Leo Tolstoy

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy known as Leo Tolstoy is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most significant authors in history. Writing countless plays, essays and short stories, Tolstoy famously penned War and Peace and Anna Karinena along with over twenty other novels. In his forties, Tolstoy experienced a spiritual awakening which influenced his views as a Christian anarchist, pacifist and advocate of Georgism. Leo’s views on nonviolent resistance and the resulting Tolstoyan movement spread widely and his works were profoundly influential to Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. Tolstoy’s views on nonviolence extended all the way to his diet and he became a very early and prominent advocate for vegetarianism and veganism. Tolstoy continued to write and spread his message of nonviolence up until his death at the age of 82.