Count Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in YasnayaPolyana, Russia. Orphaned at nine, he was brought up by an elderlyaunt and educated by French tutors until he matriculated at KazanUniversity in 1844. In 1847, he gave up his studies and, afterseveral aimless years, volunteered for military duty in the army,serving as a junior officer in the Crimean War before retiring in1857. In 1862, Tolstoy married Sophie Behrs, a marriage that was tobecome, for him, bitterly unhappy. His diary, started in 1847, wasused for self-study and self-criticism; it served as the sourcefrom which he drew much of the material that appeared not only inhis great novels War and Peace (1869) and AnnaKarenina (1877), but also in his shorter works. Seekingreligious justification for his life, Tolstoy evolved a newChristianity based upon his own interpretation of the Gospels.Yasnaya Polyana became a mecca for his many converts At the age ofeighty-two, while away from home, the writer suffered a break downin his health in Astapovo, Riazan, and he died there on November20, 1910.