Born into an aristocratic family related to Count Leo Tolstoy, Alexei was educated in Samara and the St. Petersburg Technological Institute. His first literary effort was a collection of poems, Lirika, which appeared in 1907. He served as a war correspondent for the Russkie Vedomstoi newspaper from 1914 to 1916. In 1917, he published Na Voyne, a collection of short stories. Favoring the Whites during the Russian Revolution, he worked in General Denikin's propaganda department. When it was clear that the Reds would be victorious, he emigrated to Paris. After a while he moved to Berlin and, with an about face in his political beliefs, began to edit the Bolshevik newspaper, Nakanune. He returned to the Soviet Union and established himself as a leading Soviet writer. He wrote several plays during the 1920's and produced the first part of his trilogy, Road to Calvary, in 1922. He took part in the anti-fascist congress in Paris and London in 1935-36 and also the 2nd International Congress of Writers in Madrid in 1936. Later that year he was elected Chairman of the Writer's Union and in 1937 became a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. In 1939, he was elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. During the Second World War, he served as a propagandist and journalist. Many credit Tolstoy with introducing true science fiction into Soviet literature. His main works include Nikita's Childhood (1921), Aelita (1922), The Garin Death Ray (1925), Peter the First (1929), Bread (1937), Russian Tales for Children (1940), My Country (1943) and Ivan Groznyi (1944). |
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