The Life of Leo Tolstoy. A Reading Experience

Leo Tolstoy has long become a calling card of Russian culture, but in modern Russia, his perception is often clouded by stereotypes that stem from the Soviet tradition - school teaching, the desire to oppose the artist Tolstoy to the thinker Tolstoy. Meanwhile, today Tolstoy is remarkably relevant: the idea of nonviolent resistance, vegetarianism, downshifting, the demand for refusal of military service, the fight for environmental conservation, attitudes towards love and sexuality - all that once seemed his oddity is becoming the global intellectual mainstream. This new brief biography of the great writer traces the main lines of his fate and creativity. Tolstoy's artistic and philosophical legacy is examined here alongside military experience, peasant labor, and family tragedy. Such an "integrative" approach allows one to speak of him outside the well-worn discussions of "contradictions" and to more clearly discern the unique continuity and integrity of his life path.