Childhood and youth

Leo Tolstoy with children
Leo Tolstoy became the author of the school manual "ABC", which includes four books. From them, children could easily learn to write, count and read. The guide consists of epics, stories, fairy tales. There are also tips for teachers. The third book contains the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
In addition to teaching peasant children, Tolstoy continued his literary career. In 1870, he sat down to write the novel "Anna Karenina", which consists of two main plots. Against the background of the family drama of the Karenin couple, the idyll of the landowner Levin, which the writer wrote almost from himself, looked very wonderful. At first glance, the novel may seem like just a love story. In fact, it touches on the subject of the meaning of the lives of rich and educated people, especially in relation to the lives of ordinary people. The novel "Anna Karenina" was praised by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Gradually, the worldview of the writer is changing, he begins to talk more and more about social inequality, the idleness of the life of the ruling class-nobility. This can be seen in Tolstoy's writings of the 1880s. Among them, I would like to highlight "Kreutzer Sonata", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", "After the Ball", "Father Sergius".

Leo Tolstoy is the founder of "Tolstoyism".
Leo Tolstoy began to think more and more about the meaning of human life, he tried to find answers from Orthodox priests, but was constantly disappointed. He decided that the church was ruled by corruption, and that the priests were only hiding in the faith, but in reality they were preaching false doctrine. In 1883, Tolstoy became the founder of the "Mediator" publication, in which he detailed his beliefs and harshly criticized the Russian Orthodox Church. This caused him to be excommunicated from the church and closely watched by the secret police.
In 1898, another novel by Leo Tolstoy - "Resurrection" was published, which was highly praised by critics. However, this work did not cause a stir like "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace".
Later, Tolstoy developed a doctrine of nonviolent resistance to evil, and in the last three decades of his life he was respected as a spiritual and religious leader.
"WAR AND PEACE"
The writer himself was not satisfied with the novel "War and Peace". He called it nothing but literal garbage, even though the readers liked the piece. The novel was written in the 1860s when Tolstoy and his family lived in Yasnaya Polyana. In 1865, the first two chapters called "1805" were published on the pages of "Russian Bulletin". In 1868, the writer was able to present three more chapters that completed the novel. The novel was written in the years when the writer himself lived a happy family life and felt the increase of spiritual strength. Many characters of his work had prototypes in real life or at least corresponded to some characteristics of Tolstoy's relatives and friends. Thus, the writer clearly "drew" Princess Maria Bolkonskaya with her mother, a woman with excellent education and creative inclinations. The character of Nikolai Rostov was very similar to the father of Lev Nikolayevich, he was the same ay turned out to be mocking, hunting and reading.