Yasnaya Polyana

About

Yasnaya Polyana is the estate where writer Leo Tolstoy was born and spent most of his life; he inherited it in 1847 and became its owner. In 1862 he married Sofya Andreyevna Bers, and the couple remained together for 48 years, raising 13 children. Tolstoy died of pneumonia on November 20, 1910 (November 7, Old Style) at the stationmaster's house at Astapovo station, and he was buried on the estate grounds. On June 10, 1921, a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee designated the estate a state museum, with his daughter Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya serving as its first director. Tolstoy's personal library was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2011.