Russian Classics Tolstoy is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. In his own lifetime Tolstoy was declared a head of Russian literature. He is best known for the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.Anna Karenina tells the tragic love story between married Anna Karenina and sparkish officer Vronsky. Vronsky is eager to marry Anna, but she is vulnerable to the pressures of Russian social norms and the moral laws of the Russian Orthodox Church.