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Birth of Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, Russian Playwright, Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow in the family of a judicial official Nikolai Fyodorovich Ostrovsky, who received a hereditary nobility title, and Lyubov Ivanovna, nee Savvina, who died in the ninth year of her son’s life.
Alexander Nikolayevich’s childhood years were spent in his parents’ house in Zamoskvorechye. He received a good home education, studied foreign languages since childhood. Thanks to his father’s large library, he got acquainted with Russian literature early and felt inclined to write, but the father wanted a legal career for his son. At the age of 12, he began studying at the First Moscow Gymnasium, after which he entered the Law Faculty of Moscow University in 1840. During his student years (1840-1843), he became passionately interested in theatre and left the university without completing the course.
At his father’s insistence, he served in the Moscow Court of Consciousness (1843-1845), and then in the Commercial Court (1845-1851). Work in court enriched the life experience of Alexander Ostrovsky and gave the future playwright material for creativity. Ostrovsky considered the play The Family Picture (1847) to be the beginning of his professional literary activity. It was followed by the play It’s a Family Affair – We’ll Settle It Ourselves! based on a plot from the life of the Moscow merchants (1850) and published in the magazine Moskvityanin (Issue 6). It brought the author his first success. By order of Emperor Nicholas I, it was banned from production, and the author was placed under police supervision. Having received favorable reviews from Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov and Leo Tolstoy, the play was first produced on stage in 1857 in Irkutsk and in 1861 in an abridged version – in the Alexandrinsky and Maly Theaters.
In 1850, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky became an employee of the Moskvityanin magazine and joined the circle of young employees of the publication, which united not only writers, but also actors, musicians, artists who were keenly interested in realistic art, folk life and Russian antiquity. During this period, Alexander Ostrovsky created such plays poetizing the life of merchants as Stay in Your Own Sled (1853), Poverty is No Vice (1854), Live Not as You Would Like To (prod. in 1854, publ. in 1855).
At the invitation of Nikolay Nekrasov in 1856, he transferred to the Sovremennik magazine. The creative works of Alexander Ostrovsky of this time are distinguished by the social acuteness, the drama of situations, the intensity of conflict. The playwright again turned to the denunciation of the “rulers”, contrasting them with his “little people”. The following plays were written: Hangover at Someone Else’s Feast (1856), A Profitable Position (1857), A Protégée of the Mistress (1859), and The Storm (prod. in 1859, publ. in 1860), for which in 1860 Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize, established to encourage Russian writers to be engaged in dramatic literature.
In the early 1860s, after a trip to Europe, he created the dramas Sin and Sorrow Are Common To All (1863), for which he was also awarded the Uvarov Prize, The Abyss (1866), the comedies Hard Days (1863), Jokers (1864), In a Lively Place (1865). Alexander Ostrovsky also turned to historical subjects: the chronicles of Tushino (1867), the psychological drama Vasilisa Melentyeva (1868), the comedies Voivode (The Nights on the Volga) (1865), The 17th Century Comic (prod. in 1872, publ. in 1873). In 1863, he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
During the period of Alexander Ostrovsky’s collaboration with in the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine (1868-1884), satirical comedies from noble life were created, including Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man (1868), Mad Money (1870), The Forest (1871). The playwright returned to the genre of folk comedy in the plays It's Not All Shrovetide for the Cat (1871), Truth is Good, Happiness is Better (prod. in 1876, publ. in 1877), etc. The features of the folklore fairy tale and lyrical drama were united by the play The Snow Maiden (1873). Works of Alexander Ostrovsky’s late period are distinguished by a combination of lyricism and drama: The Last Victim (1878), A Heart is No Stone (1880), Without a Dowry (prod. in 1878, publ. in 1879), Guilty Without Fault (1884).
Alexander Nikolayevich OStrovsky died on June 2 (14), 1886 in the Shchelykovo estate, Kineshemsky District, Kostroma Governorate (now Ostrovsky District, Kostroma Region). He was buried at the church cemetery in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma Governorate.
In total, over the years of Ostrovsky’s activity, 47 plays were created, occupying a leading place in the repertoire of the Moscow Maly Theatre. Outstanding actors of those years shone in them: S. V. Vasilyev, M. N. Yermolova, A. Ye. Martynov, L. P. Kositskaya, etc. The dramaturgy of Alexander Ostrovsky, distinguished by everyday, social details and masterful use of the Russian language, continues to be in demand in the theatrical environment of our time.
Lit.: А. Н. Островский. Энциклопедия. Кострома, 2012; Зубков К. Ю., Перникова А. С. А. Н. Островский и Награда графа А. С. Уварова для драматургов // ВЕСТНИК РФФИ. Гуманитарные и общественные науки. 2017. №1. С.81–88; Овчинина И. А. Островский А. Н. // Большая российская энциклопедия; Русские писатели и поэты. Краткий биографический словарь. М., 2000.
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