186 years have passed since his birth
Google is honoring the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy with a doodle today, marking his 186th birthday. Tolstoy, who was born on September 9, 1828 and died on November 20, 1910, is depicted in the doodle writing at a desk surrounded by books and with the help of a candle. It then presents scenes from his works that have gone down in history, such as: “War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”.
Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana (the family estate 12 kilometers southwest of Tula) and from 1844 to 1847 he studied at Kazan University. He took part in the Crimean War as an artillery officer and was awarded many high distinctions. His horror at the atrocities of this war was reflected in the "Sevastopol Stories (1855-1859)". In these stories Tolstoy fanatically shows his hatred of the war and at the same time praises the heroism of his fellow soldiers. From the late 1850s-1860s Tolstoy settled in Yasnaya Polyana, opened a school for peasant children and founded the magazine "Yasnaya Polyana". He previously traveled to France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.
In 1862, Tolstoy married Sofia Andreyevna Bers. In 1863, he finished his short story "The Cossacks", in which he depicted the people and nature of the Caucasus. From 1863 to 1869, he was engaged in writing the novel "War and Peace". This work is an excellent depiction of life and conditions in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. The depth of psychological analysis, the masterful depiction of human figures and landscapes, and the richness of language make "War and Peace" one of the top achievements of realistic prose of the 19th century. In his other great novel, Anna Karenina (1873), the tragedy of a woman who fell victim to the false and inhuman morality of society is reflected, among other things. The power of Tolstoy's critical realism was manifested in the pages of his novel Resurrection (1889). Tolstoy also wrote plays such as The State of Gloom, The Living Corpse, and The Fruits of Education (a comedy). Other works in which his peculiar religiosity is expressed are The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1884), Master and Slave (1895), What I Believe, What Are We to Do, and his famous treatise What Is Art? However, his religious writings brought him into conflict with the Russian church, which expelled him from its ranks in 1901.
Source: protothema.gr
