Russia · 19th–20th century
Leo Tolstoy
Лев Толстой
The novelist who mapped a whole society in War and Peace and Anna Karenina — and spent his last decades searching for how to live.
1828 – 1910 · Yasnaya Polyana → Astapovo
Born
1828
9 Sept 1828 · Yasnaya Polyana
Died
1910
20 Nov 1910 · Astapovo
Lived
82
years
Key works in the timeline
11
Marriages
1
Sophia Behrs, married for 48 years
Children
13
eight survived to adulthood
Great novels
3
War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection
Nobel Prizes
0
nominated several times, never awarded
The short version
Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on his family’s estate, Yasnaya Polyana, south of Moscow. Orphaned young and raised by relatives, he left university without a degree, lived the restless life of a young aristocrat, and then went to the Caucasus and joined the army. There, in the evenings, he wrote his first book, Childhood.
He served at the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, married Sophia Behrs in 1862 and settled at Yasnaya Polyana to raise a large family and write. There he finished War and Peace in 1869 and Anna Karenina in 1877 — two novels often counted among the greatest ever written.
In his fifties, a deep crisis of meaning changed him. He turned to a radical, non-violent reading of the Gospels, questioned everything his earlier life had stood for, wrote about faith, poverty and war, and found readers around the world — including Gandhi. The Orthodox Church excommunicated him in 1901. In 1910, aged 82, he left home in secret and died days later at a small railway station.
A life at a glance
1828 – 1910 — 82 years
The timeline
Life, books and the world around them — in the order they happened.
- 1812Meanwhile in the world
Napoleon invades Russia
Sixteen years before Tolstoy is born, the war that will become the backdrop of War and Peace begins. - 1828
Born at Yasnaya Polyana
Born on 9 September (28 August, Old Style) on the family estate south of Moscow, the fourth of five children. - 1830 age ~2
His mother dies
Princess Maria Volkonskaya dies when he is not yet two; he is raised by relatives. - 1837 age ~9
His father dies
Count Nikolai Tolstoy dies, and the children are left in the care of aunts. - 1847 age ~19
Leaves university without a degree
After three years at Kazan — oriental languages, then law — he drops out and returns to Yasnaya Polyana, restless and unsure what to do with his life. - 1851 age ~23
Goes to the Caucasus
Follows his elder brother Nikolai to the Caucasus, soon joins the army, and begins writing Childhood in the evenings. - 1853Meanwhile in the world
The Crimean War begins
Russia goes to war with the Ottoman Empire, then Britain and France. - 1854–55 age ~26
Serves at Sevastopol
Transferred to the Crimea, he is at the siege of Sevastopol and writes the sketches that earn him a national audience. - 1857 age ~29
A public execution in Paris
Travelling in Europe, he watches a guillotining in Paris — an experience that leaves him opposed to state violence for the rest of his life. - 1859 age ~31
A school for peasant children
Opens a school at Yasnaya Polyana and later publishes a journal about it; teaching stays a lifelong passion. - 1861Meanwhile in the world
Serfdom is abolished
Alexander II’s Emancipation Manifesto frees millions of serfs; Tolstoy serves as a local arbiter between peasants and landowners. - 1862 age ~34
Marries Sophia Behrs
He is thirty-four, she is eighteen. Over the next decades they will have thirteen children and a marriage that is by turns devoted and stormy. - 1866Meanwhile in the world
Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment
Two great Russian novelists are at work at the same time — and never meet. - 1879 age ~51
A crisis of meaning
Tormented by the question of death and of what gives life meaning, he turns to the Gospels and begins to rethink his life, his faith and his work. - 1881Meanwhile in the world
Alexander II is assassinated
The Tsar is killed by revolutionaries; Tolstoy writes to the new Tsar urging him to pardon the assassins. - 1901 age ~73
Excommunicated
The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church announces his excommunication for his religious writings. - 1905Meanwhile in the world
The 1905 Revolution
Strikes, uprisings and Bloody Sunday shake the Russian Empire; Tolstoy, in his late seventies, keeps writing against violence. - 1909 age ~81
Letters with Gandhi
A young Mohandas Gandhi, then in South Africa, writes to him — the start of an exchange of letters in Tolstoy’s last year. - 1910 age ~82
Leaves home and dies at Astapovo
At 82 he secretly leaves Yasnaya Polyana, falls ill on the journey, and dies on 20 November (7 November, Old Style) in the stationmaster’s house at the small railway station of Astapovo.
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