Lev Tolstoi--the Patron Saint of My Kyiv Sojourn

I first read Tolstoy's War and Peace in English translation when I was about fifteen years old. It spoke to me, and I read it through twice or three times from cover to cover before I left home at age nineteen. This was years before I commenced studying Russian in earnest.

Of course Tolstoy did not live in Kyiv. He likely passed through here on his way to military service as a gunner in the Crimean War (By the way, for a fascinating recent piece dealing tangentially with Tolstoy's military service, see Errol Morris's masterfully written and fascinating three part series from The New York Times). But even so, I have chosen him for the patron saint of my time in Ukraine. My apartment windows and balcony overlook the triangular Lva Tolstovo plaza, with its underground Metro station by the same name. Across the intersection is a bronze frieze commemorating Tolstoy, fixed in the stones of the wall.

As I commence teaching my law students about closing arguments on Monday, I may also have St. Leo in mind, as their task will be to create a "story" of their case, intelligible and gripping to the jury--to help the jury to hear, to feel and, above all, to see the story painted by the advocates.

So, here's to you, Лев Толстой. May your influence guide and hover round my happy sojourn in this most ancient City.