How the Steel Was Tempered

How the Steel Was Tempered (Russian: Как закалялась сталь, Kak zakalyalas' stal') or The Making of a Hero, is a socialist realist novel written by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). Pavel ("Pavka") Korchagin is the central character.

For the 1942 film adaptation, see How the Steel Was Tempered (film).
How the Steel Was Tempered
Russian cover
AuthorNikolai Ostrovsky
Original titleКак закалялась сталь
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
GenreNovel
PublisherYoung Guard (serial)
Publication date
1932–1934 (serial) – 1936 (book)
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)

Analysis

The story is a fictionalized autobiography. In real life, Ostrovsky's father died, and his mother worked as a cook. As he joined the war with the Red Army, he lost his right eye from artillery fire during the war.

Characters
  • Pavel Korchagin – The novel's protagonist. He is 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.

Publication history

The first part of How the Steel was Tempered was published serially in 1932 in the magazine Young Guard. The second part of the novel appeared in the same magazine from January to May, 1934. The novel was published in 1936 in book form in a heavily edited version that conformed to the rules of socialist realism. In the serial version Ostrovsky had described the tense atmosphere of Pavel's home, his suffering when he became an invalid, the deterioration of his relationship with his wife, and their separation. All of this disappeared in the 1936 publication and in later editions of the novel.[1]

A Japanese translation of the novel was made by Ryokichi Sugimoto.

Adaptations

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

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.

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References
  1. A History of Soviet Literature, pgs 43–44, Vera Alexandrova, Doubleday, 1963.
  2. IMDb, Kak zakalyalas stal, retrieved 2018-12-20
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