Yasnaya Polyana

Central Russia, Russia

Yasnaya Polyana is a writer's house museum, the former home of the writer Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy was born in the house, where he wrote both War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He is buried nearby. Tolstoy called Yasnaya Polyana his "inaccessible literary stronghold". It is 12km southwest of Tula, Russia, and 200km from Moscow. In June 1921, the estate was nationalized and formally became his memorial museum. It was at first run by Alexandra Tolstaya, the writer's daughter. The current director of the museum is Vladimir Tolstoy, also one of Tolstoy's descendants. The museum contains Tolstoy's personal effects and movables, as well as his library of 22,000 volumes. The estate-museum contains the writer's mansion, the school he founded for peasant children, and a park where Tolstoy's unadorned grave is situated.