Commander in Chief of XVII Korps

3* General Tolstoy is a Vostroyan Officer from the usual base material of the Vostroyan officer corps.  However, unlike many, he didn't fight against being posted to non-Vostroyan appointments.  It is widely felt amongst the Vostroyan Officer corps that Vostroyan Officers often do not do well outside of (predominantly) Vostroyan formations.  Their particular style of leadership and cultural mores sometimes clash with people from other places.

Tolstoy is one of the more adventurous Vostroyans, confident of his own abilities and generous in his opinion of Imperial Guard of other ethnicities, he has served in appointments away from Vostroyan dominated areas (Klestor Sub Sector Command is currently headed up by a Vostroyan and therefore Vostroyan officers are doing rather well at the moment, probably a contributing factor to 4* General Zukhov's command of 72AG and General Pullamgowski's promotion for getting the Corbanian 1st almost wiped out.

Tolstoy gained his reputation campaigning on the rimward fringes of the Eye of Terror.  He commanded a Vostroyan Infantry Regiment (37th Firstborn) and then heavy tank regiment (12th Super Heavy First Born Armoured Regiment).  He then attended Staff College on Cadia.  He returned to the rimward fringe of the Eye of Terror to command the Vostroyan 44th Armoured Division.  By the end of the Smomery Campaign he was Divisional Commander of 14th Imperial Guard Division, a composite unit made up of remnants of many other formations who had begun the campaign.  

He then spent a tour as a tutor in Staff College on Agripinna before commanding a Division on Campaign putting down a rebellion based around promethium manufacture on the ice world of Stegen.  His Division was 17 Division.  When his headquarters was lifted from Stegen to become a Corps headquarters for 72AG, they kept the number of their old Division, as well as the remnants of the Necromundian 1st ("Deaths Head") Regt.  

Once on Devos IV and with the units for it's formations identified (even if some of them were still en route), 3* Gen Tolstoy demanded a number of officers from each of the units under his command and did most of the planning for the first year of the campaign with his Corps 'superteam' on the Ocean on their way to Benq. This is perhaps a major contributing factor to XVII Korps' success - all of the Divisional teams were aware of both the overall and the specifics of the other Divisional plans.

Tolstoy will get out to the front line and lead from the front when he can.  He knows that his place is to lead his Corps and that a major part of this is to defend his command from his Superior Officer, 4* General Zukhov.  He is under no illusion that if he and his fellow Corps Commanders allowed Zukhov to be more hands on, the campaign would be won, but the costs, one way or another, would be much higher. 

Bob Tolstoy has a Mykk Bush, a common enough house plant spread throughout the Endymion Cluster.  He takes care of this plant, taking it with him on campaign in its pot and feeding and watering it.  It has never flowered. 

His almost miniaturised twin linked storm bolter/lightening claw personal weapon system was created for him by the Ad Mech for managing to limit the amount of collateral damage on the refinaries at Stegen. 

You can see how PVP modified the minuture here

He is of course, a Vostroyan version of General Sturm from THQ's Dawn of War games. As well as that General Sturm, there' a historical German General Sturm and the notorious Noches Sturm from the Dan Abnett book "Traitor General".