Tolstoy's War and Peace
An epic of the Napoleonic wars — a summit of the novel
In 1869 the final volume of Leo Tolstoy's epic, written at his Yasnaya Polyana estate, was published. Its panorama of Russian society during the Napoleonic Wars is counted among the greatest novels in world literature.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1845–1852 Great Famine in Ireland — 24 years earlier
- 1861 Unification of Italy — 8 years earlier
- 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War — 1 year later
- 1886 Benz's first automobile — 17 years later
- 1889 Eiffel Tower — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 7 years later
Africa
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — same year
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 10 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 16 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 16 years later
- 1886 The Witwatersrand Gold Rush — 17 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 16 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 1 year earlier
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 7 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 14 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 16 years later
Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — 5 years earlier
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 2 years earlier
- 1869 First transcontinental railroad — same year
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 7 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 10 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 18 years earlier
- 1893 New Zealand women win the vote — 24 years later
- 1893 Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom — 24 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 60)
- Karl Marx (aged 51)
- Queen Victoria (aged 50)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 48)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 41)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 35)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 29)
- Thomas Edison (aged 22)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 16)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 13)