1. childhood (1852)
this work is the introduction of most russian children to leo tolstoy. part of a biographical trilogy, childhood is one of the first attempts to dissect human feelings and thoughts, to discover their nature and origins.
the author closely observes his hero, little nikolai (tolstoy himself), at a transitional stage of his life, when his father takes him to moscow, far from home and from his beloved mother, who personifies cleanliness and comfort. He later dies, bringing Nikolai’s happy childhood to an abrupt end. Tolstoy examines in detail the embarrassment, resentment, embarrassment, emotion, and other feelings that his young self experienced.
2. sebastopol sketches (1855-1856)
Looking at later portraits of the grey-bearded sage, one finds it hard to imagine that Tolstoy was once a brave young officer. However, he served in the Caucasus for several years, and during the Crimean War of 1853-56 he spent almost a year in Sevastopol, even commanding a battery there.
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It was a difficult time for the writer, who captured all the horrors of war in his sevastopol sketches. The first of the three stories, published at the height of the war, made a tremendous impression on a news-hungry public from the front. it was, in fact, the first realist work on war.
3. war and peace (1863-1869)
no summary of tolstoy’s output could leave out his magnum opus, which his wife sofya andreevna rewrote by hand several times, making endless corrections. In War and Peace, Tolstoy described historical military events and their impact on the lives of several generations. he represented both moscow and st. petersburg and the fate of entire noble families, with astonishingly insightful psychological portraits of their characters: young natasha rostova, grumpy old prince bolkonsky, even napoleon himself.
The war of 1812 against France in the mass consciousness is often perceived through the prism of Tolstoy’s masterpiece. His original plan had been to write a novel about the Decembrists, but, when he researched the 1825 uprising, he traced its roots back to this war and decided to shed light on how Russia’s destiny changed.
4. the prisoner of the caucasus (1872)
the title is a clear reference to the poem of the same name by the national poet of russia, alexander pushkin. Written 50 years later, it is about two Russian officers who are captured by mountain dwellers when their partner fails to cover them and flees.
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the main character tries by all possible means to escape from captivity, for which he is helped by the daughter of one of the kidnappers, in whose shed he is held captive. the Russians see it as a story of war, honor and dignity mainly for children and teenagers. It has been adapted for the screen several times, including Sergei Bodrov’s 1996 film Sr. set during the first chechen war of the 1990s.
5. Anna Karenina (1873-1877)
tolstoy fans are divided into two camps: those for whom war and peace is their greatest achievement, and those who say anna karenina. this second threshold, however, written a decade later, has a less extensive scope and chronology.
Here, Tolstoy focuses on the nature of happy and unhappy family life, a topic that preoccupied the author. he tackles a number of ethical questions: is it acceptable to leave a child for the sake of a loved one? Is it possible to forgive a cheating husband for the sake of children’s happiness?
The novel also features a thinly veiled self-portrait of the character of Konstantin Levin (“lev” is Russian for “leo”), who leaves the life of high society to plow the fields with his peasants.
6. the death of ivan ilyich (1884-1886)
Death occupies a central place in Russian literature. and this novel is the quintessence of the Russian attitude towards it, an attempt to look death in the face. Tolstoy describes in detail the process of Ivan Ilyich’s death. In the end, when he draws his last breath, Ivan’s terror of death leaves him and, as Tolstoy suggests, death itself disappears. as, in fact, life does.
7. the kreutzer sonata (1887-1889)
This novel, named after Beethoven’s violin sonata, caused a stir in society. fearing its popularity with young readers, the Tsarist censors even forbade its publication for a time. in the story, a husband kills his wife in a fit of jealousy. he is acquitted and, many years later, recounts the story to a random passenger on a train, reflecting on the moral decay of society. he dislikes that girls are brought up to be subservient wives, while it is considered normal for young men to indulge in debauchery before marriage.
Tolstoy expresses his own disillusionment with the institution of marriage, his crisis. Calling for the total rejection of all that is carnal, he sees the predestination of women inherent in the bearing and rearing of children.
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read more: how tolstoy’s banned novel sparked a sexual revolution in russia
8. resurrection (1889-1899)
Tolstoy’s last novel, which he himself considered his best work. is the story of the redemption of a rogue officer, who seduced the innocent adopted daughter of her aunt and, leaving her pregnant and penniless, abandoned her. For him, it’s just an adventure, but the girl’s life is in tatters.
Years later they meet in court: he as a disinterested jury, she as a defendant. after learning her terrible story, the former officer suffers an internal collapse. when the woman is sentenced to hard labor, he decides to go too to redeem himself… the novel reflects tolstoy’s own spiritual wanderings.
9. Hadji Murat (1896-1904)
tolstoy returns to the caucasus theme, basing the plot on a true-life story that had caught his attention more than 40 years earlier, during his military service in the region. hadji murat, the right-hand man of the leader of the avers, imam shamil, goes over to the russian side. he is received as a dear guest by the army command. Hadji Murat promises to persuade Dagestan to forge an alliance with the Russians if they help him rescue his family from Shamil’s captivity. Of course, not everyone believes that the “deserter” is genuine…
10. father sergio (1898)
In the 1880s, Tolstoy underwent a major spiritual change that forced him to reconsider his attitude toward faith and morality. in father sergio, he describes the almost exemplary spiritual path that a person can follow. Hot young officer Stepan breaks off his engagement to his beautiful fiancée upon learning that she was once the mistress of the Tsar, whom he greatly admired. stepan retires to a monastery, where he becomes father sergio.
However, even there in the monastery, he fails to find the true faith and is distracted from a righteous lifestyle by visiting pilgrims. in the end, he leaves the monastery to wander and find his way in acts of charity and care for the sick. Tolstoy paints an intimate psychological portrait of his protagonist at all stages of his spiritual quest.
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