author
Pavel Ivanovich Biriukov
1860–1931
A close friend and follower of Leo Tolstoy, he became one of the great writer’s most important biographers. His own life moved through activism, exile, and reform, giving his work an unusual closeness to the world he described.
1 Audiobook
Tolstoi's leven Zijne persoonlijke herinneringen, brieven en aanteekeningen 1828-1863
by Pavel Ivanovich Biriukov
About the author
Born in 1860 in Kostroma Governorate, Pavel Ivanovich Biriukov was a Russian publicist, social activist, and writer best known for documenting the life of Leo Tolstoy. He met Tolstoy in the 1880s and became part of the circle around him, sharing many of the writer’s moral and social concerns.
Biriukov was more than a literary observer. He was involved in Tolstoyan projects, including the Posrednik publishing initiative, and took part in public causes connected with religious dissenters and nonviolence. Because of his beliefs and activities, he spent much of his later life abroad.
He is remembered above all for his major biographical work on Tolstoy, written with the advantage of personal knowledge and long involvement in Tolstoy’s world. That combination of friendship, conviction, and careful research made Biriukov an important witness to one of Russia’s most influential literary lives.