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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909.

While Tolstoy had died prior to 1917, the Soviets planted him at the top of their literary pantheon, largely because of the radical philosophy he preached amid the early rumblings of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Amongst his seminal works, Anna Karenina and War and Peace are regarded as two of the greatest books of all time. The publications of these two works alone mad Tolstoy so famous that one contemporary described him as Russia’s second czar