Stockholm: 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 Prize was awarded on September 9 to the African Union, in the presence of numerous high-profile Russians. Leo Tolstoy "would turn and turn and turn in his grave" if he knew, "but hopefully he can't hear anything", his great-grandson Stephan Tolstoy told AFP in an interview in Stockholm.
An elegant 83-year-old Swedish national, he has been fuming ever since he found out about the initiative. His ancestor was a fervent pacifist opposed to all forms of state and government, and who recounted his experience as a soldier during the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1854-1855. "It is a peace prize.
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 Ukraine.
"And that makes it more complicated. A little bit disturbing," he added. The Tolstoy Prize helps contribute to the "formation of the new just multipolar world order", President Putin said in a statement accompanying the prize's announcement.
The selection of the African Union as its first laureate was likely a strategic choice, as Russia vies .
