Patience!

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

Leo Tolstoy. USSR's author. He was a Russian novelist, philosopher, anarchist, educational performer, vegetarian and pacifist. He is well known until nowadays as a greatest world writer.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, as called at birth, was born on August 28, 1828 (most sources say this while other few sources say - September 9, 1828) at Yasnaya Polyana, in Tula Province, where his wealthy family had estate south of Moscow. Leo Tolstoy was baptized Orthodox during privilege and wealthy life in Czarist Russia in 1828. His family was well known as Russian aristocratic landowners.

His father Count Nicolas Tolstoy was from the Russian pre-Nobility. His mother, Princess Marie Volkonsky passed away two years after his birth. Lev Tolstoy's grandmothers came from the Troubetzkoy and Gorchakov princely families. Alexander Pushkin was his fourth cousin. He was the fourth of five children in his family.

His family rented a house and moved to Moscow while he was nine. Lev Tolstoy lost his father while he was nine and his grandmother passed away soon after his father. These happenings in the family motivated Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy to think deep about death, life and happiness and to formulate some ideas about them. He had no interest in university education so he failed the entry exam the first time, although his aunt encouraged him for months; and she kept on convincing him until he passed the second entry exam.

Leo Tolstoy began studying law and oriental languages in 1844 at Kazan University. Teachers there said he was unable and unwilling to learn, so Leo Tolstoy left the university.

He became interested in university after that for its social aspects only. However, his social life became just as bad as his grades. He was discouraged socially and academically for some times.

Women, wine and cards were the most important interests of his class. Leo Tolstoy became sick of his empty and useless life in Moscow, so he went in 1851 to Caucasus where he joined an artillery unit garrisoned in the Cossack part of Chechnya.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy completed his first story "Childhood" in 1852 and sent it to Nikolai Nekrasov to publish it in the "Sovremennik". The story succeeded and opened a great place in Russian literature for Tolstoy.

In 1854 Leo Tolstoy participated in his army fighting in Wallachia against the Turks and the defence of the Fourth Bastion and the battle of Chernaya River. He wrote "Sebastopol Sketches" soon while he was there beginning the techniques he used later in "War and Peace".

Back from the army in 1855, Leo Tolstoy spent the following years until 1861 between Petersburg, Moscow, Yanaya and some foreign countries. He started a school for peasant children at Yasnaya in 1859. He authored a great number of stories for peasant children too. He published the pedagogical magazine "Yasnaya Polyana" in 1982.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy accepted the post of Justice of the Peace in 1861. His first marriage in 1856 was an unsuccessful, but his second marriage from Sofia Andreyevna Behrs in 23 September 1862 was not only successful, but it was considered the real stability life that led Leo Tolstoy to great achievement in literature. He lived with Sofia a blissful state of self-confidence and satisfied and happy life. Sofia proved to be his ideal wife and mother and mistress of the house. They had thirteen children, five of whom died in their childhoods.

Lot of literature and arts institutions has sited assessments of his writing and the role he had played in the development of the European literature. Lev Tolstoy wrote anarchist essays, various essays on art, history and religion; and his quotes became famous as most of his works: His greatest masterpieces "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", and his other works: "The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories", "Master and Man", "Last Message to Mankind", "Father Sergius", "The Kreutzer Sonata", and "The Forged Coupon".

Lev Tolstoy’s work "The Kingdom of God is Within You" which featured his ideas on non-violent resistance, influenced Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy died on November 07, 1910 (some sources say: 20 Nov.) at Astapovo Railway Stationmaster's house.


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