1. Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Writer and Thinker

2. Ivan Kramskoy Portrait of Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

3. Born August 28 (Sept. 9) 1828 on family estate, Yasnaya Polyana

4. Childhood and Youth Born into an ancient noble family Parents die when
Tolstoy is young
Raised by his
aunts
Studies law at the
Kazan’ University

5. Tolstoy’s Military Career: 1851-56
Serves first in the
Caucasus
Then in an artillery
regiment in
Sebastopol, Crimea
Writes and publishes
his first fiction:
Childhood (1852)
Boyhood (1854)
Youth (1857)

6. Literary Beginnings
Moves to Petersburg, tries to integrate into literary circles
In 1857 visits France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany
Photo: Tolstoy in 1862

7. 1859: Interest in education
Upon his return from Europe, establishes schools for peasant children on his estate at Yasnaya Polyana 1860 goes to W. Europe to study schools

8. Sophia Andreevna Behrs (1844-1919)
Tolstoy and Sophia marry in 1862
They immediately settle in Yasnaya Polyana
They have 13 children (only 9 survive)

9. Life with Tolstoy
Sophia Andreevna: "I lived with Lev Nikolayevich for forty-eight years, but I never really learned what kind of man he was.“

10. The Tolstoys

11. Tolstoy, his children and grandchildren

12. War and Peace ( )
Begins to appear in literary magazine Russky vestnik in 1865
Reflects Tolstoy’s interest in the Russian narod (“people”)
Graphic descriptions of slaughter on the battlefield reflect Tolstoy’s experience as a soldier, amount to a pacifist critique of war

13. Tolstoy in his study

14. Anna Karenina,
Family novel centred around an autobiographical hero plus a novel about adultery (cf. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary)
Vehicle for Tolstoy to express his opinion on the reforms of the 1860s, agriculture, modernity

15. Critical, Psychological Realism
Investigation into the more profound aspects of life
Social inequality
Motivation, why do we do what we do?
Psychological contradictions
Politics
What is Russia? What is Russia’s role in the world?

16. The 1880s: The Spiritual Crisis
Tolstoy radically questions society, religion, morality, sex, artistic practices
Renounces his previous literary works
Publishes A Confession (1884), Death of Ivan Ilich (1886), Kreuzer Sonata ( )

17. Tolstoy’s core beliefs
Non-resistance to evil
Renounce all luxury and wealth
Live by one’s own labour
Be like the humble peasant
Vegetarianism

18. Tolstoy’s Philosophy
Il’ya Repin. Tolstoy as ploughman

20. Vladimir Chertkov (1854-1936) and the Tolstoyans
Meets Tolstoy in 1883
1884 becomes publisher of Tolstoy’s and others’ work in popular cheap editions
Educational projects for moral improvement
After Tolstoy’s death edits his work

21. The last Chapter 1884 first attempt to leave home, gave up his
estate in Yasnaya
Polyana
1901 Excommunication
from Russian Orthodox
Church
In November of 1910,
Tolstoy leaves home

22. His letter to Sofya Andreevna
“My departure will sadden you. But understand and believe that I cannot act in any other way. My position in the house is becoming, or has become, unbearable. Apart from anything else, I cannot live in those conditions of luxury in which I have lived, and am doing what old men of my age usually do: they abandon the worldly life to live out in isolation and silence their last days…”

23. Tolstoy falls ill on the train, is taken in by the stationmaster…
…in the small railway station of Astapovo

24. Tolstoy’s room in Astapovo

25. The End Fell ill and died seven days later
Thousands of people came to ask about the writer’s condition

26. Tolstoy’s wife looking through the window

27. Clock at the Astapovo railway station stopped at the time of Tolstoy’s death

29. Last words
“There are masses of people, apart from Leo Tolstoy, but you only pay attention to Leo Tolstoy…that’s not how peasants die. … I love the truth.”

30. ’ Tolstoy’s grave

31. Leo Tolstoy’s Biography
I clearly realized that my biography, if
it suppressed all the nastiness and
criminality of my life - as they
customarily write biographies - would
be a lie, and that if one is going to
write my biography, one must write the
whole truth.
– Leo Tolstoy

32. Thoughts from the book "For Every Day“ “That the only object of man's life is self-perfection — the perfecting of immortal souls — that this is is seen to be correct by the fact alone that every other object is senseless in view of death.
Therefore the question whether you have done what you should have done is of immense importance, for the only meaning of your life is in doing in this short term allowed you that which is desired of you by Him who or that which has sent you into life. Are you doing the right thing?”