(350 words) The purpose of this text is not to duplicate the dry biography of Lev Nikolaevich. Instead, we will try, through reflection, to understand the figure of Leo Tolstoy, which is so significant for the entire developed population of the planet. In order to answer the question “What was he like”, it is worth answering the question “Who was he”.
His personality was multifaceted: a writer, a philosopher, a hunter, then a vegetarian, a teacher, the founder of a new religious teaching, a count, a common man, a recidivist, for some Don Juan, a family man, a father of thirteen children. This list goes on until the end of our century. If we ask anyone, a schoolboy, a janitor, a politician, they will unanimously answer us that Tolstoy was and remains the "Great Russian writer." And we believe this, because when we ourselves read his novels, stories, letters and novels, we feel something grand and majestic in them. Many readers agree that Tolstoy was great because, as a count, he tried to comprehend the soul of a simple peasant. From every line of it, light, love and warmth seem to come. With rare exceptions, such as the novel "Sunday", which differs sharply from his popular works, a kind of "Dostoevsky" gloom. So, reading his biographies and diaries, we can safely say that he was an introverted and depressed person who liked to think. He was an extremely distinctive and alienated thinker. He did not like to go out. We can say for sure that he was a modest author, which is confirmed by his refusal of nominations for the Nobel Prize. He had an altruistic trait. Otherwise, why did the rich nobleman start teaching peasant children for free? It is known that he published magazines, composed a new alphabet, traveled to Europe, attended foreign schools in order to turn novelty into the “education system” he founded. However, Tolstoy, like his heroes, was inherent in the dialectic of the soul: he changed very much with age. For example, the maestro did not eat meat. Because, in his opinion, a man who kills the flesh cannot be good. Although in his youth he loved hunting. And loved the cards.
All this to what is said? Moreover, among his contemporaries Lev Nikolaevich was distinguished, first of all, by his desire for work. He was a passionate, wise, generous and conscientious man, which made him such a prominent figure, a "heavyweight" among the writers of all mankind. While many of his colleagues only criticized life, he tried to change it for the better and succeeded.
