Which university did Leo Tolstoy attend in Kazan?

Leo Tolstoy attended Kazan University.

Tolstoy entered the university in 1844, when he was 16 years old. He first studied Oriental languages and later transferred to law. He did not complete a degree, leaving the university in 1847 after finding formal study unsatisfying.

His time in Kazan nevertheless mattered in his intellectual development. The city exposed him to university life, foreign languages, legal subjects, and a wider social world than the family estate. Tolstoy later returned to Yasnaya Polyana and began keeping the detailed diaries that became important evidence of his moral and artistic development.

A common mix-up is to associate Tolstoy with Moscow or Saint Petersburg because both cities were central to Russian literary culture. His university, however, was in Kazan, a major city on the Volga River. Tolstoy’s incomplete university education also distinguishes him from several Russian writers who followed formal academic careers.