After a long battle to save his great-great-grandfather's estate, Vladimir Tolstoy has been appointed director of Yasnaya Polyana, where Lev Tolstoy spent six decades of his life and wrote "War and Peace."


The appointment of Vladimir, 31, a journalist and museum expert, was announced by the Culture Ministry, Izvestia reported Thursday. He assumes the post Monday.


Vladimir has said he wants to make the Yasnaya Polyana complex -- about 1 million acres of houses, parks and woods -- a world-class museum and cultural center.


"Saving Yasnaya Polyana is an enterprise for all of Russia and the entire world," Vladimir said in a newspaper interview last year. "Yasnaya Polyana is part of the national heritage."


Count Lev Tolstoy was born on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana in 1828. He later wrote "Anna Karenina," "War and Peace" and other masterpieces there.


The estate, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, was turned into a museum and nature reserve in 1921. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became the focus of a scandal.


Museum workers and Tolstoy descendants accused estate managers and regional administrators of exploiting Yasnaya Polyana for their own benefit and neglecting the crumbling museum. Land had been handed away for the construction of country homes for local administrators and factory bosses, Vladimir charged.


In 1992, Tolstoy's descendants urged the Culture Ministry to appoint Vladimir the new museum director. He was offered the post more than a year ago, but official confirmation was a long time coming. Tolstoy blamed the delay on opposition by local authorities.