Biography Of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy was one of the greatest writers in the world. He became famous for his epic novel War and Peace and Anna Karenina. War and Peace are regarded as the most important novel of the past because of its complex characters and broad perspective of Russian society. Tolstoy was also a well-known critique of formal religion and the inequalities of Tsarist Russia. Although he was adamant about the church and the church of England, he believed in the Gospels’ essentials and advocated the idea of primitive Christianity. In his political stance, his exhortation of peace and non-violence was a major influence on others, particularly Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
“The protagonist of my story that I am in love with all the strength of my soul, who I’ve attempted to capture in all his splendor that has been beautiful, is, and will continue to be beautiful, will be beautiful, Truth.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Short Bio – Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy Born on the 18th of January,1828. Leo Tolstoy came from an Aristocratic Russian family, with ties to the most influential Russian families. Tolstoy was the 4th cousin to Alexander Pushkin.
In his early years, He struggled with his studies, and lost himself in life, ending with huge gambling debts. Tired of his solitary and unfulfilling life, he decided to sign up to join the Russian army. But, the experiences he had as a soldier caused him to become a pacifist in later years. He wrote his observations of battle as Sevastopol sketches which helped raise his status as a top Russian writer, and he gained attention from the Tsar of today. Afterward, when he looked back at the times (in Confessions 1882), he reflected on his experiences. confessions in 1882) the writer bitterly regretted the time he wasted.
“I can’t remember those times without a sense of horror, resentment, and heart-breaking suffering. I killed war-time soldiers and challenged people to duel to kill them, and also lost in games; I spent the benefits of laborers’ hard work and was able to execute them; I was a fornicator as well as an escapist. Swindling, lying, promiscuity of all sorts, drinking, and violence, as well as murder there was no crime that I didn’t make… So I was a ten-year prisoner.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy was deeply interested in exploring a deeper understanding and justification of the world. He traveled extensively across Europe but was increasingly dissatisfied with the materialism of Europe’s Bourgeoisie. He could argue with people he did not agree with, for example, Turgenev (widely considered to be the best Russian author of the time). He also developed a growing compassion for the peasants, the poor, and the marginalized of the world. He did everything to assist and help people in need.
Leo Tolstoy In 1862 he married Sofia Andreyevna Behrs, 16 years older than him. The marriage brought a certain degree of stability from which Tolstoy created his greatest epics. War and Peace and the novel Anna Karenina.
War and Peace are awe-inspiring by their size, realist realism, and understanding of the past. The characters are actual historical figures, while Others were created. The story tells the story of two families, set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars. Tolstoy didn’t see it as a novel but as an epic. It emphasizes the importance to be able to maximize your life in any situation.
“Seize every moment of joy Love, be loved, and enjoy! This is the only truth in this world. Everything else is just a lie. This is the only thing that we care about here.”
— Leo Tolstoy from War and Peace
The religious views of Tolstoy
After the completion of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy was able to change his philosophy and religion. He was influenced in his thinking by Buddhism along with Jesus ‘Sermon on the Mount He was influenced by a belief in spiritual renewal that was based on serving the poor and a direct connection with God. He expressed his views in the ‘The The Kingdom of Heaven is within you as well as in ‘Confessions’.
“The only purpose of existence is serving humanity by contributing to the development in the Kingdom of God that can only be accomplished through the acceptance and adherence to the truth by every person.”
Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
His religious beliefs can be described as an earlier version of Christianity founded on direct instructions from Jesus Christ but without the outer structure of religious structures and myths like that of the Holy Trinity and Eucharist. Tolstoy believed that the influence and power of the church diminished the religious essence. In response to his criticism of the Orthodox Church and his stance on the Orthodox Church, he was banned from the church, however, his legacy as a prolific writer and an original thinker was boosted across the globe. His ideas began to draw followers, and his idealistic Tolstoy communities began to emerge.
Biography Of Leo Tolstoy
Political opinions
His religious beliefs also have a direct influence on his political beliefs. He was opposed to inequity, greed, and the inequality that was prevalent in Tsarist Russia. He developed pacifist/anarchist philosophies and was a defender of civil disobedience to increase the well-being of those who were marginalized. However, his critique of the Tsar’s and Russian class system resulted in that the government’s beginning to monitor Tolstoy. Tolstoy was too famous internationally to be a direct challenger However, his vehement critique of the aristocracy proved troubling for the authorities.
Death and life
Tolstoy was fascinated by the nature of life and death. His own experience was the tragic loss of his brother to tuberculosis. He also witnessed the deaths of several others during his time in the Crimean War and a public guilt-by-association in Paris (which helped in his decision to oppose capital punishment). He wrote about this subject of death, in the brief novel Death of Ivan Illyich. He completed the book in 1882 however, it was a victim of Russian restrictions on censorship and was not released until 1886. It was written shortly after his conversion to religion and focuses on the difference between the things that make life worthwhile compassion, concern, and love, and the fake life of social climbing and other display of material. The book also critiques the attitude of his former friends and colleagues who are ashamed of the burden of his deadly disease, however in the novel the author is awed by the selfless act of an ordinary farmer (Gerasim) who is revealed to be the greatest friend of Ivan during his difficult moments of death.
Friendship with Gandhi
In the late evenings that he lived, the young man established a friendship with an untold Mahatma Gandhi. Tolstoy wrote an article that argued for Indian independence, and Gandhi asked permission to publish the article in a South African newspaper. The result was a long correspondence in which the two wrote to one another on questions of religion and politics. Tolstoy sent letters to Gandhi.
“Love can be the sole method to save humanity from all suffering and, in it, you are also the only way to save your people from being enslaved… The concept of love and forcible resistance to evil-doers, create such an interconnected contradiction that they ruin the entire concept and purpose of love.” Letters One, written by Tolstoy to Gandhi
Gandhi was extremely impressed by Tolstoy’s faith in non-violent resistance and vegetarianism as well as anarchist Christianity’. Gandhi later became a renowned advocate of non-violent resistance. He also acknowledged Tolstoy as an important influence in his political and religious outlook.
Biography Of Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy’s Death Tolstoy
On October 28, 1910, Tolstoy went home to his parents near Moscow with a note for his wife that read:
“I do what men my age do, which is to leave the world to live the final days of my existence in silence and solitude.”
But a couple of days afterward, he fell with illness on a train going through an isolated Russian village known as Astapovo. Sick of an illness called pneumonia Tolstoy got off the train to be taken to be cared for at the house of the station master. The final days of his life generated global media attention, with many media organizations sending reporters to investigate the possibility that Tolstoy recovered. But his condition gradually got worse and he started to slip into and out of consciousness. On November 7, 1910, he died.
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