Leo Tolstoy

Russian novelist widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in world literature. Born into the aristocracy, Tolstoy served as an artillery officer in the Crimean War before retreating to his estate at Yasnaya Polyana to write War and Peace and Anna Karenina. In later life he renounced his wealth and aristocratic status, becoming a Christian anarchist and pacifist whose moral writings influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.