Childhoods was a novel by Tolstoy of the Soviet Union, first published in 1886. The novel described the growth of a boy named Swedenberg from childhood to youth. He experienced quarrels and divorce between his parents in his family, bullying and rejection in school, and received a good education in a noble family called Erbatec. Through Swedenberg's perspective, the novel described the various changes of Russian society in the 20th century, including industrialization, nationalism, revolution, war, etc. At the same time, the novel also revealed the influence of family education, school education and social education on a person's growth, as well as the complexity and variety of human nature. Childhoods was considered one of Tolstoy's masterpieces and one of the most important works in the history of Russian literature. It had a profound influence on 20th-century Russian literature and social thought, and was widely translated into many languages and had a wide readership around the world.