Yasnaya Polyana

Yasnaya Polyana (, literally: "Bright Glade") is a writer's house museum, the former home of the writer Leo Tolstoy. It is southwest of Tula, Russia, and from Moscow. 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". 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. As of 2023, the director of the museum was Ekaterina Tolstaya, the wife of Tolstoy's great-great-grandson (and former museum director, 1994-2012) Vladimir Tolstoy. 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. History