  I. Lef Nikolayevitch Tolstoi was born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana, district of Krapivna, government of Tula. From 1843 to 1846 he studied in Kazan at first oriental languages, then jurisprudence; from 1847 to 1848, in St. Petersburg, jurisprudence. After a lengthy stay at Yasnaya Polyana, he entered an artillery regiment in the Caucasus, in 1851; he became an officer, remained in the Caucasus till 1853, then served in the Crimean war, and left the army in 1855. Tolstoi now lived at first in St. Petersburg. In 1857 he took a lengthy tour in Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland. After his return he lived mostly in Moscow till 1860. In 1860-1861 he traveled in Germany, France, Italy, England, and Belgium; in Brussels he made the acquaintance of Proudhon. Since 1861 Tolstoi has lived almost uninterruptedly at Yasnaya Polyana, as at once agriculturist and author. Tolstoi has published numerous works; his works up to 1878 are mostly stories, among which the two novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are notable; his later works are mostly of a philosophical nature. 2. Of special importance for Tolstoi's teaching about law, the State, and property are his works "My Confession" (1879), "The Gospel in Brief" (1880), "What I Believe" (1884) [also known in English as "My Religion"], "What Shall We Do Then?" (1885), "On Life" (1887), "The Kingdom of God is Within You; or, Christianity not a mystical doctrine, but a new life-conception" (1893). 3. Tolstoi does not call his teaching about law, the State, and property "Anarchism." He designates as "Anarchism" the teaching which sets up as its goal a life without government and wishes to see this realized by the application of force. |
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