Who wrote 'War and Peace'?

Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace. The epic novel follows Russian aristocratic families during the Napoleonic Wars, especially Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia and its aftermath.

Tolstoy began composing the book in 1863, drawing on historical records, memoirs, and accounts of Russian domestic life. Early sections appeared in serial form under the title 1805 in The Russian Messenger from 1865. Tolstoy extensively revised the work before its complete publication in 1869.

War and Peace combines fictional storytelling with historical and philosophical discussions about leadership, causation, and the role of ordinary people in history. Its major figures include Pierre Bezukhov, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostova. A common mix-up is confusing Tolstoy with Fyodor Dostoevsky, another major Russian writer, but Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, not War and Peace.