Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was one of the most influential writers in Russian history. Born a Russian aristocrat, Tolstoy had, by the age of twenty-six, become both a nobleman and a soldier. Disenchanted by both lives, he became a writer, producing two of Russian literature’s greatest works: War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy was a giant of modern literature and made a profound impact on great twentieth-century figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.