Leo Tolstoy

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born into a family of old Russian nobility and was brought up by relatives, as his parents died when he was very young. Tolstoy studied oriental languages and law at Kazan University, but left in the middle of his studies and began running up heavy gambling debts. After spending some time in the army, he started writing. His most influential works were War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), both considered among the greatest novels ever written. In later life, Tolstoy became a fervent Christian anarchist, embracing asceticism and renouncing his aristocratic lifestyle.