--- description: Illustrator describes the undertaking as "a daunting task" title: Today's Google Doodle celebrates Tolstoy's 186th birthday image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6da6ea50617d6ca5/6986a279cd684806f60965e7/screen-shot-2014-09-09-at-7-57-51-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google Celebrates Tolstoy's 186th Birthday with Appropriately Lengthy Doodle by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 9, 2014 12:17 PM CUT  Google Doodle by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 9, 2014 12:17 PM CUT Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 186th birthday of legendary Russian author Leo Tolstoy. “Guest Doodler” Roman Muradov illustrated a click-through animation depicting the thousand-plus page masterpieces the author wrote by candlelight. Featured work includes _War and Peace_:  Google Doodle _Anna Karenina:_  Google Doodle and _The Death of Ivan Ilyich:_  Google Doodle “I hardly need to say that making a tribute to Leo Tolstoy was a daunting task,” Muradov [writes](https://www.google.com/doodles/leo-tolstoys-186th-birthday "undefined") in an explainer post for Google. “No set of images can sum up a body of work so astonishing in scope, complexity, and vigor–its memorable scenes come to life with seeming effortlessness, fully realized in the immortal lines and between them.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/"},"headline":"Google Celebrates Tolstoy's 186th Birthday with Appropriately Lengthy Doodle","datePublished":"2014-09-09T12:17:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:27.466Z","description":"Illustrator describes the undertaking as \"a daunting task\"","url":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Internet","Google","Google Doodle"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6da6ea50617d6ca5/6986a279cd684806f60965e7/screen-shot-2014-09-09-at-7-57-51-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6da6ea50617d6ca5/6986a279cd684806f60965e7/screen-shot-2014-09-09-at-7-57-51-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Leo Tolstoy Google Doodle","caption":"","creditText":"Google Doodle","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/","name":"Google Celebrates Tolstoy's 186th Birthday with Appropriately Lengthy Doodle"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3308635/google-doodle-tolstoy/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```