Leo Tolstoy
1) His Biography:
Russian novelist Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is well known for his works War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which are regarded as the best examples of realist literature. Many people consider Tolstoy to be the greatest novelist in history. Tolstoy wrote plays, essays, short tales, and novels in addition to them. Tolstoy had strong moralistic beliefs and was a social reformer as well as a moral philosopher.
Later in life, he developed a strong anarcho-pacifist and Christian faith. In books like The Kingdom of God is Within You, which is acknowledged to have had a tremendous impact on significant 20th-century leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, his non-violent resistance attitude to life is expressed.
Leo Tolstoy was a well-known Russian nobleman who was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana. He was the fourth of the Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Countess Mariya Tolstaya’s five children, who were reared by their relatives after both of their parents passed away. Tolstoy studied Arabic, Turkish, Latin, German, English, and French in order to prepare for the entrance exam for the Kazan University faculty of Oriental languages. He also studied geography, history, and religion.
Tolstoy was admitted to Kazan University in 1844. Tolstoy spent time travelling between Moscow and St. Petersburg after failing to complete his studies after the second year and returning to Yasnava Polyana. He developed some working knowledge of multiple languages and became multilingual.
Tolstoy’s newly discovered youth lured him into drinking, prostitution, and gambling, which put him in deep debt and agony. However, Tolstoy soon realised he was leading a brutish life and retook the university entrance exams in the hope of getting a job with the government. However, he ultimately ended up in Caucusus serving in the army, following in the footsteps of his older brother. Tolstoy started writing during this time.
Leo Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs, also known as Sonya, in 1862, even though she was 16 years his junior. Five of the couple’s thirteen children who survived to adulthood died at young ages. While Tolstoy was working on two of his best works, Sonya served as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. Early on in their marriage, they were happy.
Tolstoy’s marriage, however, worsened as his convictions grew more extreme to the point where he disowned his inherited and acquired fortune. In 1862, Tolstoy started working on his magnum opus, War and Peace. Between 1863 and 1869, six volumes of the work were released. This fantastic tale explores the notion of history and the insignificance of famous personalities like Alexander and Napoleon, with 580 characters drawn from history and others imagined by Tolstoy. The second epic by Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, was begun in 1873 and finished in 1878. Autobiographical works like Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth are among his early releases
(1852-1856). Despite being fiction, parts of Leo’s life and experiences are depicted in the novels. The Cossacks is a prime example of Tolstoy’s mastery of writing about Russian society. His later works such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is to Be Done? (1901) focus on Christian themes.
In his later years, Tolstoy grew more inclined toward an ascetic morality and firmly believed in both nonviolent resistance and the Sermon on the Mount. Leo Tolstoy passed away on November 20, 1910, from pneumonia at the age of 82.
2) Main Works:
The Cossacks:
The Cossacks (1863) tells the tale of a Russian aristocrat who falls in love with a Cossack girl while describing the Cossack way of life and people. In Anna Karenina (1877), Tolstoy-like philosophical landowners work side by side with peasants in the fields and attempt to improve their lives while an unfaithful woman is caught by the rules and falsehoods of society.
War and Peace:
War and Peace is regarded as one of the best books ever written and is known for its coherence and dramatic depth. The focus of the story switches between family life and Napoleon’s headquarters, and between Alexander I of Russia’s court and the battles of Austerlitz and Borodino. The book analyses Tolstoy’s historical viewpoint, highlighting the insignificance of historical figures like Napoleon and Alexander.
Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth:
Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), three autobiographical novels by Tolstoy, describe the slow understanding of the gap between himself and his peasants by the son of a wealthy landowner. Tolstoy’s own life is extensively discussed in these letters, even though he later dismissed them as romantic. They continue to be relevant as representations of the common experience of growing up.
Anna Karenina:
An enormous success in its day for a tale that hasn’t lost its relevance or allure after more than a century of publication. After being married, Anna appears to have achieved everything, yet she still suffers in silence since her seemingly ideal life only hides her mounting sorrow, which Tolstoy portrays in his critique of the extravagant upper class in nineteenth-century Russia. Despite essentially being a love tale, it is amazing how the suspense is handled and how it contributes to the successful conclusion.
The death of Iván Ilych:
Should we accept that the world has expectations of us or live by our own rules? Should we make an effort to be happy or should we accept our fate and occupy the space we have been given? These are the concerns that Ivan Ilych had been pondering for nearly 60 years when he was on his deathbed.
The main plot involves a reflection of his life, including the events that led up to the tragic tragedy that ultimately caused his death and led him to believe that his time was squandered. Despite being a short work, it has a strong existentialist undercurrent that makes it indispensable in its bibliography.
Sevastopol Sketches:
A three-part chronicle detailing his experiences travelling with the imperial troops to the Crimean Peninsula, which he later used as inspiration for his most ambitious works of fiction. It starts with his arrival at the Sebastopol station in December 1854, and his initial observations highlight the moral misery he discovers in addition to the sight of mutilated and dying people, which would get worse as the months go by. These little tales combine to form an insightful thesis on the insanity of war.
3) Main Themes in his Works:
Youth, War and Society:
Between 1865 and 1869, “War and Peace,” one of Tolstoy’s best works, was published. It centres on the entwined lives of historical and fictional people during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Actually, the book is split into four sections, plus two epilogues. As it examines the lives of five aristocratic families and their children who are of an age where they are ready for marriage or to be sent off to fight the coming war, the first volume principally deals with the themes of youth and love.
As preparations for the war are made and at the time when one of the characters, Pierre Bezukhov, receives an inheritance and must learn to behave like a noble, the second book goes more into the actual conflict and Russian society. The effects of the conflict are evident as the book closes. The remaining characters must learn how to live with death after a number of them pass away. Young lovers are married and learn how to handle the obligations that come along with it. Tolstoy’s philosophy on history and free choice is discussed in the second epilogue. The first epilogue has one character contemplating an action that would probably alter Russian society, perhaps a revolution.
Love, Tragedy and Society:
“Anna Karenina,” another outstanding book by Tolstoy, was first released between 1873 and 1877 in instalments. Themes like love, tragedy, and what society considers to be right are all addressed. The protagonist, Anna, deserts her spouse in favour of a dashing military officer. However, Anna won’t be allowed to see her kid again until she reconciles with her husband after the affair is over. However, she refuses to do this and kills herself instead.
Alongside Anna’s story, there is a parallel one that also takes place. It tells the tale of affluent landowner Levin courting Kitty, a young member of high society. Only once he stops acting in a way he believes society would expect him to and begins acting naturally is Levin able to win her over. Levin and Kitty’s relationship is contrasted throughout the narrative with Anna’s relationships in order to critique aristocrat conduct and illustrate the lesson of staying true to oneself in the face of social acceptance of falsehood.
Faith:
In contrast to the Russian Orthodox Church, which excommunicated him as expected, Tolstoy had a different understanding of faith. Tolstoy was unable to comprehend how the state could have a recognised church as a part of it. For Tolstoy, religion is not something regal; rather, it is a personal endeavour and moral duty that each person must acknowledge, internalise, and then translate into his actions.
Associating religion with the state is nonsensical because it confuses and transfers an individual responsibility to political authorities who are unable to understand or even mediate the link between the human self and itself. Tolstoy considers it ludicrous to elevate the status of the individual to the political arena. His concept of faith is the foundation of this criticism.
Instead of seeking direction from the Church or the government, Tolstoy believed that a sincere Christian may find enduring happiness by working toward inner perfection through observing the Great Commandment of loving one’s neighbour and God. His worldview, which is based on the teachings of Christ, also stands out for its non-resistance in the face of opposition. Mahatma Gandhi and other nonviolent resistance groups to this day were greatly influenced by this concept from Tolstoy’s book The Kingdom of God Is Within You.
Irrationality of human motivations:
How illogical humans drive in life and the search for meaning in life are two themes of Tolstoy’s most famous novel, War and Peace. Through the illogical and surprising behaviours of some characters, such as Nicholas and Natasha, who both get married to everyone’s astonishment, Tolstoy’s theme of the irrationality of human drives is demonstrated. Characters like Pierre and Andrei, who both begin to search for the purpose of their existence, illustrate the second subject of the search for meaning in life.
4) His relevance in our times:
It is evident from the first reading of War and Peace that Tolstoy writes with the depth and range of Homer. There is no other work of literature that combines aesthetic detachment from joy and misery with such fervent connection and sympathy in such a spectacular way. It is a contradictory fact in these two classics of European literature, and Bartlett’s work gives us the impression that Tolstoy’s spirit always possessed both the godlike traits of indifference and empathy.
It is difficult not to support the old bearded prophet and overlook any cruelty he may have shown towards his wife, even though Tolstoy’s embrace of Christian anarchism was inconsistent on many levels and included the grotesquely selfish Russian royal family and an Orthodox Church that supported one of the most unjust political regimes in European history (and blessed field guns in the name of Christ).
Is the anarchist-pacifist perspective inflated, almost frivolous? The departure of Tolstoy in 1910 may appear to be the tragic end of a utopian dream in light of the later excesses of Stalin and Hitler. To give just one example, the tale of South Africa shows the vitality and power of the Tolstoian concept. Gandhi was first inspired by Tolstoy’s writings in South Africa, when he started implementing the passive resistance strategy that would ultimately bring down the British empire.
The most recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Israel provide no evidence that war has ever been a panacea for social issues. It still has a tremendous deal of promise to transform our world for the better since Tolstoy rejected not only war and bloodshed but also the whole idea of governance. I’ve come to hope so, at least.
