Leo tolstoy was born on the 9 of September in 1828, in the province of Tula (Russia) in the noble family. he wrote his first great novel " war and peace" in 1860. in 1873 tolstoy began work on the second of his best known books "anna karenina". he continued to write fiction during the 1880s and 1890s. one of his most successful resent works "the death of ivan ilyich". tolstoy died on the 20 of November in 1910, in Astapovo (Russia)