Leo Tolstoy 18281910 was born at Yasnya Polyana in Tula Province fourthof five children. Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of allnovelists parti... » 

Leo Tolstoy 18281910 was born at Yasnya Polyana in Tula Province fourthof five children. Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest of allnovelists particularly noted for his masterpieces War and Peace and AnnaKarenina in their scope breadth and realistic depiction of Russian life thetwo books stand at the peak of realistic fiction. As a moral philosopher he wasnotable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through his work The Kingdom ofGod is Within You which in turn influenced such twentiethcentury figures asMahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1850s Tolstoy also began hisliterary career with an autobiographical trilogy Childhood 1852 Boyhood1854 and Youth 1857. His first publications tell of a rich landowners sonand his slow realization of the differences between him and his peasantplaymates. Although in later life Tolstoy rejected these books as sentimentala great deal of his own life is revealed and the books still have relevancefor their telling of the universal story of growing up. «