Leo Nikolayevich, Count Tolstoy, based his last major novel, RESURRECTION upon a real incident. It is the story of the prostitute Ekaterina Maslova, wrongly charged and sentenced for the murder of a client, and Prince Dmitrii Ivanovich Nekhliudov who had long ago abandoned her and their child in his youth and now serves on the jury that condemns her while suffering agonizing pangs of remorse. When Maslova is sentenced to serve four years in a penal colony in Siberia, the Prince follows her and eases her sentence from a criminal to a "political" one. A classic novel of conscience.

Tolstoy also became a dedicated advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George, which he incorporated into his writing, particularly Resurrection.