Tolstoy as a Russian

Abstract

At this point, I must emulate Tolstoy and indulge in a few longish historical asides. These are not justified, as in his case, by an urgent desire to communicate an offbeat version of history. I simply believe that not only do figures of Tolstoy’s magnitude make history, but history also makes them. And as history is irrevocably linked to the backdrops against which it unfolds, most such figures can only be properly understood in their national context.

[Russia] is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma —

Winston Churchill