Colorized portrait of Russian writer Count Leo Tolstoy, born Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) standing on the grounds of his estate Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula region, Russia, 1901. (Photo by Burton Holmes)

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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, known as Leo Tolstoy; September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer. His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Size: 5071px × 4580px
Location: Tula, Russia
Photo credit: © Burton Holmes Historical Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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