Novelist · 1828 – 1910

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Little-Known Facts

  • Tolstoy and Gandhi exchanged letters; Gandhi named a settlement in South Africa 'Tolstoy Farm' in his honor.
  • In his later years Tolstoy renounced his earlier fiction and his wealth in favor of a simple, ascetic life.

Myths & Misconceptions

Was Tolstoy only a novelist?

No. Alongside his fiction he became an influential moral and religious philosopher whose ideas on nonviolence had global impact.