INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A new peace prize backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin bearing Leo Tolstoy's name has divided the writer's descendants, bringing
to mind the unhappy families of his novel "Anna Karenina."At the famed Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the first Leo Tolstoy International Peace
Stockholm.An elegant 83-year-old Swedish national, he has been fuming since he learned about the initiative.His ancestor was a fervent
pacifist opposed to all forms of state and government
He is well-known for recounting his experience as a soldier during the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1854-1855."It is a peace
And I think it's perfect to link it to the name of Leo Tolstoy
There's nothing wrong with that," Stephan Tolstoy said
"The problem is that it is initiated by a country at war and invading another country," he said, referring to Russia's invasion of
first laureate was likely a strategic choice, as Russia vies to expand its influence over the continent.In this power struggle with the
descendants live all over the world and have supported this initiative," said the former presidential adviser on cultural affairs and head
of the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow."No!" said his distant cousin in Stockholm
"It was said that the members of the Tolstoy family were asked in advance, and certainly we were not," he said."Before the invasion, I had
quite a good relationship with [Vladimir Tolstoy]," said Stephan Tolstoy
reunions that Vladimir Tolstoy would organize every two years at Leo Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana estate are now ancient history.Nobel
numerous laureates were Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, French author Louis Aragon, Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, Soviet leaders Nikita
Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, as well as Cuban leader Fidel Castro.After the Nobel went to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010, a
Confucius Peace Prize was also introduced in China and awarded for a few years, to Vladimir Putin, Fidel Castro and Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe, among others.Meanwhile, in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Institute aims to steer clear of any controversy when the Peace Prize is
awarded on October 11."There are more than 300 peace prizes in the world and we wish all of them welcome and all the best," its director
Olav Njolstad told AFP."We are pretty confident that the Nobel Peace Prize stands out as ..
the most prestigious peace prize in the world, and that I say without any criticism of the other prizes," he added.
