September 9: The day Leo Tolstoy was born, the Russian nobleman who came to condemn wealth and aristocratic life

Leo Tolstoy, one of Russia’s best-known writers, was born on September 9, 1828. He became famous for "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," but his life also included military service and a later rejection of aristocratic wealth and society.

Tolstoy joined the Russian army in 1851 and served in the Caucasus. Two years later, he was promoted to artillery noncommissioned officer. He was later transferred to the Danube Army and spent several months in Bucharest, as well as 17 days in Focșani.

In 1856, Tolstoy resigned from the army and devoted himself to fiction. He died on November 7/20, 1910.

September 9 also recalls the 1940 Treznea massacre. After the Vienna Dictate transferred Northern Transylvania to Horthy’s Hungary, Hungarian troops killed 93 people in Treznea, 15 kilometers from Zalău, according to the article. The massacre was among several attacks in the region, including one at Ip, where 157 people died.

The date also marks the birth of former Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu in 1973 and gymnast Gina Gogean in 1977. The article additionally recounts how Crown Prince Carol left his wartime regiment in 1918 to marry Zizi Lambrino in Odessa. King Ferdinand ordered him detained for 75 days, and a Romanian court later annulled the marriage.