How Steel Was Tempered

The events of the novel «How Steel Was Tempered», its main character Pavel Korchagin, and the writer Nikolai Ostrovsky himself, who reflected in the book his short yet bright life, are firmly associated with heroism and unyielding strength of spirit. For how many people have the words about life, which «is given only once», and a person's place in it become not just a winged phrase, but a true guide in their fate. «Here is clear evidence that saints are born not only from religion», — said the classic of French literature André Gide, who visited the blind, bedridden N. Ostrovsky. «If only we could make nails out of these people…» In the early 1960s, the publishing house «Young Guard» commissioned Savva Brodsky to illustrate a series of books for the upcoming centenary of V. I. Lenin; the novel «How Steel Was Tempered» was included in it. The artist himself called the series «Revolutionary Romance of Different Eras»: in addition to Ostrovsky’s novel, it included «The Gadfly» by E. Voynich, «Spartacus» by R. Giovannioli, and «The Tale of a Real Man» by B. Polevoy. Brodsky illustrated them as works read by his contemporaries, who managed to glean from these books what was most valuable to them. In depicting the characters of Ostrovsky's novel, the artist emphasized their active life stance; refusing to depict secondary traits, he sought to reveal the main aspects of the heroes, using expressive means rather sparingly. The works were meaningfully rich and monumental, bringing them closer to the «harsh style» of Soviet visual art of the 1960s.