Author. As a teenager in his native Ukraine, he joined a Red Army guerrilla band and fought successively against German occupying forces, the White Guard, and Ukrainian nationalists; wounded several times, he was invalided out of service in 1921. By 1929 Ostrovsky was blind, paralyzed by polyarthritis, and living in dire poverty. He spent four years working on his semi-autobiographical novel "How The Steel Was Tempered" (1935), dictating most of it from his bed. An inspirational account of a young man overcoming great adversity in order to serve his country, it sold 5 million copies and was touted as a model of "Socialist Realism." Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1935. He died at 32, leaving a second novel unfinished.
Author. As a teenager in his native Ukraine, he joined a Red Army guerrilla band and fought successively against German occupying forces, the White Guard, and Ukrainian nationalists; wounded several times, he was invalided out of service in 1921. By 1929 Ostrovsky was blind, paralyzed by polyarthritis, and living in dire poverty. He spent four years working on his semi-autobiographical novel "How The Steel Was Tempered" (1935), dictating most of it from his bed. An inspirational account of a young man overcoming great adversity in order to serve his country, it sold 5 million copies and was touted as a model of "Socialist Realism." Ostrovsky was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1935. He died at 32, leaving a second novel unfinished.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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