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| Author | Nikolai Ostrovsky |
|---|---|
| Original title | Как закалялась сталь |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Socialist realism |
| Publisher | Young Guard (serial) |
Publication date | 1932–1934 (serial) – 1936 (book) |
| Publication place | Soviet Union |
| Media type | Print (hardback &paperback) |
._Illustration_for_the_novel_%2527How_the_Steel_Was_Tempered%2527)_small_resolution.jpg)
How the Steel Was Tempered (Russian:Как закалялась сталь,romanized: Kak zakalyalas stal) orThe Making of a Hero, is asocialist realistnovel written byNikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). With 36.4 million copies sold, it is one of thebest-selling books of all time[1] and the best-selling book in the Russian language.
The story follows the life of Pavel Korchagin, including his fighting in and aftermath of theRussian Civil War when he fought for the Bolsheviks during the war and was injured. The novel examines how Korchagin heals from his wounds and thus becomes as strong as steel.
The novel begins when Korchagin is 12, living in the town ofShepetovka inUkraine. He gets kicked out of school for putting tobacco in some bread dough and must go to work as a dishwasher. As a dishwasher he is beaten by a coworker, but his brother Artyom defends him. The novel jumps forward to age 16 when he is working in a power plant. He meets a Bolshevik named Zhukhrai after a run-in with the Tsarist secret police. Zhukrai tells him about the Bolsheviks and Lenin. He also meets Tonia Toumanova, his first of many love interests. Again the novel jumps, to 1917 as the German army invades Shepetovka. Korchagin witnesses the town change hands several times in the chaos of the following months, with apogrom against the town's Jewish population occurring during its occupation by soldiers loyal toSymon Petliura. Korchagin eventually joins theBolsheviks and fights in the Civil War andPolish-Soviet War. He receives an injury in his spine, which slowly saps his strength for the remainder of the novel. After the war he works as a railway mechanic and advances as aKomsomol member inKyiv. He develops many social connections there but loses touch with many of his friends after he is presumed dead during work to build an emergency railway line to provide Shepetovka with firewood. As his health worsens due to his life of hardship and wartime injuries, he spends time in Sanatoria on theBlack Sea coast, where he eventually meets and marries the young daughter of a friend of his mother's. Eventually, having lost his eyesight and almost totally paralyzed, Pavel moves toMoscow to consult medical specialists, but his condition is hopeless and he ends up staying there to write a novel about his cavalry division from the Civil War.
The story is a fictionalized autobiography of its author,Nikolai Ostrovsky. In real life, Ostrovsky's father died, and his mother worked as a cook. As he joined the war with theRed Army, he lost his right eye from artillery fire during the war.
In 2016, Russia's newspaperRussia Beyond The Headlines analyzed the story as part of the Soviet narrative of Communism forging uncivilized men into ideal men, like iron into steel. The protagonist fits the mold of pre-Khrushchev literature: an immaculate, ideally communistic individual.[2][3][unbalanced opinion?]
The first part ofHow the Steel was Tempered was published serially in 1932 in the magazineYoung Guard. The second part of the novel appeared in the same magazine from January to May, 1934. The novel was published in 1936 in book form in a heavily edited version that conformed to the rules of socialist realism. In the serial version Ostrovsky had described the tense atmosphere of Pavel's home, his suffering when he became an invalid, the deterioration of his relationship with his wife, and their separation. All of this disappeared in the 1936 publication and in later editions of the novel.[4]
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A Japanese translation of the novel was made byRyokichi Sugimoto [ja].
In theSoviet Union, three films were produced based on this novel:
In China, the novel was adapted into atelevision series of the same title in 2000; all the members of the cast were from Ukraine.
Media related toHow the Steel Was Tempered at Wikimedia Commons
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