Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. He was born into a prominent family connected to the czars but became an orphan at the age of nine, subsequently raised by his aunts and educated by tutors. In 1841, he moved to Kazan, where he studied Oriental languages and law, but feeling dissatisfied with formal education, he abandoned his studies before completing his degree.