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# Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle at the age of 67
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/lev-tolstoi-nauchilsia-katatsia-na-velosipede-kogda-emu-bylo-67-let/
- Published: 2025-08-30T06:35:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:28:55.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Moscow, Mores, People

> It is very strange why I am drawn to do this. Yevgeny Ivanovich tried to dissuade me and was distressed that I ride, but I feel no shame. On the contrary, I feel that I do not care what people think, and it is simply sinless, and gives me a childlike joy

Tolstoy grew fond of cycling during his practice runs in the Moscow riding school, where he kept colliding with ladies who were learning to ride, and in the end he became an honorary visitor of the Moscow Cyclists' Club.

> I am doing no work. Bicycle

Lev Nikolayevich learned to ride fairly quickly and began to spend a great deal of time on his new passion. The following year, 1896, he obtained a licence to ride a bicycle through the streets of Moscow. Yes, such a document was required, and the rules governing this form of transport included a ban on riding along the city's central streets and during major holidays.

Tolstoy bought his bicycle for the considerable sum of 210 roubles. It was a model by the firm Starley, and the cyclists' club presented him with exactly the same one, whereupon Tolstoy returned the machine he had bought to the trading house.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_17756@30-08-2025_09-35-13.jpg)