TOLSTOY, LYOFF ( LEO) NIKOLA YEVITCH, Count (1828—). A famous Russian author. He was born on his father's estate at Yasnaya ann, in the Government of Tula. August 28, 1828. In 1843 lie studied Oriental languages at the iTniversity of Kazan. a year afterwards he began to study law, and he received his diploma in 1848 'knowing literally nothing,' as lie asserted later. Ile lived on his estate until 1851, when his broth er, an artillery officer, induced him to visit the Caucasus. Charmed by the life there, lie joined an artillery regiment, and in 1853 was attached to the Army of the Danube during the Cri mean campaign. During this period he pub lished his Childhood, Incursion, Boyhood. The Morning of a Proprietor, and The Cossacks. He took part in the defense of Sebastopol. and em bodied his experiences in Sebastopol in Dreeuiber, 185'1. Sebastopol in May, 1855, and Sebastopol in August, 1855. These sketches immediately placed Tolstoy among the great pen-masters of the day. They painted the horrors of war, with its show heroes and real heroes, in the spirit of that cruel, cold-blooded realism which is the chief trait of Tolstoy's unyielding logic. It was naked truth and nothing else. At the end of the war Tolstoy resigned and went to the capital. A visit abroad in 1857 sowed the seeds of his dis appointment in modern civilization, and Prom the Memoirs of Prince Nekhlyudoff (Luzern) was an indignant protest against the poverty and ignorance in modern society. He settled on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana and devoted himself to school work among the peasants. A second visit abroad to study the German methods of education served only to intensify his disappoint ment, and his own methods, as embodied in prac tice mid in his pedagogical publication, lasnaya Liana, were an attack on all existing standards, and called forth a heated discussion in pedagogi cal circles. About this time work on a long novel, The Dceeinbrists (of which only three chapters appeared), led Tolstoy to the study of the reign of Alexander L and his interest gradually was centred on the great Napoleonic campaigu. Thus he came to write his War and Peace ( 1864 69)—a colossal prose epic, embracing the whole of Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury. from the Emperor down through all stages of society.
Again the elemental forces of the common people are lovingly dwelt upon in contrast with the artificiality of the upper classes. With the artistic exposition is intertwined a new phi losophy of history, which in the last analysis is but old fatalism in a new guise. After this, peda gogical pursuits absorbed Tolstoy's energies. until
in 1875-76 Anna Karenina appeared in The Rus sian Messenger. This great work deals with the unlawful relations of the social lion, Vronski, and Anna, wife of Karenin, the bureaucratic machine. The great questions of human life which centre around marriage are treated here with unap proachable mastery. force, and directness. The novel has a second plot—the life of the rationalist proprietor. Konstaut in Levin, and his wife, Kitty. Amid perfect home surroundings. he is discon tented, and even thinks of suicide, until he is `regenerated' through contact with the common people, and finds new strength in manual labor. According to later statements of the author this work contained much autobiographical material.
After this, philosophical and social questions took complete hold of Tolstoy, and for more than a decade he gave to the world a series of re ligious, social, and philosophical treatises. like Commentary on the Gospel ; Letter on the Census (18g3) : Confession ; Jig Religion ; What Shall We Then Do! a few short stories written for the people. The Death of loan Ilyiteh i1S.S31, and the dramas The Polscr of Darkness and Fruits of Culture. Works of literary art were also pro duced at this period. The Kreutzer Sonata (1888), denouncing marriage, raised a storm of indignation on both sides of the Atlantic. What Is Art! (IS9S). a great philippic against art as commonly understood. although leaving the ques tion unanswered for many, was a brilliant con tribution to the literature of the subject. It con thins ideas of great depth and breadth, inter spersed with paradoxes, and is interesting as a proof of the thoroughness with which Tolstoy goes into his work. It is the result of a minute study of every writer of any consequence on the subject. In 1S99 a new work of fiction. Resur rection. appeared. The central figure. Nekhlyu doff, while acting as a juror. recognizes in the culprit the woman whom be had betrayed in his youth. Torn by remorse, he finally conies to the conclusion that he is the real cause of the woman's guilt and downfall. and wishes to expiate his former wrong-doing by accompanying her to Siberia and sharing with her all hardships of the exile. All the bitterness that had been collecting in the heart of the author seems to have found free utterance, and time work is a powerful ar raignment of all existing institutions. In 1900 a drama. The Corpse, appeared. In March. 1901, the Holy Synod issued the excommunication with which he had beeu threatened for nearly thirty years.