Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy

 Writer, moralist, and mystic, born at Yasnaya Polyana, SE Russia. Educated privately and at Kazan, he joined the army in 1851, and began a literary career, becoming known for his short stories. After fighting in the Crimean War, he left the army, travelled abroad, and in 1862 married Sophie Andreyevna Behrs, who bore him 13 children. He settled on his Volga estate, where he wrote his epic story of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars, Voyna i mir (1865-9, War and Peace), followed by Anna Karenina (1875-7). He then experienced a spiritual crisis which culminated in such works as Ispoved (written 1879, A Confession) and V chyom moya vera (1883, What I Believe). He made over his fortune to his wife and lived poorly as a peasant under her roof. Leaving home secretly, he died of pneumonia some days later at Astopovo railway station. His doctrines founded a sect, and Yasnaya Polyana became a place of pilgrimage. His writings on pacifism and his striving towards self-sufficiency and love of others have attracted adherents (including Gandhi) beyond Russia itself, and he remained a formative influence on pacifist movements in the 20th-c.