Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), also known as Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, was born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, and died in Astapovo, Russia. He was a Russian writer and is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.
Born into an aristocratic family, he studied at Kazan University in Kazan, Russia, in 1844 before leaving in the middle of his studies to lead a leisurely lifestyle in Moscow. After running up heavy gambling debts, he joined the army in the Caucasus in 1851. Tolstoy served as an artillery officer before being promoted to lieutenant during the Crimean War. He returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for the children of Russia's peasants who had just been emancipated from serfdom in 1861. He married Sophia A. Behrs in 1862 and they had 13 children. Some of Tolstoy's most notable works include epic novels such as War and Peace (1869), Anna Karenina (1878), and Resurrection (1899), as well as numerous plays and essays concerning philosophical, moral, and religious themes.
Tolstoy embraced Christianity when he was around 50 years old. He believed that a true Christian could find happiness by striving for inner perfection through following the commandment of loving one's neighbor and God, rather than guidance from the Church or state. He was a proponent of nonresistance during conflict, a distinct attribute of his philosophy based on Christ's teachings that directly influenced Mahatma Gandhi. He opposed private land ownership and the institution of marriage, and he has had a profound influence on the development of Christian anarchist thought.
Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became occupied with the economic theory and social philosophy of Georgism. Mary Baker Eddy's library contained copies of Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and Work While Ye Have the Light (1890). In the summer of 1900, she heard that Tolstoy was ill and enlisted the help of her student, Anna B. White Baker, to send him two copies of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which she did in March 1901. Eddy received a thank you letter from Tolstoy's eldest son, Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy. That May, Eddy also sent Tolstoy a copy of Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896. The library of the Tolstoy family estate Yasnaya Polyana contains copies of several of Eddy's works, some of which contain notations in Tolstoy's hand.
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Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), also known as Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, was born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, and died in Astapovo, Russia. He was a Russian writer and is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time.
Born into an aristocratic family, he studied at Kazan University in Kazan, Russia, in 1844 before leaving in the middle of his studies to lead a leisurely lifestyle in Moscow. After running up heavy gambling debts, he joined the army in the Caucasus in 1851. Tolstoy served as an artillery officer before being promoted to lieutenant during the Crimean War. He returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for the children of Russia's peasants who had just been emancipated from serfdom in 1861. He married Sophia A. Behrs in 1862 and they had 13 children. Some of Tolstoy's most notable works include epic novels such as War and Peace (1869), Anna Karenina (1878), and Resurrection (1899), as well as numerous plays and essays concerning philosophical, moral, and religious themes.
Tolstoy embraced Christianity when he was around 50 years old. He believed that a true Christian could find happiness by striving for inner perfection through following the commandment of loving one's neighbor and God, rather than guidance from the Church or state. He was a proponent of nonresistance during conflict, a distinct attribute of his philosophy based on Christ's teachings that directly influenced Mahatma Gandhi. He opposed private land ownership and the institution of marriage, and he has had a profound influence on the development of Christian anarchist thought.
Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became occupied with the economic theory and social philosophy of Georgism. Mary Baker Eddy's library contained copies of Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and Work While Ye Have the Light (1890). In the summer of 1900, she heard that Tolstoy was ill and enlisted the help of her student, Anna B. White Baker, to send him two copies of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which she did in March 1901. Eddy received a thank you letter from Tolstoy's eldest son, Count Sergei Lvovich Tolstoy. That May, Eddy also sent Tolstoy a copy of Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896. The library of the Tolstoy family estate Yasnaya Polyana contains copies of several of Eddy's works, some of which contain notations in Tolstoy's hand.
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