BASED ON ON LEO TOLSTOY

For the 200th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy’s birth, technology is helping preserve his legacy and make it accessible in new ways. Take a fresh look at the writer’s life and work from different angles — right in Yandex services.
Take a look

Tolstoy across Yandex services

in Tolstoy’s words

Alice AI can now find a wise, well-chosen Tolstoy quote for any occasion.
Ask Alice AI

literary
quests

Could you waltz with Andrei Bolkonsky? Or climb out of a pit with a shackle on your leg? Give it a try. You don’t need to know the books — it’s even more fun if you don’t.
Choose a quest

updated
photo archive

Yandex Cloud and the Leo Tolstoy Museum have processed and cataloged photographs from the writer’s archive. You’ll find them 
on the Slovo Tolstogo portal.
Browse photos

estate

Visit Khamovniki: Tolstoy’s estate is now 
on Yandex Maps in 3D. Can you spot the apple tree, the dachshund, and the bicycle?
Visit Khamovniki

In Tolstoy’s
voice

Using 120 minutes of surviving audio recordings, we recreated the writer’s voice. Ask a question in a chat with Alice AI 
or on Yandex Station, and Tolstoy will answer.
What’s the meaning of it all?

the rovers
are up to mischief

On September 9 only, near Tolstoy’s estate 
in Khamovniki, you can spot a rover bearing 
a quote by the writer. Don’t miss it!
Learn more

Also, all of Tolstoy’s major works are available in Yandex Books

Why we’re
doing this

Yandex owes much of its existence to the Russian language. Built for Russian from the start, our search engine accounts for its morphology and other linguistic nuances—a key reason it became so useful. Moving headquarters 
to Lev Tolstoy Street, opposite the writer’s Moscow estate, felt symbolic. Months later, a billboard reading «Based on Leo Tolstoy» appeared nearby, 
the Russian wording plays on two meanings: working on Tolstoy Street 
and working for the writer himself.
Рекламный щит с надписью «Мы работаем на Льва Толстого», изображением Льва Толстого, логотипом «Яндекс» и адресом «ул. Льва Толстого, 16»
September 9, 2028, will mark 200 years since the writer’s birth — 
and it’s time for Yandex to get back to work for Leo Tolstoy. Over the next two years, together with the International Leo Tolstoy Heritage Foundation 
and the Leo Tolstoy State Museum-Reserve, we’ll use AI to digitize his manuscripts, process and catalog the photo archive, synthesize his voice, and launch special projects across Yandex services. Our goal is to make 
Leo Tolstoy’s legacy accessible to researchers and readers in a wide 
range of formats, including new and unusual ones.
All projects by Yandex and its partners marking Tolstoy’s 
bicentennial will appear on this site.

Digitizing
the manuscript legacy

For the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth, Yandex and the Leo Tolstoy Museum will digitize Tolstoy’s entire manuscript archive — drafts, letters, 
and other papers — using neural networks to recognize the handwriting. 
That will make the whole archive searchable, just like the internet.
Оранжевый прямоугольник на чёрном фоне
Текст на русском языке, рукописный, трудночитаемый из-за наклона и плотности почерка. Содержит фрагменты предложений, возможно, письмо или заметки.
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