Nikolai Alekseyevich Ostrovsky (; ; 29 September 1904 – 22 December 1936) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

socialist realist writer. He is best known for his novel '' How the Steel Was Tempered''.

Life

Ostrovsky was born in the village of ''Viliya'' (today a village in Rivne Raion (until 2020 it was situated in Ostroh Raion), Rivne Oblast) in the

Volhynian Governorate Volhynia Governorate, also known as Volyn Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It consisted of an area of and a population of 2,989,482 inhabitants. The governorate ...

(

Volhynia Volhynia or Volynia ( ; see #Names and etymology, below) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in ...

), then part of the Russian Empire, into a Ukrainian working-class family. He attended a parochial school until he was nine and was an honor student. In 1914, his family moved to the railroad town of

Shepetivka Shepetivka (, ; ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city located on the Huska River in Khmelnytskyi Oblast (Oblast, province) in western Ukraine. Shepetivka is the Capital (political), administrative center of Shepetivka Raion (Raion, district). ...

(today in

Khmelnytskyi Oblast Khmelnytskyi Oblast (), also known as Khmelnychchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in western Ukraine covering portions of the historical regions of western Podolia and southern Volhynia. The Capital (political) ...

) where Ostrovsky started working in the kitchens at the railroad station, a timber yard, then becoming a stoker's mate and then an electrician at the local power station. In 1917, at the age of thirteen he became a

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

party activist. At the same period he developed

ankylosing spondylitis Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a type of arthritis from the disease spectrum of axial spondyloarthritis. It is characterized by long-term inflammation of the joints of the spine, typically where the spine joins the pelvis. With AS, eye and bow ...

, which would later blind and paralyze him. According to the official biography, when the Germans occupied the town in the spring of 1918, Ostrovsky ran errands for the local

underground. In July 1918 he joined the Komsomol and the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in August. He served in the Kotovsky cavalry brigade. In 1920 he was reportedly wounded near

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

and contracted

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

. He returned to the army only to be wounded again and was demobilized on medical grounds. In 1921, he began working in railway workshops of Kiev as an

electrician An electrician is a tradesman, tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the ...

and as the secretary of the local Komsomol. Having

rheumatism Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including a ...

and typhus, in August 1922 he was sent to Berdyansk, a resort on the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

, for treatment. In October 1922 he was officially declared an invalid; however he continued working. In 1923 he was appointed

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

of the Red Army's Second Training Battalion and Komsomol secretary for Berezdiv in western Ukraine. In January 1924 he went to Iziaslav as the head of Komsomol district committee and in August 1924 he joined the Communist Party. In 1925, with his health rapidly declining, he went to

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

for medical treatment and in May 1926 he went to a

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a health ...

in the Crimea. By December 1926 polyarthritis deprived him of almost all mobility and he became virtually bedridden. In December 1927 Ostrovsky began a correspondence course at the Sverdlov Communist University in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

that he completed in June 1929. In August, he lost his vision. Undaunted by his immobility and blindness, in 1930, he began work on his first novel, '' How the Steel Was Tempered'', which became renowned and influential in the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

world. He also wrote articles for newspapers and journals and spoke often on the radio. In April 1932 he became a member of the Moscow branch of the Association of Proletarian Writers and in June 1934 he joined the Union of Soviet Writers. On 1 October 1935, he was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

. After living for years with paralysis, illness and blindness due to congenital

as well as complications from typhus, Ostrovsky died on 22 December 1936, aged 32. Because of his early death, he was unable to complete his second novel, '' Born of the Storm'', on the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

Legacy

His novel '' How the Steel Was Tempered'' is considered one of the most influential works of Communist literature. In

during the Communist period the Ostrovsky Museum and the Ostrovsky Humanitarian centre were built. They preserve his study and bedroom, while other exhibits include showcases of the achievements of disabled people like Nikolai Fenomenov and Ludmilla Rogova. There also was established by the Central Committee of Komsomol of Ukraine the Ostrovsky Republican Prize. The 2015 Ukrainian decommunization laws ban the use of Ostrovsky's name for the naming of public places. Hence

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

's Ostrovsky Park was renamed Mykola Zerov Park in 2020. A monument to Ostrovsky in

was dismantled in December 2022 after the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy had removed it from its list of "monumental art of local significance".

Quotations

References

Sources

Елена Толстая-Сегал, К литературному фону книги : 'Как закалялась сталь', Cahiers du Monde Russe Année 1981 22-4 pp. 375–399

* Раиса Островская, Николай Островский, серия ЖЗЛ, Молодая гвардия, 1984 * Евгений Бузни, Литературное досье Николая Островского
Тамара Андронова, Слишком мало осталось жить... Николай Островский. Биография. – М.: Государственный музей – Гуманитарный центр «Преодоление» имени Н.А. Островского, 2014.

* ttp://www.umoloda.kiev.ua/number/1008/163/36510/ Bohdan Dem′janchuk. How Ostrovsky Was Tempered
Petro Kraljuk. The "Steel" Man from Shepetivka

Svitlana Kabachynsjka. Life Free from Shame

The Nikolay Ostrovsky state museum - humanitarian center "Overcoming" at Google Cultural Institute

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostrovsky, Nikolai Alexeevich 1904 births 1936 deaths People from Rivne Oblast People from Ostrozhsky Uyezd Ukrainian people of Czech descent Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire Sverdlov Communist University alumni Ukrainian communists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Komsomol Komsomol of Ukraine members Old Bolsheviks People of the Polish–Soviet War People of the Russian Civil War Russian communists Russian male novelists Soviet communists Bolsheviks Soviet writers Socialist realism writers Blind writers People with ankylosing spondylitis Soviet blind people Military personnel of the 1st Cavalry Army Soviet military personnel of the Polish–Soviet War Recipients of the Lenin Komsomol Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Deaths from typhus Deaths from arthritis