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110-461: Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( / ˈ t oʊ l s t ɔɪ , ˈ t ɒ l -/ ; Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой , IPA: [ˈlʲef nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj] ; 9 September [ O.S. 28 August] 1828 – 20 November [ O.S. 7 November] 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy , was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of

220-489: A Glossary on Heraldica.org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, by the territorial circumscription. Apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily permanently. Since Louis VII (1137–80), the highest precedence amongst the vassals ( Prince-bishops and secular nobility) of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief

330-513: A Hindu outlining his belief in non-violence as a means for India to gain independence from colonial rule . In 1909, Gandhi read a copy of the letter when he was becoming an activist in South Africa. He wrote to Tolstoy seeking proof that he was the author, which led to further correspondence. Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You also helped to convince Gandhi of nonviolent resistance ,

440-415: A Nobel Prize was a major Nobel Prize controversy , and remains one. The Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility who traced their ancestry to a mythical nobleman named Indris described by Pyotr Tolstoy as arriving "from Nemec, from the lands of Caesar" to Chernigov in 1353 along with his two sons Litvinos (or Litvonis) and Zimonten (or Zigmont) and a druzhina of 3000 people. Indris

550-563: A boiled or fried potato and an apple prune compote . Count The title of count is typically not used in England or English-speaking countries, and the term earl is used instead. A female holder of the title is still referred to as a countess , however. The word count came into English from the French comte , itself from Latin comes —in its accusative form comitem . It meant "companion" or "attendant", and as

660-504: A centrally planned socialist economy. Because Georgism requires an administration to collect land rent and spend it on infrastructure, some assume that this embrace moved Tolstoy away from his anarchist views. However, anarchist versions of Georgism have been proposed since then. Resurrection , in which the nobleman Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhlyudov realizes that the earth cannot really be owned and that everyone should have equal access to its resources and advantages, hints that Tolstoy had such

770-691: A collection of short stories in four volumes (total of 629 stories in various genres) published along with the New Azbuka textbook and addressed to schoolchildren. Nevertheless, he was skeptical about poetry as a genre. As he famously said, "Writing poetry is like ploughing and dancing at the same time." According to Valentin Bulgakov , he criticised poets, including Alexander Pushkin , for their "false" epithets used "simply to make it rhyme." Tolstoy's contemporaries paid him lofty tributes. Fyodor Dostoyevsky , who died thirty years before Tolstoy, admired and

880-455: A copy of Howard Williams 's book The Ethics of Diet from Chertkov. His daughters translated the book into Russian and Tolstoy wrote an introductory essay titled " The First Step ", published in 1893. In his introductory essay, he described a cruel experience he had witnessed at a visit to a slaughterhouse in Tula. The cruelty he had witnessed confirmed his belief that meat should be removed from

990-613: A debt Gandhi acknowledged in his autobiography, calling Tolstoy "the greatest apostle of non-violence that the present age has produced". Their correspondence 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. Both men also believed in the merits of vegetarianism , the subject of several of Tolstoy's essays. The Boxer Rebellion stirred Tolstoy's interest in Chinese philosophy. He

1100-439: A dedicated advocate of Georgism , the economic philosophy of Henry George , which he incorporated into his writing, particularly in his novel Resurrection (1899). Tolstoy received praise from countless authors and critics, both during his lifetime and after. Virginia Woolf called Tolstoy "the greatest of all novelists", and Gary Saul Morson referred to War and Peace as the greatest of all novels. Tolstoy never having won

1210-738: A fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1852. In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army . Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854–55, including the Battle of the Chernaya . During the war he was recognised for his courage and promoted to lieutenant. He

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1320-599: A military commander but was not a specific rank. In the Eastern Roman Empire , from about the seventh century, "count" was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuriae (i.e., 200 men). The medieval title of comes was originally not hereditary. It was regarded as an administrative official dependent on the king, until the process of allodialisation during the 9th century in which such titles came to be private possessions of noble families. By virtue of their large estates, many counts could pass

1430-469: A number of supporters in Moscow, Dmitry recalled him from exile and gave him Vologda as an appanage. That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily II quickly assembled his supporters and regained the throne. Vasily II's final victory against his cousin came in the 1450s, when he captured Galich-Mersky and poisoned Dmitry. The latter's children managed to escape to Lithuania . These events finally put to rest

1540-519: A public execution in Paris, a traumatic experience that marked the rest of his life. In a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin , Tolstoy wrote: "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." Tolstoy's concept of non-violence or ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of

1650-411: A rule historically unrelated and thus hard to compare, but which are considered "equivalent" in rank. This is the case with: The title "Count" in fiction is commonly, though not always, given to evil characters, used as another word for prince or vampires: Vasily II of Moscow Vasily II Vasilyevich ( Russian : Василий II Васильевич ; 10 March 1415 – 27 March 1462), nicknamed

1760-487: A son. Even so, their early married life was happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom and the support system to compose War and Peace and Anna Karenina , with Sonya acting as his secretary, editor, and financial manager. Sonya was copying and hand-writing his epic works time after time. Tolstoy would continue editing War and Peace and had to have clean final drafts to be delivered to the publisher. However, their later life together has been described by A.N. Wilson as one of

1870-669: A title it indicated that someone was delegated to represent the ruler. In the late Roman Empire , the Latin title comes denoted the high rank of various courtiers and provincial officials, either military or administrative. Before Anthemius became emperor in the West in 467, he was a military comes charged with strengthening defenses on the Danube frontier. In the Western Roman Empire , "count" came to indicate generically

1980-622: A traitor. Meanwhile, Yuri's claim was inherited by his sons who decided to continue the fight. They managed to defeat Vasily II, who had to seek refuge in the Golden Horde. After Yuri died in 1434, Vasili the Cross-Eyed entered the Kremlin and was proclaimed new Grand Duke. Dmitry Shemyaka, who had his own plans for the throne, quarreled with his brother and concluded an alliance with Vasily II. Together they managed to banish Vasily

2090-675: A true Christian could find lasting happiness by striving for inner perfection through following the Great Commandment of loving one's neighbor and God, rather than guidance from the Church or state. Another distinct attribute of his philosophy based on Christ's teachings is nonresistance during conflict. This idea in Tolstoy's book The Kingdom of God Is Within You directly influenced Mahatma Gandhi and therefore also nonviolent resistance movements to this day. Tolstoy believed that

2200-610: A vegetarian diet was a long and gradual process. William Fay (Vladimir Konstantinovich Geins), who visited Tolstoy in Autumn 1885, influenced Tolstoy to become vegetarian. In 1887, Tolstoy was lapsing from a vegetarian diet by occasionally eating meat . It was only from 1890 that Tolstoy adopted a strict vegetarian diet which he was alleged to have never consciously betrayed. Tolstoy's wife Sophia argued that his vegetarian diet did not provide him enough nourishment and contributed to his digestive ailments, however, Tolstoy stated that his health

2310-458: A view. Other works, such as Tolstoy's unfinished play "The Light that Shines in the Darkness” and the short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?”, suggest Tolstoy's approval of small communities with local governance to manage the collective land rents for common goods, and heavily criticize state institutions such as the justice system . Tolstoy was introduced to hunting by his father, who

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2420-439: Is a distinction between counts (Swedish: greve ) created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 were called count/countess. In families elevated after 1809, only the head of the family was called count, the rest have a status similar to barons and were called by the equivalent of "Mr/Ms/Mrs", before the recognition of titles of nobility was abolished. The following lists are originally based on

2530-423: Is also a Russian journalist, TV and radio host. Tolstoy is considered one of the giants of Russian literature; his works include the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina and novellas such as Hadji Murad and The Death of Ivan Ilyich . Tolstoy's earliest works, the autobiographical novels Childhood , Boyhood , and Youth (1852–1856), tell of a rich landowner's son and his slow realization of

2640-413: Is generally thought to be one of the greatest novels ever written, remarkable for its dramatic breadth and unity. Its vast canvas includes 580 characters, many historical with others fictional. The story moves from family life to the headquarters of Napoleon , from the court of Alexander I of Russia to the battlefields of Austerlitz and Borodino . Tolstoy's original idea for the novel was to investigate

2750-439: Is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical!" Thomas Mann wrote of Tolstoy's seemingly guileless artistry: "Seldom did art work so much like nature." Vladimir Nabokov heaped superlatives upon The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Anna Karenina ; he questioned, however, the reputation of War and Peace and sharply criticized Resurrection and The Kreutzer Sonata . However, Nabokov called Tolstoy

2860-535: Is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title. Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few contadi (countships; the word contadini for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably: The principalities tended to start out as margraviate or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within

2970-779: Is not as terrible as it might otherwise be, because Tolstoy achieves for everyone. What he does serves to justify all the hopes and aspirations invested in literature." The 19th-century British poet and critic Matthew Arnold opined that "A novel by Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life." Isaac Babel said that "if the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy." Later novelists continued to appreciate Tolstoy's art, but sometimes also expressed criticism. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "I am attracted by his earnestness and by his power of detail, but I am repelled by his looseness of construction and by his unreasonable and impracticable mysticism." Virginia Woolf declared him "the greatest of all novelists." James Joyce noted that, "He

3080-490: Is to show that, in my personal experience, he was the only man who understood the significance of education and of the printing press in our time." Fired by enthusiasm, Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana and founded 13 schools for the children of Russia's peasants, who had just been emancipated from serfdom in 1861 . Tolstoy described the schools' principles in his 1862 essay "The School at Yasnaya Polyana". His educational experiments were short-lived, partly due to harassment by

3190-622: Is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century, Conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like Viscount , could describe powerful dynasts, such as the House of Visconti which ruled a major city such as Milan . The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans,

3300-583: The Crimean War . His fiction includes dozens of short stories such as " After the Ball " (1911), and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859) and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and essays concerning philosophical, moral and religious themes. 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). His literal interpretation of

3410-642: The First Bulgarian Empire , a komit was a hereditary provincial ruler under the tsar documented since the reign of Presian (836-852) The Cometopouli dynasty was named after its founder, the komit of Sredets . The title of Serdar was used in the Principality of Montenegro and the Principality of Serbia as a noble title below that of Voivode equivalent to that of Count. In Denmark and historically in Denmark-Norway

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3520-524: The Frankish kingdoms in the early Middle Ages , a count might also be a count palatine , whose authority derived directly over a royal household, a palace in its original sense of the seat of power and administration. This other kind of count had vague antecedents in Late Antiquity too: the father of Cassiodorus held positions of trust with Theodoric, as comes rerum privatarum , in charge of

3630-550: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania . At the same time, no mention of Indris was ever found in the 14th-to-16th-century documents, while the Chernigov Chronicles used by Pyotr Tolstoy as a reference were lost. The first documented members of the Tolstoy family also lived during the 17th century, thus Pyotr Tolstoy himself is generally considered the founder of the noble house, being granted the title of count by Peter

3740-646: The Tirukkural . He later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his " A Letter to a Hindu " when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice. His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo . Tolstoy read Hugo's newly finished Les Misérables . The similar evocation of battle scenes in Hugo's novel and Tolstoy's War and Peace indicates this influence. Tolstoy's political philosophy

3850-480: The Tsarist secret police. However, as a direct forerunner to A.S. Neill 's Summerhill School , the school at Yasnaya Polyana can justifiably be claimed the first example of a coherent theory of democratic education . The death of his brother Nikolay in 1860 had an impact on Tolstoy, and led him to a desire to marry. On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs , who was sixteen years his junior and

3960-676: The Vyatka lands, and the republican governments of Novgorod and Pskov . In the meantime, Constantinople fell to the Turks, and the patriarch agreed to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope in the Council of Florence . After the death of Photius in 1431, he was replaced by Isidore as metropolitan, a nominee of Byzantium, who took part in the Council of Florence. Upon his return to Moscow, he

4070-583: The Yasnaya Polyana museum since 1994 and an adviser to the President of Russia on cultural affairs since 2012. Ilya Tolstoy 's great-grandson, Pyotr Tolstoy , is a well-known Russian journalist and TV presenter as well as a State Duma deputy since 2016. His cousin Fyokla Tolstaya (born Anna Tolstaya in 1971), daughter of the acclaimed Soviet Slavist Nikita Tolstoy ( ru ) (1923–1996),

4180-400: The "greatest Russian writer of prose fiction". Critic Harold Bloom called Hadji Murat "my personal touchstone for the sublime in prose fiction, to me the best story in the world." When William Faulkner was asked to list what he thought were the three greatest novels, he replied: " Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina , and Anna Karenina ". Critic Gary Saul Morson referred to War and Peace as

4290-548: The 16th century all new peerages were always duchies and the medieval countship-peerages had died out, or were held by royal princes Other French countships of note included those of: See also above for parts of present France A Graf ruled over a territory known as a Grafschaft ('county'). See also various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality: Gefürsteter Graf , Landgraf , Reichsgraf ; compare Markgraf , Burggraf , Pfalzgraf ( see Imperial quaternions ). The title of Conte

4400-433: The 1880s and became a staunch opponent of hunting due to ethical concerns about killing. In 1890 Tolstoy wrote a preface for Vladimir Chertkov 's anti-hunting pamphlet Zlaia zabava: Mysli ob okhote (An Evil Pastime: Thoughts about Hunting). Although Tolstoy in his later life opposed hunting, he never abandoned his love for horse-riding . Tolstoy first became interested in vegetarianism in 1882; however, his conversion to

4510-418: The 1900 essay, "On Anarchy," he wrote: "The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require

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4620-429: The 19th century, the title, having lost its high rank (equivalent to that of Duke ), proliferated. Portugal itself started as a countship in 868, but became a kingdom in 1139 (see: County of Portugal ). Throughout the history of Portugal , especially during the constitutional monarchy many other countships were created. In Spain, no countships of wider importance exist, except in the former Spanish march. In

4730-608: The Blind or the Dark ( Russian : Тёмный ), was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1425 until his death in 1462. He succeeded his father, Vasily I , only to be challenged by his uncle Dmitry Shemyaka . During this time, Moscow changed hands several times. At one point, Vasily was captured and blinded by Dmitry in 1446. The final victory went to Vasily, who was supported by most people. Due to his disability, he made his son Ivan III his co-ruler in his late years. Vasily II

4840-683: The Christian art of universal brotherly love he sought to express. In his novel Resurrection , Tolstoy attempts to expose the injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of an institutionalized church. Tolstoy also explores and explains the economic philosophy of Georgism , of which he had become a very strong advocate towards the end of his life. Tolstoy also tried writing poetry, with several soldier songs written during his military service, and fairy tales in verse such as Volga-bogatyr and Oaf stylized as national folk songs. They were written between 1871 and 1874 for his Russian Book for Reading ,

4950-451: The Church's doctrine because they had made a "perversion" of Christ's teachings. Tolstoy also received letters from American Quakers who introduced him to the non-violence writings of Quaker Christians such as George Fox , William Penn , and Jonathan Dymond . Later, various versions of "Tolstoy's Bible" were published, indicating the passages Tolstoy most relied on, specifically, the reported words of Jesus himself. Tolstoy believed that

5060-579: The Cross-Eyed from the Kremlin in 1435. The latter was captured and blinded, which effectively removed him from the contest for the throne. During Vasily II 's reign, the Golden Horde collapsed and broke up into smaller Khanates . Now that his throne was relatively secure, he had to deal with the Tatar threat. In 1439, Vasily II had to flee the capital, when it was besieged by Ulugh Muhammad , ruler of

5170-705: The Doukhobors to migrate to Canada. He also provided inspiration to the Mennonites , another religious group with anti-government and anti-war sentiments. In 1904, Tolstoy condemned the ensuing Russo-Japanese War and wrote to the Japanese Buddhist priest Soyen Shaku in a failed attempt to make a joint pacifist statement. Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became occupied with the economic theory and social philosophy of Georgism . He incorporated it approvingly into works such as Resurrection (1899),

5280-477: The Eight-Nation alliance. He heard about the looting, rapes, and murders, and accused the troops of slaughter and "Christian brutality." He named the monarchs most responsible for the atrocities as Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II . He described the intervention as "terrible for its injustice and cruelty". The war was also criticized by other intellectuals such as Leonid Andreyev and Gorky. As part of

5390-521: The Great . Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana , a family estate 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of Tula , and 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Moscow. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy (1794–1837), a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812 , and Princess Mariya Tolstaya (née Volkonskaya ; 1790–1830). His mother died when he was two and his father when he

5500-509: The Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are: Apart from various small ones, significant were : Count/Countess was one of the noble titles granted by the Pope as a temporal sovereign, and the title's holder was sometimes informally known as a papal count/papal countess or less so as a Roman count/Roman countess, but mostly as count/countess. The comital title, which could be for life or hereditary,

5610-518: The Middle Ages the title of jarl (earl) was the highest title of nobility. The title was eventually replaced by the title of duke, but that title was abolished in Denmark and Norway as early as the Middle Ages. Titles were only reintroduced with the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, with count as the highest title. In Sweden the rank of count is the highest rank conferred upon nobles in

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5720-751: The Tolstoy family left Russia in the aftermath of the 1905 Russian Revolution , or after the establishment of the Soviet Union following the 1917 October Revolution , and many of Leo Tolstoy's relatives and descendants today live in Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. Tolstoy's son, Count Lev Lvovich Tolstoy , settled in Sweden and married a Swedish woman, and their descendants with family names including Tolstoy, Paus and Ceder still live in Sweden. The Paus branch of

5830-529: The absolute condemnation of all wars. His religious arguments are, however, so well combined with arguments borrowed from a dispassionate observation of the present evils, that the anarchist portions of his works appeal to the religious and the non-religious reader alike. In hundreds of essays over the last 20 years of his life, Tolstoy reiterated the anarchist critique of the state and recommended books by Kropotkin and Proudhon to his readers, while rejecting anarchism's espousal of violent revolutionary means . In

5940-469: The anarchist position as regards the state and property rights , deducing his conclusions from the general spirit of the teachings of Jesus and from the necessary dictates of reason. With all the might of his talent, Tolstoy made (especially in The Kingdom of God Is Within You ) a powerful criticism of the church, the state and law altogether, and especially of the present property laws . He describes

6050-654: The aristocracy was a burden on the poor. He opposed private land ownership and the institution of marriage, and valued chastity and sexual abstinence (discussed in Father Sergius and his preface to The Kreutzer Sonata ), ideals also held by the young Gandhi. Tolstoy's passion from the depth of his austere moral views is reflected in his later work. One example is the sequence of the temptation of Sergius in Father Sergius . Maxim Gorky relates how Tolstoy once read this passage before him and Chekhov, and Tolstoy

6160-552: The book that was a major cause for his excommunication. He spoke with great admiration of Henry George , stating once that "People do not argue with the teaching of George; they simply do not know it. And it is impossible to do otherwise with his teaching, for he who becomes acquainted with it cannot but agree." He also wrote a preface to George's journal Social Problems . Tolstoy and George both rejected private property in land (the most important source of income for Russian aristocracy that Tolstoy heavily criticized). They also rejected

6270-533: The causes of the Decembrist revolt , to which it refers only in the last chapters, from which can be deduced that Andrei Bolkonsky 's son will become one of the Decembrists. The novel explores Tolstoy's theory of history, and in particular the insignificance of individuals such as Napoleon and Alexander. Somewhat surprisingly, Tolstoy did not consider War and Peace to be a novel (nor did he consider many of

6380-463: The chasm between himself and his peasants. Though he later rejected them as sentimental, a great deal of Tolstoy's own life is revealed. They retain their relevance as accounts of the universal story of growing up. Tolstoy served as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War , recounted in his Sevastopol Sketches . His experiences in battle helped stir his subsequent pacifism and gave him material for realistic depiction of

6490-610: The criticism, Tolstoy wrote an epistle called To the Chinese people . In 1902, he wrote an open letter describing and denouncing Nicholas II's activities in China. Tolstoy also became a major supporter of the Esperanto movement. He 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. He aided

6600-479: The daughter of a court physician. She was called Sonya, the Russian diminutive of Sofia, by her family and friends. They had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood: The marriage was marked from the outset by sexual passion and emotional insensitivity when Tolstoy, on the eve of their marriage, gave her his diaries detailing his extensive sexual past and the fact that one of the serfs on his estate had borne him

6710-417: The development of Christian anarchist thought. Tolstoy believed being a Christian required him to be a pacifist; the apparently inevitable waging of war by governments is why he is considered a philosophical anarchist. The Tolstoyans were a small Christian anarchist group formed by Tolstoy's companion, Vladimir Chertkov (1854–1936), to spread Tolstoy's religious teachings. From 1892 he regularly met with

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6820-513: The diet. In the essay he wrote that meat eating is "simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling – killing". Whilst on his vegetarian diet, Tolstoy was eating eggs daily but was questioned by one of his friends if eating eggs amounts to taking life. He commented that "Yes, I ought to have stopped taking eggs. At least from now I shall stop it". By 1903, Tolstoy had removed eggs from his diet. Vasily Rozanov who had visited Tolstoy noted that vegetarianism

6930-565: The emergence of the title came the most powerful symbol of entitlement, that is the ownership of and jurisdiction over land, hence the term county . The term is derived from the Old French conté or cunté denoting a jurisdiction under the control of a count ( earl ) or a viscount . The modern French is comté , and its equivalents in other languages are contea , contado , comtat , condado , Grafschaft , graafschap , etc. (cf. conte , comte , conde , Graf ). The title of Count

7040-581: The ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount , caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist . His ideas on nonviolent resistance , expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894), had a profound impact on such pivotal 20th-century figures as Mahatma Gandhi , Martin Luther King Jr. , James Bevel , and Ludwig Wittgenstein . He also became

7150-407: The family is also closely related to Henrik Ibsen . Leo Tolstoy's last surviving grandchild, Countess Tatiana Tolstoy-Paus , died in 2007 at Herresta manor in Sweden, which is owned by Tolstoy's descendants. Swedish writer Daria Paus and jazz singer Viktoria Tolstoy are among Leo Tolstoy's Swedish descendants. One of his great-great-grandsons, Vladimir Tolstoy (born 1962), has been a director of

7260-485: The final paragraph of Schopenhauer's work. It explains how a complete denial of self causes only a relative nothingness which is not to be feared. Tolstoy was struck by the description of Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu ascetic renunciation as being the path to holiness. After reading passages such as the following, which abound in Schopenhauer's ethical chapters, the Russian nobleman chose poverty and formal denial of

7370-685: The first free Constitution of Denmark of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Since then the title of count has been granted only to members of the Danish royal family , either as a replacement for a princely title when marrying a commoner, or in recent times, instead of that title in connection with divorce. Thus the first wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark , the younger son of Margrethe II of Denmark , became Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg on their divorce—initially retaining her title of princess, but losing it on her remarriage. In

7480-414: The great Russian fictions written at that time to be novels). This view becomes less surprising if one considers that Tolstoy was a novelist of the realist school who considered the novel to be a framework for the examination of social and political issues in nineteenth-century life. War and Peace (which is to Tolstoy really an epic in prose) therefore did not qualify. Tolstoy thought that Anna Karenina

7590-820: The greatest and most influential authors of all time. He 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. Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction and two of the greatest books of all time. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood , Boyhood , and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in

7700-563: The greatest of all novels. After reading Schopenhauer 's The World as Will and Representation , Tolstoy gradually became converted to the ascetic morality upheld in that work as the proper spiritual path for the upper classes. In 1869 he writes: "Do you know what this summer has meant for me? Constant raptures over Schopenhauer and a whole series of spiritual delights which I've never experienced before....no student has ever studied so much on his course, and learned so much, as I have this summer." In Chapter VI of Confession , Tolstoy quoted

7810-518: The horrors of war in his later work. His fiction consistently attempts to convey realistically the Russian society in which he lived. The Cossacks (1863) describes the Cossack life and people through a story of a Russian aristocrat in love with a Cossack girl. Anna Karenina (1877) tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner (much like Tolstoy), who works alongside

7920-431: The imperial lands, then as comes sacrarum largitionum ("count of the sacred doles"), concerned with the finances of the realm. In the United Kingdom, the title of earl is used instead of count . Although the exact reason is debated by historians and linguists, one of the more popular theories proposes that count fell into disuse because of its phonetic similarity to the vulgar slang word cunt . Originally, with

8030-562: The land as a mendicant. In 1884, Tolstoy wrote a book called What I Believe , in which he openly confessed his Christian beliefs. He affirmed his belief in Jesus Christ's teachings and was particularly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount , and the injunction to turn the other cheek , which he understood as a "commandment of non-resistance to evil by force" and a doctrine of pacifism and nonviolence . In his work The Kingdom of God Is Within You , he explains that he considered mistaken

8140-462: The modern era and are, like their Danish and Norwegian counterparts, broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, the title of duke is still used in Sweden, but only by members of the royal family and are not considered part of the nobility. Like other major Western noble titles , Count is sometimes used to render certain titles in non-western languages with their own traditions, even though they are as

8250-529: The nascent Kazan Khanate . Six years later, he personally led his troops against Ulugh Muhammad, but was defeated and taken prisoner . The Russians were forced to gather an enormous ransom for their prince, so that Vasily II could be released some five months later. During that time, the control of Moscow passed to Dmitry Shemyaka. Keeping in mind the fate of his own brother, Dmitry had Vasily II blinded and exiled him to Uglich , in 1446; hence, Vasily II's nickname, "the blind". As Vasily II still had

8360-518: The opportunity to advance their own claims to the throne. These claims were based on the Testament of Dmitry Donskoy , Yuri's father and Vasily II's grandfather, who had stated that if Vasily I died Yuri would succeed his appanage. However, Dmitri had written the testament when Vasily I had no children of his own, and it might be argued that this provision had been made only for the case of Vasily I's childless death. Vasily II's claim

8470-697: The peasants in the fields and seeks to reform their lives. Tolstoy not only drew from his own life experiences but also created characters in his own image, such as Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei in War and Peace , Levin in Anna Karenina and to some extent, Prince Nekhlyudov in Resurrection . Richard Pevear , who translated many of Tolstoy's works, said of Tolstoy's signature style, "His works are full of provocation and irony, and written with broad and elaborately developed rhetorical devices." War and Peace

8580-557: The principle of collateral succession , which was a major cause of medieval internecine struggles, and was a definitive victory for the principle of succession from father to son as against the previous practice. This also paved the way for political centralization of power, which was popular in the country at the time. Now that the war was over, Vasily II eliminated almost all of the small appanages in Moscow principality, so as to strengthen his sovereign authority. His military campaigns of 1441–1460 increased Moscow's hold over Suzdal ,

8690-516: The process of indygenat , naturalisation. Somewhat similar to the native privileged class of nobles found in Poland, Hungary also had a class of Conditional nobles . As opposed to the plethora of hollow "gentry" counts, only a few countships ever were important in medieval Iberia ; most territory was firmly within the Reconquista kingdoms before counts could become important. However, during

8800-556: The protection of governmental power ... There can be only one permanent revolution – a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man." Despite his misgivings about anarchist violence , Tolstoy took risks to circulate the 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. In 1908, Tolstoy wrote A Letter to

8910-665: The purchaser of land designated "feudal" was ennobled by the noble seat that he held and became a conte . This practice ceased with the formal abolition of feudalism in the various principalities of early-19th century Italy, last of all in the Papal States . Poland was notable throughout its history for not granting titles of nobility. This was on the premise that one could only be born into nobility, outside rare exceptions. Instead, it conferred non-hereditary courtly or civic roles . The noble titles that were in use on its territory were mostly of foreign provenance and usually subject to

9020-406: The state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized government. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state, and the existing distribution of property, and from the teachings of Jesus he deduces the rule of non-resistance and

9130-417: The student-activist Vasily Maklakov who would defend several Tolstoyans; they discussed the fate of the Doukhobors . Philosopher Peter Kropotkin wrote of Tolstoy in the article on anarchism in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica : Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the 15th and 16th centuries, Chojecki , Denk and many others, took

9240-777: The thought of the Chinese anarchist group Society for the Study of Socialism. Tolstoy denounced the intervention by the Eight-Nation Alliance (which included Russia) in the Boxer Rebellion in China , the Filipino-American War , and the Second Boer War . Tolstoy praised the Boxer Rebellion and harshly criticized the atrocities of the Russian, German, American, Japanese, and other troops of

9350-411: The throne, taking inspiration from his uncle Dmitry, and began issuing coins with the title. The Muscovites began developing an identity of the grand prince as the sovereign and the ruler of all the Russian lands, and Vasily positioned himself as the defender of Orthodoxy. In his later years, the blind prince was greatly helped by Metropolitan Jonah, boyars, and then by his older son Ivan III who

9460-466: The title of count ( greve ) is the highest rank of nobility used in the modern period. Some Danish/Dano-Norwegian countships were associated with fiefs , and these counts were known as "feudal counts" ( lensgreve ). They rank above ordinary (titular) counts, and their position in the Danish aristocracy as the highest-ranking noblemen is broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. With

9570-670: The title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland , the position of komes was not hereditary, resembling the early Merovingian institution. The title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of "count" resurface in the title hrabia , derived from the German Graf . In

9680-469: The unhappiest in literary history. Tolstoy's relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical. This saw him seeking to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works. When he was finishing up the last installments of Anna Karenina Tolstoy was in an anguished state of mind and he began putting away guns and ropes out of fear that he would kill himself. Some members of

9790-533: The will: But this very necessity of involuntary suffering (by poor people) for eternal salvation is also expressed by that utterance of the Savior ( Matthew 19:24 ): "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Therefore, those who were greatly in earnest about their eternal salvation, chose voluntary poverty when fate had denied this to them and they had been born in wealth. Thus Buddha Sakyamuni

9900-458: Was signore , modeled on the French seigneur , used with the name of the fief . By the fourteenth century, conte and the Imperial title barone were virtually synonymous . Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there

10010-412: Was a pairie , i.e. carried the exclusive rank of pair ; within the first (i.e. clerical) and second (noble) estates, the first three of the original twelve anciennes pairies were ducal, the next three comital comté-pairies : Later other countships (and duchies, even baronies) have been raised to this French peerage, but mostly as apanages (for members of the royal house) or for foreigners; after

10120-497: Was a famous sinophile , and read the works of Confucius and Lao Zi. Tolstoy wrote Chinese Wisdom and other texts about China. Tolstoy corresponded with the Chinese intellectual Gu Hongming and recommended that China remain an agrarian nation, and not reform like Japan. Tolstoy and Gu opposed the Hundred Day's Reform by Kang Youwei and believed that the reform movement was perilous. Tolstoy's ideology of non-violence shaped

10230-518: Was a way of living for Tolstoy and at the dinner table surrounded by family and guests who were eating meat and scrambled eggs, Tolstoy was eating kasha . In a letter to A. D. Zutphen (a Dutch medical student), Tolstoy wrote that "My health not only has not suffered; it has in fact improved significantly since I have given up milk, butter and eggs, as well as sugar, tea, and coffee." Tolstoy described his vegetarian diet consisting of oatmeal porridge, whole wheat bread, cabbage or potato soup, buckwheat ,

10340-540: Was also influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon , then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels. Tolstoy reviewed Proudhon's forthcoming publication, La Guerre et la Paix (" War and Peace " in French), and later used the title for his masterpiece. The two men also discussed education, as Tolstoy wrote in his educational notebooks: "If I recount this conversation with Proudhon, it

10450-588: Was also often conferred by the monarch as an honorific title for special services rendered, without a feudal estate (countship, county) being attached, so it was merely a title, with or without a domain name attached to it. In the United Kingdom , the equivalent "Earl" can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In the Italian states , by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were little counts ( contini ). In Sweden there

10560-452: Was an avid huntsman. He was trained to hunt from a young age and became a passionate huntsman himself. He was known to shoot duck , quail , snipe, woodcock and otters. For example, Tolstoy wrote in his diary on 23 March 1852, "the weather was marvellous; went out hunting, rode up and down the undulating country till one. Killed two ducks." His novel War and Peace includes hunting scenes. Tolstoy spent decades hunting, but stopped sometime in

10670-497: Was appalled by the number of deaths involved in warfare, and left the army after the end of the Crimean War. His experience in the army, and two trips around Europe in 1857 and 1860–61 converted Tolstoy from a dissolute and privileged society author to a non-violent and spiritual anarchist . Others who followed the same path were Alexander Herzen , Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin . During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed

10780-552: Was awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, infrequently before the 14th century, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, it was largely discontinued in the mid 20th-century, on the accession of John XXIII . The Papacy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions,

10890-477: Was born a prince, but voluntarily took to the mendicant's staff; and Francis of Assisi , the founder of the mendicant orders who, as a youngster at a ball, where the daughters of all the notabilities were sitting together, was asked: "Now Francis, will you not soon make your choice from these beauties?" and who replied: "I have made a far more beautiful choice!" "Whom?" " La povertà (poverty)": whereupon he abandoned every thing shortly afterwards and wandered through

11000-466: Was defeated and captured by his enemies in 1433. Upon being proclaimed the grand prince of Moscow, Yuri pardoned his nephew and sent him to reign in the town of Kolomna . That proved to be a mistake, as Vasily II immediately started to plot against his uncle and gather all sort of malcontents. Feeling how insecure his throne was, Yuri resigned and then left Moscow for his northern hometown. When Vasily II returned to Moscow, he had Vsevolzhsky blinded as

11110-454: Was delighted by Tolstoy's novels (and, conversely, Tolstoy also admired Dostoyevsky's work). Gustave Flaubert , on reading a translation of War and Peace , exclaimed, "What an artist and what a psychologist!" Anton Chekhov , who often visited Tolstoy at his country estate, wrote, "When literature possesses a Tolstoy, it is easy and pleasant to be a writer; even when you know you have achieved nothing yourself and are still achieving nothing, this

11220-532: Was dismissed and imprisoned by Vasily, who was opposed to any agreement with western Catholicism. In 1448, a council of Russian bishops elected Jonah as the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church , which was tantamount to declaration of independence from the patriarch of Constantinople . This move further strengthened Moscow's reputation among Orthodox states. Vasily also adopted the title of sovereign of all Russia when he returned to

11330-516: Was his first true novel. After Anna Karenina , Tolstoy concentrated on Christian themes, and his later novels such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is to Be Done? develop a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy which led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. After his religious conversion, Tolstoy came to reject most modern Western culture, including his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina , as elitist "counterfeit art" with different aims from

11440-418: Was moved to tears by the end of the reading. Later passages of rare power include the personal crises faced by the protagonists of The Death of Ivan Ilyich , and of Master and Man , where the main character in the former and the reader in the latter are made aware of the foolishness of the protagonists' lives. In 1886, Tolstoy wrote to the Russian explorer and anthropologist Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay , who

11550-477: Was nine. Tolstoy and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University , where teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn". Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle. He began writing during this period, including his first novel Childhood ,

11660-468: Was not deprived on the diet but had improved. Critics of Tolstoy such as I. S. Listovsky suggested that Tolstoy's writing talent went into decline after he adopted a meatless diet. Tolstoy became a vegetarian for ethical and spiritual reasons, associating a meatless diet with "high moral views on life". He viewed both hunting and eating meat as a moral evil as they involve unnecessary cruelty to animals and regretted his former habits. In 1891, Tolstoy obtained

11770-411: Was one of the first anthropologists to refute polygenism , the view that the different races of mankind belonged to different species: "You were the first to demonstrate beyond question by your experience that man is man everywhere, that is, a kind, sociable being with whom communication can and should be established through kindness and truth, not guns and spirits." Tolstoy had a profound influence on

11880-572: Was supported by Vytautas, his maternal grandfather. Upon Vytautas' death in 1430, Yuri went to the Golden Horde , returning with a license to take the Moscow throne. But the Khan did not support him any further, largely due to the devices of the Smolensk princeling and Moscow boyarin Ivan Vsevolzhsky. When Yuri assembled an army and attacked Moscow, Vasily II, betrayed by Vsevolzhsky,

11990-464: Was the youngest son of Vasily I of Moscow by Sophia of Lithuania , the only daughter of Vytautas the Great , and the only son to survive his father (his elder brother Ivan died in 1417 at the age of 22). On his father's death Vasily II was proclaimed Grand Duke at the age of 10. His mother acted as a regent. His uncle, Yuri of Zvenigorod (the prince of Galich-Mersky ), and his two sons, Vasily Kosoy ("the Cross-Eyed") and Dmitry Shemyaka , seized on

12100-438: Was then converted to Eastern Orthodoxy , under the name of Leonty, and his sons as Konstantin and Feodor. Konstantin's grandson Andrei Kharitonovich was nicknamed Tolstiy (translated as fat ) by Vasily II of Moscow after he moved from Chernigov to Moscow. Because of the pagan names and the fact that Chernigov at the time was ruled by Demetrius I Starshy , some researchers concluded that they were Lithuanians who arrived from

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