Leo Paul Fortini

Leo Paul Fortini is an avid aficionado of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, who penned the literary classic War and Peace. Although the two men were born almost a century apart on different continents, Tolstoy’s work contains many themes that bridge those chasms. For instance, in Anna Karenina, one of Tolstoy’s great works, he explores local elections and the idea of democracy in Russia. Although democracy is among America’s most cherished values, that idea has been challenged over the country’s history. Leo Paul Fortini, who graduated from college in 1953, came of age during the Red Scare and the height of McCarthyism in the United States, an attitude and practice brought about largely by the fear of Communist influence on American culture and government and the possible presence of Soviet spies. Moreover, Leo Paul Fortini may identify with the idea of social change that Tolstoy examines in Anna Karenina’s setting in 19th century Russia, a time when traditional values began to conflict with new schools of thought. Surely Mr. Fortini, having matured in the 1950s and 1960s, could identify with the culture clash that Leo Tolstoy discussed. Further, with the counterculture came new ideas about family dynamics and the role of women in American society. These topics were both critical issues that Tolstoy explored in Anna Karenina as well. Perhaps Leo Paul Fortini’s love of European history in general, and the writing of Leo Tolstoy in particular, can be attributed to the shared human experience that transcends time, nationality, and geography. Anyone with an inquisitive mind like Mr. Fortini’s may also be interested in studying global history to examine political and cultural patterns because, as Spanish philosopher George Santayana famously warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”