 1854)
 
· Youth (Юность [Yunost']; 1856)
 
· Sevastopol Stories (Севастопольские рассказы [Sevastolpolskye Rasskazi]; 1855–56)
 
· Family Happiness (1859)
 
· The Cossacks (Казаки [Kazaki]; 1863)
 
· Ivan the Fool: A Lost Opportunity (1863)
 
· Polikushka (1863)
 
· War and Peace (Война и мир; [Voyna i mir] 1865–69)
 
· A Prisoner in the Caucasus (Кавказский Пленник; 1872)
 
· Father Sergius (Отец Сергий; 1873)
 
· Anna Karenina (Анна Каренина; 1875–77)
 
· A Confession (1882)
 
· Strider: The Story of a Horse (1864, 1886)
 
· The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886)
 
· How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886)
 
· The Power of Darkness (Власть тьмы [Vlast' t'my]; 1886), drama
 
· The Fruits of Culture (play) (1889)
 
· The Kreutzer Sonata and other stories (Крейцерова соната [Kreutzerova Sonata]; 1889)
 
· The Kingdom of God is Within You [3] (1894)
 
· Master and Man and other stories (1895)
 
· The Gospel in Brief (1896)
 
· What Is Art? (1897)
 
· Resurrection (Воскресение [Voskresenie]; 1899)
 
· The Living Corpse (Живой труп [Zhivoi trup]; published 1911), drama
 
· Hadji Murad (Хаджи-Мурат; written in 1896-1904, published 1912)
 
[edit]
 
See also
 
· Christian anarchism
 
· Mahatma Gandhi (1929) The Story of My Experiments with Truth (available at wikisource)
 
· Tolstoy family
 
· Tolstoyan
 
· Vladimir Chertkov
 
[edit]
 
External links
 
 
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
 
Leo Tolstoy
 
 
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
 
Leo Tolstoy
 
 
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
 
Leo Tolstoy
 
· Leo Tolstoy's Life - Tolstoy's personal, professional and world event timeline, from Masterpiece Theatre.
 
· Synopsis of Leo Tolstoy's Life - from Masterpiece Theatre.
 
· Leo Tolstoy - A comprehensive site with pictures, e-texts, biography, genealogy, etc.
 
· Tolstoy On Life, Death & Belief - an article at Philosophical Society.com.
 
· Project Gutenberg e-texts of some of Leo Tolstoy's works
 
· Full texts of some Leo Tolstoy's works in the original Russian
 
· The Kingdom of God Is Within You - free e-text
 
· Walk in the Light - free e-book
 
· Brief bio
 
· Bruderhof Peacemakers Guide profile on Leo Tolstoy
 
· The Last Days of Leo Tolstoy
 
· Illustrated Biography online at University of Virginia
 
· Tolstoy at The Anarchist Library
 
· Tolstoy at Great Books Online
 
· Tolstoy at CCEL
 
· Links to works online
 
· Aleksandra Tolstaya, "Tragedy of Tolstoy"
 
· Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 1
 
· Tolstoy's Legacy for Mankind: A Manifesto for Nonviolence, Part 2
 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy"
 
Categories: 1828 births | 1910 deaths | Anarchists | Russian essayists | Russian novelists | Russian short story writers | Autodidacts | Vegetarians | Anti-war people
 
 
 
· This page was last modified 18:13, 21 October 2005.
 
· All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
 
· About Wikipedia
 
· Disclaimers
 
  
 
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
{{credit|26114144}}
+
[[Category:Writers and poets]]
 +
{{credit1|Leo_Tolstoy|26114144}}

Latest revision as of 07:47, 6 March 2023

Leo Tolstoy, pictured late in life

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й; commonly referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy) (September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) was a Russian novelist, social reformer, pacifist, Christian anarchist, and moral thinker. Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina. In their scope, breadth, insight into human motives, and realistic depiction of Russian life, these two books stand at the summit of realistic fiction.

In his later writings he distanced himself from realism as an aesthetic goal. Tormented between a strict religious temperament and his sensual cravings, Tolstoy came to embrace a life of personal austerity based on Christian love and an idealized image of the Russian peasantry. His later fiction is informed by a more didactic tone, and he turned increasingly to essays and treatises. In his book What is Art? (1898) Tolstoy condemned Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Dante, arguing that art has as its purpose the transmission of the highest and best feelings to encourage good actions.

Following the pacifist doctrine of nonresistance he found in the Christian Gospels, Tolstoy rejected all forms of coersion, both in government and in the church, leading to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. In a final dramatic act, the 83-year-old count renounced his rank and privileges, giving his estate to his family; he donned the garb of a Russian peasant, and set out on foot, trusting to inspiration. He caught a chill soon after and, with the world press arriving to report on the remarkable event, died at the railroad stationmaster’s house at Astapovo on November 20, 1910.

Tolstoy's stature as a literary master and his uncompromising advocacy of nonviolence expanded his reputation in Russia and abroad, and his estate became a place of pilgrimage. As a moral philosopher his ideas on nonviolent resistance in his work The Kingdom of God is Within You, influenced such twentieth-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Early life

Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, his family estate situated in the region of Tula, Russia. He was the fourth of five children in his family. His parents died when he was young, so he was brought up by relatives. Tolstoy studied law and Oriental languages at Kazan University in 1844, but never earned a degree. He returned in the middle of his studies to Yasnaya Polyana, and spent much of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. After contracting heavy gambling debts, Tolstoy accompanied his elder brother to the Caucasus in 1851 and joined the Russian Army. Tolstoy began writing literature around this time. In 1862 he married Sofia Andreevna Bers, and together they had 13 children.

His marriage became progressively more difficult. It has been described by A.N. Wilson as one of the unhappiest in literary history, marked from the outset by Tolstoy's decision on the eve of his marriage to give his diaries to his fiancée. These detailed Tolstoy's sexual relations with his serfs. His relationship with his wife further deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical.

Early works

Tolstoy was one of the giants of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Among his most famous works are the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and many shorter works including the novellas The Death of Ivan Ilych and Hadji Murad. His contemporaries paid him lofty tributes: Dostoevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists. His other admirers included Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, and Thomas Mann.

His first publications, the autobiographical novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of the differences between him and his peasant playmates. Although later in his life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimental, a great deal of his own life is revealed, and the books are still recognized for their contribution to the coming-of-age genre.

Tolstoy served as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War, recounted in his Sevastapol Sketches. His experiences in battle helped develop his pacifist beliefs, and gave him material for the realistic depiction of the horrors of war in his later work.

His fiction is one of the greatest examples of the genre of realism. Realism is a literary technique that uses detailed verbal descriptions of places and things to imply attributes of character. Tolstoy’s description of Russian aristocratic society, like the lavish restaurant scene between Levin and Count Oblonsky in Anna Karenina, is unparalleled.

War and Peace

War and Peace is generally thought to be one of the greatest novels ever written, although Tolstoy did not consider War and Peace to be a novel, but an epic in prose. Remarkable for its breadth and unity, its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical, and others fictional. Its depiction of the battle scenes are noteworthy for Tolstoy's narrative technique, which would come to be known as ostranenie, or "making it strange." Tolstoy deliberately explains ordinary, customary, or usual phenomena as though they were extraordinary, exceptional, or unusual. (Victor Shklovsky, formalist literary critic developed this notion in a famous essay.)

The story moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoleon, from the court of Alexander I of Russia to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino. It follows the lives and fate of a group of aristocratic families—the Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys—although the central character that emerges is Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son and heir of the wealthy Count Cyril Bezukhov. Tolstoy began writing in 1863 and did not finish until 1869. The general tenor of the novel is patriotic, anti-Napoleonic. It portrays a united front against the invader that belies some of the historical tensions that existed, including some peasant uprisings and sympathy for Napoleon on the part of some liberals.

The novel was written with the purpose of exploring Tolstoy's theory of history, which ironically in a novel dedicated to the Napoleonic Wars, rejected the significance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander in the greater scheme of things. Tolstoy rejects the “great man” theory of history in favor of the view that larger, more impersonal forces are at work. As a counterpoint to the dominant figure of Napoleon, Tolstoy introduces into the novel the peasant philosopher, Platon Karataev. Pierre Bezukhov comes across Platon (clearly an allusion to the Greek philosopher Plato) when he is captured by the French. While in prison together, Platon, a long-time soldier, tells him a story that would anticipate some of Tolstoy's later pacifist and quietist beliefs. Karataev, while apparently insignificant, serves as the spiritual center of the novel.

Anna Karenina

Tolstoy thought that Anna Karenina was his first true novel, and it is ranked as one of the greatest of all realist novels. Anna Karenina (1877) begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina tells parallel stories of two families, one happy and one unhappy. The Shcherbatskys are the happy therefore "good" family. Dolly is married to the amiable, but philandering Oblonsky. Her sister, Kitty, after being spurned by Count Vronsky, marries Count Levin and learns to be happy. Levin, a landowner, an alter-ego of Tolstoy, works alongside his serfs in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.

Anna, a striking beauty married to an older, high-ranking government official, Alexei Karenina, is trapped in a loveless marriage. She feels confined by the conventions and falsities of society. She falls in love with Count Vronsky and leaves her husband and son to live the life of a mistress. Anna Karenina is a closed moral universe. Her action against not only the prevailing social mores, but against the natural order at work in the novel, dooms her in the end. When she throws herself under a train and dies near the end of the narrative, it is already a foregone conclusion. Her situation has become so completely untenable that it is not so much a question of what she will do, but when.

After his two great novels, Tolstoy wrote a number of first-rate short stories, including The Death of Ivan Ilich, The Kreutzer Sonata, and Master and Man. In The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) Tolstoy addressed a theme that personally haunted him, death. Not long after, he underwent a spiritual crisis and transformation. This is evident in his later works which often took the form of folk tales and moral aphorisms, such as What Then Must We Do? and How Much Land Does One Man Need? In turn, he developed a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy which led to his excommunication from the Orthodox Church in 1901.

Theory of Art

After Tolstoy’s religious conversion, his view of art also changed dramatically. His book on art, What is Art? is an iconoclastic treatment that dismisses much of the canons of Western art. The proper role of art, he concluded, is to inspire moral vision in its audience. Not surprisingly, he reserved his strongest invective for modern art, which emphasized artifice and the formal properties of the artistic medium over the message. Modern art was artificial, not spontaneous, and thus immoral in Tolstoy’s interpretation. Ironically, by his new standards, much of his own work did not qualify as true art, including the novels for which he is beloved. Even Shakespeare did not escape criticism in Tolstoy’s moral aestheticism.


Religious and Political Beliefs

Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887) by Ilya Yefimovich Repin

Tolstoy's Christian beliefs were based on the Sermon on the Mount, and particularly on the comment about turning your cheek, which he saw as a justification for pacifism. These beliefs came out of a middle-aged crisis that began with a depression so severe that if he saw a rope he would remark that it made him think of hanging himself, and which forced him to hide his guns to prevent himself from committing suicide.

Yet, this depression led Tolstoy to a radical and original approach to Christianity. He rejected the institution of the church in favor of a more personalized orientation. His belief in nonviolence as a positive feature of Jesus’ teaching characterized his beliefs. By directly influencing Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. with this idea through his work The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy has had a huge influence on nonviolent resistance to this day. Although himself an aristocrat, he came to believe that the aristocracy posed a burden on the poor. He embraced some elements of anarchism, such as the abolition of private property and the institution of marriage. Although he led a profligate youth, he came to value the ideals of chastity and sexual abstinence as discussed in Father Sergius. He was not only a pacifist but also a vegetarian.

Influence

As well as pacifism, Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of Christian anarchism and anarchist thought. Prince Peter Kropotkin wrote of him in the article on Christian anarchism in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:

Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Chojecki, Denk and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the state and property rights*, deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of Jesus and from the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent he made (especially in The Kingdom of God is Within You [1]) a powerful criticism of the church, the state and law altogether, and especially of the present property laws. He describes the state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized government. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing distribution of property, and from the teachings of Jesus he deduces the rule of non-resistance and the absolute condemnation of all wars. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike.

A letter Tolstoy wrote to an Indian newspaper entitled "A Letter to a Hindu" resulted in a long-running correspondence with Mohandas Gandhi, who was at the time a young activist in South Africa. The correspondence with Tolstoy strongly influenced Gandhi towards adopting the method of nonviolent resistance. Through Gandhi, Tolstoy also influenced a young Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement. He also became a major supporter of the Esperanto movement. Tolstoy was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the Doukhobors* and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895. He aided the Doukhobors in migrating to Canada.

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Tolstoy condemned the war and wrote to the Japanese Buddhist priest Soyen Shaku in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement.

Final Days

Toward the end of his life, Tolstoy rejected his wealth and privilege. He came to believe that he was undeserving of his inherited wealth, and was renowned among the peasantry for his generosity. He would frequently return to his country estate with vagrants whom he felt needed a helping hand. He would often dispense large sums of money to street beggars while on trips to the city, much to his wife's chagrin. He died of pneumonia at Astapovo Station in 1910 after leaving home in the middle of winter at the age of 82. His death came only days after gathering the nerve to abandon his family and wealth and take up the path of a wandering ascetic—a path that he had agonized over not pursuing for decades. Thousands of peasants turned out to line the streets at his funeral. In 1921 his estate Yasnaya Polyana was turned into a museum, and preserved as it was at the time of his residence there, including his library of over 22,000 volumes.

List of Tolstoy’s works

Ivan Mozzhukhin in the 1917 screen version of Father Sergius.
  • Childhood (Детство [Detstvo]; 1852)
  • Boyhood (Отрочество [Otrochestvo]; 1854)
  • Youth (Юность [Yunost']; 1856)
  • Sevastopol Stories (Севастопольские рассказы [Sevastolpolskye Rasskazi]; 1855–1856)
  • Family Happiness (1859)
  • The Cossacks (Казаки [Kazaki]; 1863)
  • Ivan the Fool: A Lost Opportunity (1863)
  • Polikushka (1863)
  • War and Peace (Война и мир; [Voyna i mir] 1865–1869)
  • A Prisoner in the Caucasus (Кавказский Пленник; 1872)
  • Father Sergius (Отец Сергий; 1873)
  • Anna Karenina (Анна Каренина; 1875–1877)
  • A Confession (1882)
  • Strider: The Story of a Horse (1864, 1886)
  • The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886)
  • How Much Land Does a Man Need? (1886)
  • The Power of Darkness (Власть тьмы [Vlast' t'my]; 1886), drama
  • The Fruits of Culture (play) (1889)
  • The Kreutzer Sonata and other stories (Крейцерова соната [Kreutzerova Sonata]; 1889)
  • The Kingdom of God is Within You [2] (1894)
  • Master and Man and other stories (1895)
  • The Gospel in Brief (1896)
  • What Is Art? (1897)
  • Resurrection (Воскресение [Voskresenie]; 1899)
  • The Living Corpse (Живой труп [Zhivoi trup]; published 1911), drama
  • Hadji Murad (Хаджи-Мурат; written in 1896-1904, published 1912)

See also

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Jones, W. Gareth. Tolstoy: What Is Art? London: Duckworth Publishers, 1997.

ISBN 1853993816 introduction to translation in English.

External links

All links retrieved October 25, 2022.

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