Leo Tolstoy's debut novel Childhood is published under the initials L. N., in the November 1852 issue of the popular Saint Petersburg literary journal Sovremennik (The  Contemporary).

It will later be published in book form to immediate success, earning notice from other Russian novelists, including Ivan Turgenev, who heralds the twenty-three year old Tolstoy as a major up-and-coming figure in Russian literature.

Childhood is an exploration of the inner life of a young boy, Nikolenka, and one of the books in Russian writing to explore an expressionistic style, mixing fact, fiction and emotions to render the moods and reactions of the narrator.

It is the first in a series of three novels and will be followed by Boyhood and Youth.