What is the title of Leo Tolstoy's first published work?

Leo Tolstoy's first published work was Childhood. Published in 1852 under the initials L. N., the autobiographical novel introduced readers to a young writer who would later create War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

The story follows Nikolya, or Nikolenka, as he observes family life, education, affection, grief, and the social world around him. Tolstoy drew heavily on memories of his own upbringing, but the novel is a crafted work of fiction rather than a straightforward autobiography.

Childhood appeared in the literary journal Sovremennik, or The Contemporary, when Tolstoy was only twenty-three. It was the first part of a trilogy: Boyhood followed in 1854 and Youth in 1857. That sequence explains a frequent quiz error: Boyhood and Youth are related titles, but they were not Tolstoy's first published work. War and Peace came much later, beginning publication in the 1860s.