Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828 near Moscow in Tula Province in an aristocratic family. He had a lonely childhood as his mother and father died early. At the age of 16, he entered the University of Kazan, but disappointed with the formal instructions there, he returned to Yasnaya Polyana to manage his family estate and conduct his own education. He did not attain much success in either. Disillusioned, Tolstory joined the army and participated in the siege of Sevastapol during the Crimean War. While in the army, Tolstoy wrote some of his early literary works which were well received.

At the end of fighting in 1856, he left the army and went to St. Petersburg where he became a leading figure in literary circles. An idealist, he developed a revulsion to the glamorous world of St. Petersburg and returned to the sylvan setting of Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy went to Western Europe in 1857 and again in 1860-61. during this period he was also engaged in experiments for reforming the education of the peasantry. In 1862 he married Sonya Andreevna Bers by whom he had thirteen children. His two great masterpieces 'War and Peace' (1863-69) and 'Anna Karanina' (1873-77) belong to this part of his life which was spent in Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy had a many-splendoured personality with a creative genius. He is universally accepted as one of the greatest writers of fiction in the world. He was tormented by the gross inequalities and abject misery which gripped the society and dreamt of a human destiny free from oppression, bondage and fear. He had faith in the moral and spiritual evolution of man as a final answer to the exploitation of the many by the few. Tolstoy's views on history, non-violenece, education and art had universal relevance and on account of this, many world luminaries including Mahatma Gandhi were drawn towards him. Tolstoy passed away on November 20, 1910.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India