How the Steel Was Tempered

The novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" — a book that became an emblem of the era and a textbook for millions of people — was written by a man who was deprived of the ability to see and move,... a former stoker who went through the crucible of revolution and the Civil War, a fierce builder and defender of the new state, who fought for its ideas first with a saber and then with words. "I used to strongly protest against the idea that this work is autobiographical, but now it is useless. The book presents the truth without any deviations. After all, it was not written by a writer. I had not written a single line before this," Nikolai Ostrovsky confessed two months before his death. At that time, he was thirty-two years old. Today, the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" is among the best examples of Soviet literature, and it still has the power to captivate readers with the swift rhythm of the narrative and the deep experiences of the characters who are leading an uncompromising struggle for a happy future.