or Tol·stoi T0254700 (tōl′stoi, tŏl′-, təl-stoi′), Count Leo or Lev Nikolayevich 1828-1910. Russian writer whose great novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) offer extraordinary detail and profound psychological insights. His later theories of ethics and morality recommended nonparticipation in and passive resistance to evil.Tol·stoy′an adj. & n.