Leo Tolstoy then spent much of his time in Moscow, Tula and Saint Petersburg, leading a lax and leisurely lifestyle. He began writing during this period, including his first novel "Childhood", a fictitious account of his own youth, which was published in 1852. In 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. Tolstoy served as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War and was in Sevastopol during the 11-month-long siege of Sevastopol in 1854–55, including the Battle of the Chernaya. During the war he was recognised for his bravery
Tolstoy family major estate Herresta outside Stockholm. Leo Tolstoy's last surviving grandchild, Countess Tatiana Paus née Tolstoy, died in 2007 at Herresta. Two of Leo Tolstoy's great-great-grandsons are Pyotr Tolstoy, a Russian TV presenter and State Duma deputy since 2016 and Vladimir Tolstoy, journalist and adviser to the President of Russia on culture. Several places in Russia are named to commemorate Leo Tolstoy, e.g., Tolstoy-Yurt, village in Chechnya. Tolstoy family Tolstoy, or Tolstoi (), is a family of Russian gentry whose branch had made it into the high aristocracy of the Russian Empire. Descendants of Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy ("the Fat"), who moved