Paste your essay in here…My essay is on the Russian author Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known in English as Leo Tolstoy. He was born on the 9th of September, 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, which was a family house southwest of Tula, Russia. He was born to a highly regarded family, his ancestry dated back to noble Lithuanian descent. Tolstoy was the fourth out of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Mariya Tolstaya. His father was a soldier in the patriotic war in 1812. Both of Tolstoy's parents died when he was young. Tolstoy himself died on the 20th of November, 1910 of pneumonia. His best well known works are 'War and Peace', released in 1869. A realist fiction epic based on the 1812 French attack of Russia, during Napolean's reign. It features a cast of over 500 characters. Another book is 'Anna Karenina', released in 1878, a story of Russian aristocratic life. He also released many novellas, short stories, plays, philosophical essays, books on art, and educational books which he used in his Yasnaya Polyana schools. His works contain real or fictional events in a realistic world, and both fictional and real characters. They often contain philosophical and religious essays expressing Tolstoy's beliefs within the plot of the book, these coincide with specific character's lives, surroundings, occupations or revelations.
During 1830, Princess Tolstaya, Tolstoy's mother, passed away and his dad's cousin accepted looking after the children. Their father then died seven years later and then their aunt became their guardian. Their aunt then also died so Tolstoy and his siblings stayed with their second aunt in Kazan, Russia. Despite Tolstoy's large loss at a very young age he glorified his childhood, writing about it nostalgically in his later writing. In 1844 he started studying law and foreign languages at the Kazan University. He was a troublesome pupil and was described by his tutors as "both unable and unwilling to learn." Tolstoy left the university during his learning, returned to his home, then spent most of his time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1851, after collecting heavy gambling debts, he travelled with his older brother to Causcaus and joined to the army. Somewhere during this time he started writing.
His first literary works were 'Childhood,' 'Boyhood' and 'Youth' which he wrote throughout his twenties. He also released 'Sevastopol Sketches' during this time, which was based upon his time fighting in the Crimean War. He travelled twice around Europe, once in 1858 and another from 1860 – 1861. This, connected with his time serving in the army influenced him to change from the privileged society he grew up in and become an anti-violence, spiritual anarchist Christian. During his 1957 visit to Paris he witnessed a public execution, which he found to be terrible and changed his outlook on life. He wrote this to a friend of his, Vasily Botkin: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all corrupt its citizens… Henceforth I shall never serve any any government anywhere." This was also a huge influence in his religious and moral beliefs in his later life.
During the 1870s he went through a religious dilemma and was spiritually confused. He attempted to uncover the meaning of his own life and didn't agree with the Russian Orthodox Church's form of Christianity and formed his own Christian views. He was therefore exiled from the Russian Church and was watched by the secret police. He converted to Christianity and formed an Anarchist Christian and anti-violence point of view. He wrote about this in his work 'A Confession'. He had a literal perception of Jesus' moral education. He mainly focused on the Sermon on the Mount, which had a large influence on him. His idea of peaceful opposition, written about in 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You', had a major affect on influential people such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Tolstoy also became a strong believer of Georgism, the idea that people should own the profit they create themselves but land space should belong equally to all members of society. Tolstoy's theory of pacifism or 'Ahimsa' were encouraged when he read 'Tirukkural', an Indian book, written by Valluvar. This book deals with ethics, specifically the normal problems that one faces on a regular basis.
Tolstoy returned from a trip to Belgium in 1861, after visiting the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and went back to Yasnaya Polyana and built thirteen schools for Russian peasant's children. He wrote about the school's rules and regulations in the essay "The School at Yasnaya Polyana", written in 1862. He was persecuted for this by the Tsarist secret police, who raided his home, publicity read out his writings and interrogated his family and staff. He was ill at the time, and was advised by his doctor to rejuvenate in Samara Province, Russia, away from the schools. This made him very disturbed and depressed, and he wasn't capable of focusing on eduction as he felt scared and he prepared for another government ransacking. Eventually he shut down his schooling projects and teaching. He again reopened the schools at Yasnaya Polyana but again had to stop his education in 1873. He wrote various educational books on reading and writing between 1872 and 1875. His schools at Yasnaya Polyana have been claimed to be the first use of democratic learning.
Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs on September the 23rd, 1862. She was 16 years younger than him and was the daughter of physician Andrey Evstafievich Behrs and his Russian wife Liubov Alexandrovna. In total they had thirteen children, although only eight children grew into adulthood. Among these is Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy, a composer and ethnomusicologist – the study of the cultural and social aspects of the people who make music. He was among the first European people to thoroughly research Indian music. Another was Count Ilya Lvovich Tolstoy, who was a writer. The marriage was not a happy one. It was marked from the beginning for failure as it was sexually driven and emotionally uncaring. Despite this their early marriage was enjoyable and granted Tolstoy free-reign to write and form his beliefs. It was during this time he wrote his most acclaimed novels, 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina'. Sonya, at this time worked as his secretary, proofreader and handled their money. Tolstoy's relationship with his wife became poor as his beliefs became more extreme. He wanted to give away all his money and his wife was very opposed to this. He disowned his noble way of living and eventually built up the courage to leave his wife. He departed from his home in mid-winter, during the middle of the night. His subdued leaving was an attempt that was thought of as trying to escape from Sophia's angry jealousy. She was rigidly against many of his religious views and his personal philosophy, and in past years had grown envious of the attention which it seemed to her Tolstoy lavished upon his Tolstoyan followers, who believed in his philosophy and teachings.
Tolstoy died in 1910, at 82 years old. Just before his death, his well-being had been a worry to his family, who were taking care of him on a daily routine. Throughout his last days, he penned about dying. Tolstoy died of pneumonia in Astapovo station in Russia, after travelling south on a train. The station master brought Tolstoy to his house and his doctors were called. He was administered morphine and camphor for pain relief. The police attempted to control his funeral, but thousands of peasants were in the street. Some of them, other than knowing that a nobleman had died, knew knew minutely about him. After his death the family left Russia due to the impact of the Russian Revolution and introduction of the Soviet Union. Leo's descendants now live in Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, United States and France.