Leo Tolstoy Timeline

Tolstoy began writing during his army period, including his first novel Childhood, a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1852 and brought him early acclaim.

Image source: Childhood (Tolstoy novel)

Tolstoy achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth (1852–1856), and with Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War.

Image source: Sevastopol Sketches

Tolstoy described the principles of the peasant schools he founded in his 1862 essay 'The School at Yasnaya Polyana'.

The Cossacks (1863) describes the Cossack life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl.

Image source: The Cossacks (novel)

War and Peace (1869) is often cited as a pinnacle of realist fiction and one of the greatest novels ever written.

Image source: War and Peace

Anna Karenina tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner who works alongside the peasants in the fields. It is often cited as one of the greatest novels ever written.

Image source: Anna Karenina

After Anna Karenina, Tolstoy concentrated on Christian themes, and later novels such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) develop a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy. It was later adapted by Akira Kurosawa as Ikiru (1952) and inspired Living (2022).

Image source: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

In 1890 Tolstoy wrote a preface for Vladimir Chertkov's anti-hunting pamphlet Zlaia zabava: Mysli ob okhote (An Evil Pastime: Thoughts about Hunting).

Resurrection (1899), based on Tolstoy's 'youthful sins', is often cited as a pinnacle of realist fiction and became a major cause for his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Image source: Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)

Several of Tolstoy's works were published posthumously: short stories such as 'Alyosha the Pot' (1911) and 'After the Ball' (1911), novellas such as The Devil (1911), and Hadji Murat (1912).

Image source: Hadji Murat (novella)

During his 1857 visit to Europe, Tolstoy witnessed a public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that marked the rest of his life and contributed to his transformation from a dissolute society author to a non-violent spiritual anarchist.

Tolstoy's European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo.

Fired by enthusiasm after the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for the children of Russia's peasants.

Image source: Yasnaya Polyana

Tolstoy's political philosophy was influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels.

Image source: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

In the 1870s, Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work Confession (1882).

Image source: Confession (Leo Tolstoy)

Tolstoy first became interested in vegetarianism in 1882; however, his conversion to a vegetarian diet was a long and gradual process influenced in part by William Fay, who visited him in Autumn 1885.

In 1884, Tolstoy wrote a book called What I Believe, in which he openly confessed his Christian beliefs, developing a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy.

From 1890, Tolstoy adopted a strict vegetarian diet which he was alleged to have never consciously betrayed. In 1891 he obtained Howard Williams's The Ethics of Diet, which his daughters translated; his introductory essay 'The First Step' was published in 1893. By 1903 he had removed eggs from his diet.

Tolstoy's ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in works such as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on pivotal 20th-century figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and James Bevel.

Image source: The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Tolstoy was impressed by the pacifist beliefs of the Doukhobors and brought their persecution to the attention of the international community, after they burned their weapons in peaceful protest in 1895. From 1892 he regularly met student-activist Vasily Maklakov to discuss the fate of the Doukhobors.

Image source: Doukhobors

Tolstoy's radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. In 2001, his great-great-grandson Vladimir Tolstoy appealed to the Church to reconsider the excommunication.

In 1902, Tolstoy wrote an open letter describing and denouncing Nicholas II's activities in China.

In 1904, Tolstoy condemned the Russo-Japanese War and wrote to the Japanese Buddhist priest Soyen Shaku in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement.

Image source: Russo-Japanese War

Despite his misgivings about anarchist violence, Tolstoy took risks to circulate prohibited publications of anarchist thinkers in Russia, and corrected the proofs of Kropotkin's 'Words of a Rebel', illegally published in St Petersburg in 1906. He also wrote the 1900 essay 'On Anarchy'.

Image source: Peter Kropotkin

In 1908, Tolstoy wrote A Letter to a Hindu, outlining his belief in non-violence as a means for India to gain independence from colonial rule. Gandhi read a copy in 1909 while becoming an activist in South Africa.

Image source: A Letter to a Hindu

Tolstoy's correspondence with Gandhi lasted only a year, from October 1909 until Tolstoy's death in November 1910, but led Gandhi to give the name Tolstoy Colony to his second ashram in South Africa.

Image source: Mahatma Gandhi

Tolstoy received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.

Image source: Nobel Prize in Literature

Departure of a Grand Old Man, made in 1912 just two years after his death, and How Fine, How Fresh the Roses Were (1913) were early films about the writer.

Image source: Departure of a Grand Old Man

Following the Russian Civil War in 1917, writings that were formerly censored could now be published since all literary works were nationalized in November 1918. Alexandra Tolstaya worked with Zadruga Publishing House from 1917 to 1919 to publish thirteen booklets on Tolstoy's writings.

Image source: Alexandra Tolstaya

In December 1918, the Commissariat of Education granted Vladimir Chertkov a 10 million rouble subsidy to publish a complete edition of Tolstoy's works, which never materialized due to government control of publication rights. Cooperatives were made illegal in Russia in 1921, creating another obstacle.

Image source: Vladimir Chertkov

In 1925, the Soviet government created its first Jubilee Committee to celebrate the centennial of Tolstoy's birth, which grew from 13 to 38 members. Alexandra met Stalin in June 1928; an agreement was reached with the State Publishing House in April 1928 for a 92-volume collection of Tolstoy's works. After 1928, the regime took over local institutions including Yasnaya Polyana, which the state controlled when Alexandra stepped down in 1929.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich was adapted by Akira Kurosawa as Ikiru (1952), demonstrating the lasting influence of Tolstoy's work on world cinema.

Image source: Ikiru

Lev Tolstoy, a film about the writer, was directed by and starred Sergei Gerasimov in 1984.

Image source: Lev Tolstoy (film)

In the made-for-TV movie Travels with Father (1996), Tolstoy is portrayed by Michael Gough.

Image source: Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father

A 2009 film about Tolstoy's final year, The Last Station, based on the 1990 novel by Jay Parini, was made by director Michael Hoffman with Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstaya.

Image source: The Last Station

Living (2022), with a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, was based on Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich, continuing the story of adaptations of his work.

Image source: Living (2022 film)