Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Writer and Thinker

War and Peace (1863-69)

• Begins to appear in literary magazine Russky vestnik in 1865
• Reflects Tolstoy’s interest in the Russian narod (“people”)
• Graphic descriptions of slaughter on the battlefield reflect Tolstoy’s experience as a soldier, amount to a pacifist critique of war

Tolstoy in his study

Anna Karenina, 1873-77

• Family novel centred around an autobiographical hero plus a novel about adultery (cf. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary)
• Vehicle for Tolstoy to express his opinion on the reforms of the 1860s, agriculture, modernity

Critical, Psychological Realism

• Investigation into the more profound aspects of life
• Social inequality
• Motivation, why do we do what we do?
• Psychological contradictions
• Politics
• What is Russia? What is Russia’s role in the world?

The 1880s: The Spiritual Crisis

• Tolstoy radically questions society, religion, morality, sex, artistic practices
• Renounces his previous literary works
• Publishes A Confession (1884), Death of Ivan Ilich (1886), Kreuzer Sonata (1887-89)

Tolstoy’s core beliefs

• Non-resistance to evil
• Renounce all luxury and wealth
• Live by one’s own labour
• Be like the humble peasant
• Vegetarianism

Tolstoy’s Philosophy

• Il’ya Repin. Tolstoy as ploughman

Vladimir Chertkov (1854-1936) and the Tolstoyans

• Meets Tolstoy in 1883
• 1884 becomes publisher of Tolstoy’s and others’ work in popular cheap editions
• Educational projects for moral improvement
• After Tolstoy’s death edits his work