BIOGRAPHY.
Lev Nikolaivich Tolstoi was born on September 9th, 1828, at his father’s estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Government of Tula. His family is said to have been of German descent, originally bearing the somewhat plebeian name of Dick,[1] which they changed for its Russian equivalent Tolsty, when they migrated to Muscovy at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first eminent member of the stock was Peter Andrievich (1645–1727), one of Peter the Great’s most famous “fledgelings,” renowned for his energy, versatility, and diplomatic finesse, whom his master richly endowed and raised to countly rank. Yet Peter himself seems always to have stood on his guard against him. “Tolstoi,” he is reported to have said, “is an able and intelligent man; but it is just as well, when you have anything to do with him, to have a good big stone handy, that you may be able to break his teeth in case it should suddenly occur to him to bite you.” It was this sinister sleuth-hound who hunted down the unfortunate Tsarevich Alexis in his Neapolitan retreat, and thus drew down upon himself the well-merited hatred of the Russian people,
- ↑ Stout.
7
