Leo Tolstoy was born in Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province of the Russian Empire, in 1828. He was the scion of aristocrats. His mother died before he was two years old, and his father passed away in 1837. After two other guardians died, Tolstoy lived with an aunt in Kazan, Russia. According to Tolstoy, his cousin Tatyana Aleksandrovna Yergolskaya had the greatest influence on his childhood.
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