The Soviet writer Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was often called the "Red Count." An émigré and nobleman, he not only overcame the difficulties associated with the new regime but also became a favorite of the Soviet authorities. His special status in the USSR is confirmed by Stalin's awards and a comfortable life comparable to the pre-revolutionary era. Tolstoy quickly became a personal friend of Stalin, was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, and had a luxurious dacha in Barvikha and a personal car with a driver.

Alexei Tolstoy was born to the wife of Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Tolstoy, although some biographers believe that his real father was Alexei Apollonovich Bostrom, the writer's unofficial stepfather.

Emigrants such as Ivan Bunin, Roman Gul, and Nina Berberova doubted Tolstoy's noble title, but their opinion may be biased. In his memoirs, Roman Gul claims that Tolstoy was not the biological son of Count Nikolai Tolstoy, referring to the count's other sons.

Tolstoy welcomed the February Revolution but did not accept the October one. In August 1918, he left for Kharkov with his wife and son Nikita, then to Odessa. In April 1919, the family emigrated. Tolstoy was in exile from 1919 to 1923, first in Constantinople and Paris, and from October 1921 to July 1923, in Berlin. In May 1923, he briefly visited Russia, where he was warmly welcomed, and later returned to his homeland for good.

Tolstoy was one of the actual co-authors of the appeal by Molotov and Stalin in 1941, in which the leaders of the USSR urged the people to draw inspiration from the images of great ancestors such as Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dmitry Pozharsky, Alexander Suvorov, and Mikhail Kutuzov, instead of traditional communist propaganda.