The diary included the fact that he had fathered a child by a woman who remained on the Yasnaya Polyana estate. In Anna Karenina, 34 year-old Constantine Levin, a semi-autobiographical character behaves similarly, asking his 19 year old fiancée Kitty to read his diaries and learn of his past transgressions. On the eve of their marriage, Tolstoy gave Sophia his diaries detailing his sexual relations with female serfs.

At the time of their marriage, Leo Tolstoy was already well known as a novelist after the publication of The Cossacks. On 17 September 1862 the couple became formally engaged after Tolstoy gave Sophia a written proposal of marriage, marrying a week later in Moscow. She was first introduced to Leo Tolstoy in 1862, when she was 18 years-old. Sophia was one of three daughters of the physician Andrey Evstafievich Behrs (1808-1868), and his wife, Liubov Alexandrovna Behrs, née Islavinoy (1826-1886). The photographs' revelations? and their power?tell a collective story that continues to unfold, that affects every one of us, that will last many lifetimes and, it is hoped, impact some of the lives it has touched.Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya (née Behrs), sometimes Anglicised as Sophia Tolstoy 22 August 1844 – 4 November 1919), was the wife of Russian novelist and thinker Leo Tolstoy. The Facing Change photographers are each introduced in intimate essays that describe their history, work, and aspirations for the project.

The book includes images from the original FSA project as well as interviews with Library of Congress photography experts, which together illustrate photojournalism's role in engendering change in America. Chronicling the challenges of modern America, these photographs offer compelling stories of people around the country who are coping with the aftermath of recent events: immigration, health care, housing, the war in Iraq, Katrina, the great recession and profound economic disparity.

Their vision is inspired by the Farm Security Administration's project that documented the Great Depression. Its members include some of the country's most celebrated photojournalists. This non-profit collective has a bold mission: to create a new national portrait of America. On Inauguration Day, 2009, a group of photographers who were in Washington to document the ceremony began a conversation that led to the foundation of Facing Change. Published in cooperation with the Library of Congress, this astounding collection of images by award-winning photographers tells the story of today's America?and provides an enduring legacy that will inform the way we address our future.

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