On April 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Daniil Tolstoy, the grandson of the famous writer Leo Tolstoy, who was born in Sweden. According to the decree, published on the official legal information portal, Daniil Tolstoy, a descendant of the writer’s son Lev Lvovich, as well as descendants of other historical figures from Canada and France, were granted Russian passports. Daniil was born in Sweden in 1972, and his family moved there in 1917. According to representatives of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Reserve, Daniil Tolstoy maintains regular contact with his historical homeland and actively participates in the annual traditional “Congress of the Tolstoys”.
Daniil Tolstoy is not only loyal to his family roots, but also develops business relationships in Russia. In 2016, he, as a representative of a Swedish company, negotiated to open an ecological agribusiness in the Tula region and purchased 6000 hectares of land in the Venyov district. According to the museum’s director, Ekaterina Tolstaya, Daniil is very fond of Russian nature and culture, and he has passed this love on to his daughter Nastya. The citizenship ceremony is part of a policy that Russia has been pursuing since 2012, namely to invite Russian-speaking descendants whose roots go back to before the 1917 revolution to the country.
