Leo Tolstoy

Legacy: the Artists Behind the Legends

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, arguably one of the best novelists of all time, was a complicated yet fascinating Russian writer who spent the majority of his days on earth chasing the meaning of life and the world around him. His two most famous novels, Anna Karenina and War and Peace, took the later part of the 19th century by storm, and in the three decades after their publication, Tolstoy took a hard right turn and transformed into a moral and religious teacher, corresponding with Gandhi and defying the Russian Orthodox Church for a more radical stance on Christian anarchism and pacifism (never thought those two things would go together…but sure). Ironically enough, Tolstoy led an early life of privilege, though over the course of his life, learned to despise the hierarchies of society, religion, and government, thus becoming an advocate of Georgism and, to be honest, losing touch a bit with reality. Tolstoy’s life is a conundrum, a giant mess of activity that goes from one polar extreme to the next, so let’s get started and strap into this roller coaster ride of, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant yet delusional minds we’ve come to know yet.