Nikolai Ostrovsky"How the steel was tempered,"3 versions of

Nikolai Ostrovsky

 

"How the steel was tempered," 1942 Soviet novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904-1936)  (Ukraine) of Ukrainian origin, was a fictionalized account of author Nikolai Ostrovsky's experiences in fighting for the Bolsheviks

during the Civil War and his difficulty in overcoming crippling injuries after the war ended. 

Summary[edit]

The story follows the life of Pavel Korchagin, including his fighting in and aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Korchagin 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 of Shepetovka in Ukraine. 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 love interest. Again the novel jumps, to 1917 as the German army invades Shepetovka. Korchagin fights the Germans, and eventually joins the Bolsheviks in the Civil War. He is seriously injured and partially loses his sight. After the war he worked as a laborer, including building railways. He eventually is injured further, and loses his legs and a hand. He goes to Crimea to live out his days. The book closes with Korchigan sitting down to write an autobiography: "How the Steel Was Tempered", thus establishing the book as a self-fulfilling framing device.

 

Characters. 

• Pavel Korchagin – The novel's protagonist, was fighting on the Bolsheviks' side

in the Civil War (1918–1921). He is a quintessential positive hero of socialist realism. 

 

• Tonia Toumanova – Pavel's teenage love. Tonia and Pavel became good friends after their first encounter, which later develops into an intimate relationship. Though born of a wealthy and influential family, Tonia treated everyone equally unlike her friends, who only interact with other children of well-reputed families. However, this changed as she grew up, as she became more aware of her appearance and social status of others.

Movies: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ppDEFFxQKQ? (1973 version, TV series, part 1)

part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIRv7H2wZJc 

part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWg33YM93s 

 

https://youtu.be/IM6VXjauFA4? (1952 movie) 

1942 movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_-sOxyniI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_-sOxyniI 

 

How the Steel Was Tempered (Kak zakalyalas stal) is a Soviet 1973 6-part historical mini-series directed by Nikolay Mashchenko and based on the eponymous novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky. This is the third screen adaptation of the original novel, preceded by 1942 and 1956 movies.

 

Adaptations[edit]

In the Soviet Union, three films were produced based on this novel:

• How the Steel Was Tempered, 1942
• Pavel Korchagin, 1956 (Korchagin was played by Vasily Lanovoy)
• How the Steel Was Tempered, 1973 (TV series of 6 episodes; Korchagin was played by Vladimir Konkin)^[5]
• In China, the novel was adapted into a television series of the same title in 2000; all the members of the cast were from Ukraine.

Critiques: 

From the literary point of view, “How the steel was tempered” is not original. It was inspired by the utopian novel of Nikolay Chernyshevsky “What should we do?” written in 1863, which was about a self-made “new human”, who would replace “regular humans” in the Socialist era.

Impacts: 

Russian writer Nicholas Ostrovski's novel How the Steel Was Tempered (1934) provided generations of Chinese youth

with a widely admired role model: a young devoted communist soldier, Pawel Korchagin, whose image

occupied a prominent place in the orthodoxy revolutionary education and literary imagination during Mao's regime.

Quotes: 

1. Human life is like a torrent, and it is difficult to stir up beautiful waves without encountering islands and reefs.[人的生命似洪水奔流，不遇着岛屿和暗礁，就难以激起美丽的浪花。]

2. The most precious thing for a person is life, and life is only once for everyone. A person's life should be spent in this way: looking back on the past, he will not regret for wasting his time, nor will he be ashamed for being mediocre; when he is dying, he can say: "My whole life and all my energy have been dedicated to The most magnificent cause in the world - the struggle for the liberation of all mankind."[人最宝贵的就是生命，生命对于每个人来说只有一次。人的一生应该这样度过：回首往事，他不会因为虚度年华而悔恨，也不会因为碌碌无为而羞愧；临终之际，他能够说：“我的整个生命和全部精力，都献给了世界上最壮丽的事业——为解放全人类而斗争。”]