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
Monument to Leo Tolstoy on Prechistenka years of Soviet power, and in 1928 the monument was erected in the square of the Maiden Field in the framework of the Leninist plan for monumental propaganda. In 1972, it was replaced by a more monumental monument of the sculptor A. M. Portyanko, and the sculpture of S. D. Merkurov was moved to the present place — to the museum of Leo Tolstoy. In addition to these two, in Moscow there is a third monument to L. N. Tolstoy — before the so-called "House of Rostov" on Povarskaya. The monument is quite generalized in its forms, which is typical