Leo Tolstoy

About the author

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) stands among Russia's most influential literary and philosophical figures. Born into aristocracy, he initially pursued law at Kazan University before dedicating himself to literature and moral philosophy. His monumental novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) established his literary reputation, but his later years witnessed a profound spiritual transformation. Following a existential crisis in the 1870s, Tolstoy developed a distinctive Christian anarchist philosophy, rejecting organized religion, state authority, and private property. His philosophical writings include Confession (1882), What I Believe (1884), and The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), which profoundly influenced figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

A Calendar of Wisdom represents Tolstoy's attempt to distill universal moral wisdom into accessible daily guidance for ethical living beyond institutional religious frameworks.