This day in Russian history and the History of the world.

September 23

September 23, 1862: Leo Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Bers, the daughter of a court physician, who was 16 years his junior.

They had thirteen children, five of whom died during childhood. Even so, their early married life was ostensibly happy and allowed Tolstoy much freedom to compose the literary masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, proof-reader and financial manager.

However, their later life together was described as one of the unhappiest in literary history.

His relationship with his wife deteriorated as his beliefs became increasingly radical and he sought to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works.

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