He worked from primary source materials, such as interviews and other documents, as well as from history books, philosophy texts, and other historical novels. Tolstoy used a great deal of his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Imperial Russian Army was structured.Troyat, Henri. Tolstoy, a biography. Doubleday, 1967.
He worked from primary source materials such as interviews and other documents as well as from history books philosophy texts and other historical novels Tolstoy used a great deal of his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Imperial Russian Army was structuredTroyat Henri Tolstoy a biography Doubleday 1967