Historic Figures
WITH THE NAME LEO
We are big Russian literature fans so we just had to mention Leo Tolstoy for the prominent, historic figure that he is. He was born Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy into a well-known family of Russian nobility in the western region of the country and primarily raised by relatives in privileged comfort following the death of his parents. At the age of 32 he embarked on a trip to Europe where he would meet Victor Hugo and read Les Miserables which would have a profound impact on him and later influence his masterpiece, War and Peace (an epic covering the Napoleonic era and the French invasion of Russia as seen through the eyes of five aristocratic families). Along with War and Peace, his work Anna Karenina is also acknowledged as a masterpiece, one of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realism. His Russian contemporary Fyodor Dostoevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists. Upon reading War and Peace, Gustave Flaubert proclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" His friend, Anton Chekhov wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." Tolstoy influenced the great novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov and William Faulkner. Aside from Tolstoy’s genius for literature, he was also a fervent Christian anarchist once writing to a friend: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens. Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." He firmly believed in the “turn the other cheek†edict of Jesus’ teachings which influenced his justification for nonviolence and pacifism. His later works dealing with passive resistance would heavily influence the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are big Russian literature fans so we just had to mention Leo Tolstoy for the prominent, historic figure that he is. He was born Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy into a well-known family of Russian nobility in the western region of the country and primarily raised by relatives in privileged comfort following the death of his parents. At the age of 32 he embarked on a trip to Europe where he would meet Victor Hugo and read Les Miserables which would have a profound impact on him and later influence his masterpiece, War and Peace (an epic covering the Napoleonic era and the French invasion of Russia as seen through the eyes of five aristocratic families). Along with War and Peace, his work Anna Karenina is also acknowledged as a masterpiece, one of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realism. His Russian contemporary Fyodor Dostoevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists. Upon reading War and Peace, Gustave Flaubert proclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" His friend, Anton Chekhov wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." Tolstoy influenced the great novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov and William Faulkner. Aside from Tolstoy’s genius for literature, he was also a fervent Christian anarchist once writing to a friend: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens. Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." He firmly believed in the “turn the other cheek†edict of Jesus’ teachings which influenced his justification for nonviolence and pacifism. His later works dealing with passive resistance would heavily influence the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are big Russian literature fans so we just had to mention Leo Tolstoy for the prominent, historic figure that he is. He was born Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy into a well-known family of Russian nobility in the western region of the country and primarily raised by relatives in privileged comfort following the death of his parents. At the age of 32 he embarked on a trip to Europe where he would meet Victor Hugo and read Les Miserables which would have a profound impact on him and later influence his masterpiece, War and Peace (an epic covering the Napoleonic era and the French invasion of Russia as seen through the eyes of five aristocratic families). Along with War and Peace, his work Anna Karenina is also acknowledged as a masterpiece, one of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realism. His Russian contemporary Fyodor Dostoevsky thought him the greatest of all living novelists. Upon reading War and Peace, Gustave Flaubert proclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" His friend, Anton Chekhov wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." Tolstoy influenced the great novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov and William Faulkner. Aside from Tolstoy’s genius for literature, he was also a fervent Christian anarchist once writing to a friend: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens. Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." He firmly believed in the “turn the other cheek†edict of Jesus’ teachings which influenced his justification for nonviolence and pacifism. His later works dealing with passive resistance would heavily influence the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.