"Born in Russia in 1828, Leo Tolstoy grew up to become a novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, and philosopher.A master of realistic fiction, he had little interest in academics when he was young. In 1851 he enlisted himself in the Russian army and served in the Crimean War (1854-1856). He records this experience in Sevastopol Stories (1855). Tolstoy produced an autobiographical novel, Childhood (1852), followed by Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1857) which earned him literary acclaim.War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1875-1877) remain two of his greatest novels. In his short autobiographical story, A Confession (1882), Tolstoy reflects on his mid-life existential crisis. The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and What Is It To Be Done led to his excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901 for a radical anarcho-pacifist Christian philosophy. The Kingdom of God Is Within You expresses his ideas on non-violent resistance.In the last few days of his life, while his health was deteriorating, he separated from his wife and left home. He died of pneumonia at a train station in 1910, at the age of 82."