Born on September 9th, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy became the fourth child of Nikolay Tolstoy and Marya Tolstaya. At nine, Tolstoy became an orphan, and lived under the care of relatives, and enjoyed a happy childhood.

At sixteen, Tolstoy matriculated at Kazan University, studying law and oriental languages. Although intelligent, Tolstoy's professors described him as "unable and unwilling to learn." Tolstoy eventually dropped out, never completing his degree. Afterward, Tolstoy lived a wild and dissipated lifestyle in his twenties, but became disatisfied with his unproductive life. Within a desire to reform himself, Tolstoy devoted himself to writing and joined the Russian army. Tolstoy published Childhood, his first novel, in 1852 and enlisted himself in the army, serving as an artillery officer. His experiences in the army provided crucial insight into warfare that he would utilize when writing War and Peace.

After retiring from the army, Tolstoy wrote tirelessly during the years 1863-1869, completing War and Peace, which became a monumental success. War and Peace chronicles the lives of three aristocratic Russian families during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and its extraordinarily realistic depictions of warfare has won the praise of both Russian generals and writers, along with the literate public. After the publication of War and Peace, Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina during the years 1875-1877. Anna Karenina describes the lives of families: the doomed affair of Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky as well as the personal development of Konstantin Levin, who represents Tolstoy himself. Both War and Peace and Anna Karenina have become known as two of the greatest novels ever written.

Later in life, Tolstoy devoted his time to writing novellas and short stories containing a moral lesson. During this stage, Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886), an instructive novella that explores the question of confronting mortality. Other notable works include The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and Resurrection (1990).

Tolstoy's style of depicting the perceptible everyday events in life, as well as flawlessly describing the conscious thoughts of his characters to craft uplifting, profound, and entertaining stories has made him one of the best writers in history.