Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (/'to?lst??, 't?l-/;[1] Russian: ??? ?????????? ??

?????, pronounced [l??f n??k?'la?v??t? t?l'stoj] ( listen); 9 September [O.S. 28

August] 1828
20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1910), commonly referred to as Leo To
lstoy, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright and phil
osopher who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a master of re
alistic fiction and is widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all ti
me. He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina
(1877). Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s with his semi-autobi
ographical trilogy of novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852 1856) and Sevast
opol Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His fiction o
utput also includes two additional novels, dozens of short stories, and several
famous novellas, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji
Murad. In addition to novels and short stories, he also wrote plays and philoso
phical essays on Christianity, nonviolent resistance, art and pacifism.
Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his
extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and
spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral t
hinker, social reformer, and Georgist.[2] His literal interpretation of the ethi
cal teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in late
r life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas o
n nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within
You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Moh
andas Gandhi