Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich- Russian playwright, whose work became the most important stage development of the Russian national theater, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, author of the works " Storm», « Snow Maiden», « Poor bride"and others.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born March 31 (April 12), 1823 on Malaya Ordynka in Moscow in a noble family. Father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, was the son of a priest, graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters. Nikolai Fedorovich rose to the rank of titular councilor, and in 1839 received the nobility. His mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton, died when Alexander was only seven years old. The family had four children. The Ostrovskys lived in prosperity; great attention was paid to the education of children who received home education. Five years after the death of his mother, his father married Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Russified Swedish nobleman. She surrounded the children with care and continued to educate them.

Ostrovsky spent his childhood and youth in the center of Zamoskvorechye. The family had a big library and he became acquainted with Russian literature early and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer.

In 1835, Alexander Ostrovsky entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium.

In 1840 A. N. Ostrovsky became a student at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, but he failed to complete the course due to a quarrel with one of the teachers. Fulfilling the will of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service as a scribe in court, where he worked until 1851.

By 1846 Ostrovsky many scenes were written from merchant life and the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor” was conceived, later called “Our people - we will be numbered!”. This comedy, published in 1850, brought Ostrovsky literary fame.

Comedy “Our people - we will be numbered!” was banned from production, and A. N. Ostrovsky was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision by personal order of Nicholas I.

In the summer of 1849, Alexander Ostrovsky, against the will of his father and without a church wedding, he married a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The angry Nikolai Fedorovich refused his son further financial support. All children from this marriage died at an early age. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years.

In 1850 Ostrovsky becomes a member of the so-called “young editorial staff” of the Slavophile magazine “Moskvityanin”.

Since 1856 Ostrovsky becomes a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine.

In the same year, Ostrovsky took part in a business trip of prominent writers to study and describe various localities in Russia and took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1859 The first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes.

In 1860 appeared in print "Storm".

In 1863, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize and elected corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Two years after the death of his wife, in 1869, Ostrovsky married the artist Maria Vasilyevna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

A. N. Ostrovsky had a deep personal relationship with actress L. Kositskaya, but both had families.

In 1874 The Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was formed and opera composers, whose chairman Ostrovsky remained until his death.

In 1885 Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.

A. N. Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - fifty-four plays. “Written all over Russian life” - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times "Snow Maiden", and events of the past chronicle "Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk" to current reality "Talents and Fans" And "Guilty without guilt".

June 2 (14), 1886 Ostrovsky died on his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. The writer was buried next to his father, in the church cemetery near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. After the death of the writer, the Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky April 12, 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka. His father, Nikolai Fedorovich, was the son of a priest, he himself graduated from the Kostroma Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, but began to practice as a lawyer, dealing with property and commercial matters; rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, and in 1839 received the nobility. His mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, the daughter of a sexton and a breadmaker, died when Alexander was not yet nine years old. The family had four children (four more died in infancy). Younger brother - statesman M. N. Ostrovsky. Thanks to Nikolai Fedorovich’s position, the family lived in prosperity, and great attention was paid to the education of children who received home education. Five years after the death of Alexander's mother, his father married Baroness Emilie Andreevna von Tessin, the daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were lucky with their stepmother: she surrounded them with care and continued to educate them.

Ostrovsky spent his childhood and part of his youth in the center of Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his father's large library, he became acquainted with Russian literature early and felt an inclination towards writing, but his father wanted to make him a lawyer. In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the third grade of the 1st Moscow Provincial Gymnasium, after which in 1840 he became a student at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. He failed to complete the university course: without passing the exam in Roman law, Ostrovsky wrote a letter of resignation (he studied until 1843). At the request of his father, Ostrovsky entered the service as a clerk in the Conscientious Court and served in the Moscow courts until 1850; his first salary was 4 rubles a month, after some time it increased to 16 rubles (transferred to the Commercial Court in 1845).

By 1846, Ostrovsky had already written many scenes from the life of a merchant and conceived the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor” (later - “Our People - We Will Be Numbered!”). The first publication was a small play “Painting family life"and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident" - they were published in one of the issues of "Moscow City List" in 1847. Professor of Moscow University S.P. Shevyrev, after Ostrovsky read the play at his home on February 14, 1847, solemnly congratulated those gathered on the “appearance of a new dramatic luminary in Russian literature.”

A. N. Ostrovsky.

Ostrovsky’s literary fame was brought to him by the comedy “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!”, published in 1850 in the journal of university professor M.P. Pogodin “Moskvityanin”. Under the text it read: “A. ABOUT." (Alexander Ostrovsky) and “D. G.". Under the second initials was Dmitry Gorev-Tarasenkov, a provincial actor who offered Ostrovsky cooperation. This collaboration did not go beyond one scene, and subsequently served as a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky, since it gave his ill-wishers a reason to accuse him of plagiarism (1856). However, the play evoked approving responses from N. V. Gogol and I. A. Goncharov. The influential Moscow merchants, offended for their class, complained to the “boss”; as a result, the comedy was banned from production, and the author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision by personal order of Nicholas I. Supervision was lifted after the accession of Alexander II, and the play was allowed to be staged only in 1861.

The first play by Ostrovsky that was able to get on theatrical stage, was “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” written in 1852 and staged for the first time in Moscow on the stage of the Maly Theater on January 14, 1853.

For more than thirty years, starting from 1853, new plays by Ostrovsky appeared almost every season at the Moscow Maly and St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky has become a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a business trip of outstanding writers took place to study and describe various areas of Russia in the industrial and everyday relations. Ostrovsky took upon himself the study of the Volga from the upper reaches to Nizhny Novgorod.

A. N. Ostrovsky, 1856

In 1859, with the assistance of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in two volumes. Thanks to this publication, Ostrovsky received a brilliant assessment from N. A. Dobrolyubov, which secured his fame as an artist “ dark kingdom" In 1860, “The Thunderstorm” appeared in print, to which Dobrolyubov dedicated the article “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom.” From the second half of the 1860s, Ostrovsky took up the history of the Time of Troubles and entered into correspondence with Kostomarov. The fruit of the work was five " historical chronicles in verse”: “Kuzma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, etc.

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize (for the play “The Thunderstorm”) and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1866 (according to other sources - in 1865) Ostrovsky founded the Artistic Circle, which subsequently gave many talented figures to the Moscow stage. I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, I. S. Turgenev, A. F. Pisemsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. E. Turchaninov, P. M. Sadovsky, L. P. visited Ostrovsky’s house. Kositskaya-Nikulina, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. N. Ermolova, G. N. Fedotova.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was formed, of which Ostrovsky remained the permanent chairman until his death. Working on the commission “to revise regulations on all parts of theatrical management,” established in 1881 under the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, he achieved many changes that significantly improved the situation of artists. In 1885, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school.

Despite the fact that his plays did well at the box office and that in 1883 the Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, financial problems did not leave Ostrovsky until last days his life. His health did not meet the plans he had set for himself. The intense work exhausted the body.

On June 2 (14), 1886, on Spiritual Day, Ostrovsky died in his Kostroma estate Shchelykovo. His last work was the translation of “Antony and Cleopatra” by William Shakespeare, Alexander Nikolaevich’s favorite playwright. The writer was buried next to his father in the church cemetery near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province. Alexander III donated 3,000 rubles from the cabinet funds for the funeral; the widow, together with her two children, was given a pension of 3,000 rubles, and 2,400 rubles a year for raising three sons and a daughter. Subsequently, the widow of the writer M. V. Ostrovskaya, an actress of the Maly Theater, and the daughter of M. A. Chatelain were buried in the family necropolis.

After the death of the playwright, the Moscow Duma established a reading room named after A. N. Ostrovsky in Moscow.

Family

• The younger brother is the statesman M. N. Ostrovsky.

Alexander Nikolaevich had a deep passion for the actress Lyubov Kositskaya, but both of them had a family. However, even after becoming a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky’s feelings, and soon she began a close relationship with the son of a wealthy merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune; She wrote to Ostrovsky: “...I don’t want to take your love away from anyone.”

The playwright lived in cohabitation with the commoner Agafya Ivanovna, but all their children died at an early age. Having no education, but being an intelligent woman with a subtle, easily vulnerable soul, she understood the playwright and was the very first reader and critic of his works. Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna for about twenty years, and in 1869, two years after her death, he married actress Maria Vasilievna Bakhmetyeva, who bore him four sons and two daughters.

Creation

"Columbus of Zamoskvorechye"

The play “Poverty is not a vice” (1853) was first staged on January 15, 1869 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky.

Ostrovsky Theater

Russian theater in its modern sense begins with A. N. Ostrovsky: the playwright created drama school and a holistic concept of theatrical production.

The essence of Ostrovsky's theater lies in the absence of extreme situations and opposition to the actor's gut. Alexander Nikolaevich's plays depict ordinary situations with ordinary people, whose dramas go into everyday life and human psychology.

The main ideas of theater reform:

• the theater must be built on conventions (there is a 4th wall separating the audience from the actors);
• constancy of attitude towards language: mastery of speech characteristics that express almost everything about the characters;
• the bet is not on one actor;

“A good play will please the public and be a success, but it will not last long in the repertoire if it is poorly performed: the public goes to the theater to watch good performance good plays, not the play itself; you can read the play. "Othello" is without a doubt good play; but the public did not want to watch it when Charsky played the role of Othello. The interest of a performance is a complex matter: it involves equally both the play and the performance. When both are good, the performance is interesting; when one thing is bad, the performance loses its interest.”

- “Note on the draft “Rules on the prizes of imperial theaters for dramatic works””

Ostrovsky's theater required a new stage aesthetics, new actors. In accordance with this, Ostrovsky creates an acting ensemble, which includes such actors as Martynov, Sergei Vasiliev, Evgeniy Samoilov, Prov Sadovsky.

Naturally, innovations met opponents. He was, for example, Shchepkin. Ostrovsky's dramaturgy required the actor to detach himself from his personality, which M. S. Shchepkin did not do. For example, he left the dress rehearsal of “The Thunderstorm”, being very dissatisfied with the author of the play.

Ostrovsky's ideas were brought to their logical conclusion by K. S. Stanislavsky and M. A. Bulgakov.

Folk myths and national history in Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy

On stage in 1881 Mariinsky Theater the successful premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden” took place, which the composer called his best work. A. N. Ostrovsky himself appreciated Rimsky-Korsakov’s creation:

“The music for my “Snow Maiden” is amazing, I could never imagine anything more suitable for it and so vividly expressing all the poetry of the Russian pagan cult and this first snow-cold, and then uncontrollably passionate heroine of the fairy tale.”

The appearance of Ostrovsky’s poetic play “The Snow Maiden,” created on the basis of fairy tales, songs and ritual songs of Russian poetry, was caused by a random circumstance. In 1873, the Maly Theater was closed for major renovation, and his troupe moved into the building Bolshoi Theater. The management commission of the Imperial Moscow Theaters decided to stage an extravaganza performance in which all three troupes would participate: drama, opera and ballet. A. N. Ostrovsky was approached with a proposal to write such a play in a very short time, who readily agreed to this, deciding to use the plot from folk tale"Girl-Snow Maiden". The music for the play, at Ostrovsky's request, was commissioned from the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. Both the playwright and the composer worked on the play with great passion, very quickly, in close creative contact. On March 31, on his fiftieth birthday, Ostrovsky finished The Snow Maiden. The first performance took place on May 11, 1873 on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

While working on “The Snow Maiden,” Ostrovsky carefully looked for the sizes of the poems, consulted with historians, archaeologists, experts on ancient life, and turned to a large number historical and folklore material, including “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” He himself highly valued this play of his, and wrote, “I<…>in this work I go to new road"; He spoke with delight about Tchaikovsky’s music: “Tchaikovsky’s music for The Snow Maiden is charming.” I. S. Turgenev was “captivated by the beauty and lightness of the language of The Snow Maiden.” P. I. Tchaikovsky, while working on “The Snow Maiden,” wrote: “I have been sitting at work without getting up for about a month; I’m writing music for Ostrovsky’s magical play “The Snow Maiden,” itself dramatic work he considered Ostrovsky’s creations a pearl, and said about his music for him: “This is one of my favorite creations. It was a wonderful spring, I felt good in my soul... I liked Ostrovsky’s play, and in three weeks, without any effort, I wrote the music.”

Later, in 1880, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera on the same plot. M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov writes in his memoirs: “With some special warmth of soul Alexander Nikolaevich spoke about Tchaikovsky’s music for “The Snow Maiden,” which, obviously, greatly prevented him from admiring Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden.” Undoubtedly... Tchaikovsky’s sincere music... was closer to Ostrovsky’s soul, and he did not hide the fact that it was dearer to him, as a populist.”

This is how K. S. Stanislavsky spoke about “The Snow Maiden”: ““The Snow Maiden” is a fairy tale, a dream, a national legend, written and told in Ostrovsky’s magnificent sonorous verses. One might think that this playwright, the so-called realist and everyday writer, never wrote anything except wonderful poetry, and was not interested in anything else except pure poetry and romance.”

Criticism

Ostrovsky's work became the subject of fierce debate among critics of both the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, Dobrolyubov (articles “The Dark Kingdom” and “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom”) and Apollo Grigoriev wrote about him from opposite positions. In the 20th century - Mikhail Lobanov (in the book “Ostrovsky”, published in the “ZhZL” series), M. A. Bulgakov and V. Ya. Lakshin.

Memory

• Central Library named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Rzhev, Tver region).
• Moscow regional Theatre of Drama named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Kostroma State Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Ural Regional Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Irbit Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Irbit, Sverdlovsk region).
• Kineshma Drama Theater named after A. N. Ostrovsky (Ivanovo region).
• Tashkent State Theater and Art Institute named after A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Streets in a number of cities of the former USSR.
• On May 27, 1929, a monument to Ostrovsky was unveiled in front of the Maly Theater (sculptor N. A. Andreev, architect I. P. Mashkov) (the jury gave it preference over the monument to Ostrovsky, submitted to the competition by A. S. Golubkina, who depicted the great playwright at the moment a creative impulse that captivates the viewer).
• In 1984 in Zamoskvorechye, in the house where he was born great playwright- a cultural monument of the early 20s of the 19th century, a branch of the Theater Museum named after. A. A. Bakhrushin - House-Museum of A. N. Ostrovsky.
• Nowadays in Shchelykovo (Kostroma region) there is a memorial and natural museum-reserve of the playwright.
• Once every five years, since 1973, the All-Russian stage lights up theater festival“Ostrovsky Days in Kostroma”, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture Russian Federation and the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation (All-Russian Theater Society).
• A memorial plaque in Tver, on Sovetskaya Street (formerly Millionnaya), building 7, informs that the playwright lived in this house, Barsukov’s hotel, in the spring and summer of 1856, during his trip to the Upper Volga region.
• Every two years, since 1993, the Maly Theater hosts the festival “Ostrovsky in the Ostrovsky House,” to which theaters from all over Russia bring their performances based on the playwright’s plays to Moscow.
• Ostrovsky's plays never leave the stage. Many of his works have been filmed or served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts.
• Among the film adaptations that are most popular in Russia is Konstantin Voinov’s comedy “Balzaminov’s Marriage” (1964, starring G. Vitsin).
• The film “Cruel Romance”, directed by Eldar Ryazanov based on “Dowry” (1984), gained significant popularity.
• In 2005, director Evgeny Ginzburg received the main prize ( The Grand Prix " Garnet bracelet» ) eleventh Russian festival"Literature and Cinema" (Gatchina) " for an incredibly amazing interpretation great play A. N. Ostrovsky “Guilty Without Guilt” in the film “Anna”"(2005, script by G. Danelia and Rustam Ibragimbekov; starring opera singer Lyubov Kazarnovskaya).

In philately

Postage stamps of the USSR

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky - USSR postage stamp. 1948

Portrait of A. N. Ostrovsky based on a painting by V. Perov (1871, Tretyakov Gallery) Postage Stamp THE USSR. 1948

USSR postage stamp, 1959.

Playwright A. N. Ostrovsky (1823-1886), actors M. N. Ermolova (1853-1928), P. S. Mochalov (1800-1848), M. S. Shchepkin (1788-1863) and P. M. Sadovsky (1818-1872). USSR postage stamp 1949.

Plays

• "Family Picture" (1847)
• “Our people - we will be numbered” (1849)
• "An Unexpected Case" (1850)
• "Morning young man"(1850)
• "Poor Bride" (1851)
• “Don’t get into your own sleigh” (1852)
• "Poverty is no vice" (1853)
• “Don’t live as you want” (1854)
• “In someone else’s feast there is a hangover” (1856) text. The play was first staged on the theater stage on January 9, 1856 at the Maly Theater for a benefit performance by Prov Mikhailovich Sadovsky, and then, on January 18, in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater for a benefit performance by Vladimirova.
• « Plum"(1856) text The play was first staged on the theater stage on September 27, 1863 in Alexandrinsky Theater at Levkeeva's benefit performance. First staged at the Maly Theater on October 14 of the same year at a benefit performance by E. N. Vasilyeva.
• "A Festive Sleep Before Dinner" (1857)
• "Did not get along!" (1858)
• "Nurse" (1859)
• "The Thunderstorm" (1859)
• "An old friend is better than two new ones" (1860)
• “Your own dogs squabble, don’t bother someone else’s” (1861)
• "The Marriage of Balzaminov" (1861)
• “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” (1861, 2nd edition 1866)
• "Hard Days" (1863)
• “Sin and misfortune do not live on anyone” (1863)
• "Voevoda" (1864; 2nd edition 1885)
• "The Joker" (1864)
• "On a Lively Place" (1865)
• "The Deep" (1866)
• "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866)
• "Tushino" (1866)
• “Vasilisa Melentyeva” (co-authored with S. A. Gedeonov) (1867)
• “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” (1868)
• "Warm Heart" (1869)
• "Mad Money" (1870)
• "Forest" (1870)
• “It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat” (1871)
• “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was Altyn” (1872) text On December 10, 1872, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• "Comedian XVII century"(1873)
• “The Snow Maiden” (1873) text. In 1881, the premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater
• “Late Love” (1874) text On November 22, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• “Labor Bread” (1874) text On November 28, 1874, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• "Wolves and Sheep" (1875)
• “Rich Brides” (1876) text On November 30, 1876, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1877) text On November 18, 1877, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• “The Marriage of Belugin” (1877), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• “The Last Victim” (1878) text On November 8, 1878, the first performance of the comedy took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance
• “Dowry” (1878) text On November 10, 1878, the first performance of the drama took place at the Maly Theater during Musil’s benefit performance.
• "Good Master" (1879)
• “Savage” (1879), together with Nikolai Solovyov
• "The Heart Is Not a Stone" (1880)
• "Slave Girls" (1881)
• “It shines, but does not warm” (1881), together with Nikolai Solovyov text. Premiere on November 14, 1881 in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, at a benefit performance by F. A. Burdin.
• “Guilty Without Guilt” (1881-1883)
• "Talents and Admirers" (1882)
• "Handsome Man" (1883)
• "Not of this world" (1885)

Film adaptations of works

• 1911 - Vasilisa Melentyeva
• 1911 - On a busy place (film, 1911)
• 1916 - Guilty without guilt
• 1916 - On a busy place (film, 1916, Chardynin)
• 1916 - On a lively place (film, 1916, Sabinsky) (Another title On the high road)
• 1933 - Thunderstorm
• 1936 - Dowryless
• 1945 - Guilty without guilt
• 1951 - Truth is good, but happiness is better (film-play)
• 1952 - Wolves and Sheep (television play)
• 1952 - Simplicity is enough for every wise man (television play)
• 1952 - Snow Maiden (cartoon)
• 1953 - Warm Heart (film-play)
• 1955 - On a busy place (film-play)
• 1955 - Talents and Fans (film-play)
• 1958 - Abyss (television film, film adaptation of Leningradsky’s play academic theater dramas named after A. S. Pushkin).
• 1964 - Marriage of Balzaminov
• 1968 - Snow Maiden
• 1971 - Simplicity is enough for every wise man (film-play)
• 1971 - Spring Tale (based on the play “The Snow Maiden”)
• 1972 - It shines, but it doesn’t warm (film-play)
• - Talents and fans (television play)
• 1973 - Talents and fans
• 1975 - The Last Victim
• 1978 - Handsome Man
• 1980 - Forest
• 1981 - Mad Money
• 1981 - Vacancy - film directed by Margarita Mikaelyan (based on the play “Profitable Place”)
• 1982 - Trustees (television play based on the play “The Last Victim”)
• 1983 - Late Love
• 1984 - Cruel Romance (based on the play “Dowry”)
• 1985 - After the Rain on Thursday (fairy tale film)
• 1989 - Heart is not a stone
• 1998 - On a busy place
• 2001 - Savage
• 2005 - Anna (based on the play “Guilty Without Guilt”)
• 2006 - Snow Maiden (cartoon based on the play “The Snow Maiden”)
• 2008 - Guilty without guilt
• 2008 - Russian money (based on the play “Wolves and Sheep”)
• 2008 - Bribes are smooth (based on the play “Profitable Place”)
• 2009 - Bankrupt (based on the play “Our People - We Will Be Numbered”)
• 2011 - Dowry

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER OSTROVSKY

Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich (1823-1886), playwright

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow into the family of a judicial official. Received a good home education. At the age of 12 he was sent to the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1840. Then he entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. In 1843 he left the university: legal sciences ceased to interest him, and decided to seriously study literature. However, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the Moscow Conscientious Court, and then (1845) moved to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court.

His father's legal practice and service in court for almost eight years gave the future playwright rich material for his plays. In 1849, the comedy “Our People Are Numbered” was published in the Moskvityanin magazine, and Ostrovsky became an employee of the magazine. In 1851, he left service to devote himself to literary creativity.

Ostrovsky created about 50 plays (“Profitable Place”, 1856; “Thunderstorm”, 1859; “Mad Money”, 1869; “Forest”, 1870; “Snow Maiden”, 1873; “Dowry”) ", 1878, and many others). An entire era in the development of Russian theater is associated with the name of Ostrovsky. He is the author of translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Terence, Goldoni. His work covers a huge period of Russian development in the 19th century. - from the era of serfdom in the 40s. before the development of capitalism in the 80s.

Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy played a decisive role in establishing an original and vibrant repertoire on the Russian stage and contributed to the formation of a national stage school. In 1865, Ostrovsky founded an artistic circle in Moscow and became one of its leaders. In 1870, on his initiative, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created, of which he was the permanent chairman from 1874 until the end of his life.

In 1881-1884. Ostrovsky took part in the work of the commission to revise the regulations on the Imperial Theaters. On January 1, 1886, he was appointed head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters. But by this time the playwright’s health had already deteriorated greatly, and on June 14, 1886, Ostrovsky died on the Shchelykovo estate in Kossush, Troma province.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is a famous Russian writer and playwright who had a significant influence on the development of the national theater. He formed new school realistic game and wrote a lot wonderful works. This article will outline the main stages of Ostrovsky's creativity. And also the most significant moments of his biography.

Childhood

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, whose photo is presented in this article, was born in 1823, on March 31, in Moscow, in the Malaya Ordynka area. His dad, Nikolai Fedorovich, grew up in the family of a priest, graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy himself, but did not serve in the church. He became a lawyer and dealt with commercial and judicial matters. Nikolai Fedorovich managed to rise to the rank of titular councilor, and later (in 1839) received the nobility. The mother of the future playwright, Savvina Lyubov Ivanovna, was the daughter of a sexton. She died when Alexander was only seven years old. There were six children growing up in the Ostrovsky family. Nikolai Fedorovich did everything to ensure that the children grew up in prosperity and received a decent education. A few years after the death of Lyubov Ivanovna, he married again. His wife was Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, baroness, daughter of a Swedish nobleman. The children were very lucky to have their stepmother: she managed to find an approach to them and continued to educate them.

Youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky spent his childhood in the very center of Zamoskvorechye. His father had a very good library, thanks to which the boy early became acquainted with the literature of Russian writers and felt an inclination towards writing. However, the father saw only a lawyer in the boy. Therefore, in 1835, Alexander was sent to the First Moscow Gymnasium, after studying there he became a student at Moscow University. However, Ostrovsky failed to obtain a law degree. He quarreled with the teacher and left the university. On the advice of his father, Alexander Nikolaevich went to serve in court as a scribe and worked in this position for several years.

Attempt at writing

However, Alexander Nikolaevich did not give up trying to prove himself in the literary field. In his first plays he adhered to an accusatory, “moral-social” direction. The first were published in a new edition, Moscow City Listk, in 1847. These were sketches for the comedy “The Failed Debtor” and the essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.” Under the publication were the letters “A. ABOUT." and "D. G." The fact is that a certain Dmitry Gorev offered cooperation to the young playwright. It did not progress beyond the writing of one of the scenes, but subsequently became a source of great trouble for Ostrovsky. Some ill-wishers later accused the playwright of plagiarism. In the future, many magnificent plays would come from the pen of Alexander Nikolaevich, and no one would dare doubt his talent. The following will be described in detail. The table presented below will allow you to systematize the information received.

First success

When did this happen? Ostrovsky's work gained great popularity after the publication in 1850 of the comedy “Our People - Let's Be Numbered!” This work received favorable reviews in literary circles. I. A. Goncharov and N. V. Gogol gave the play a positive assessment. However, this barrel of honey also included an impressive fly in the ointment. Influential representatives of the Moscow merchant class, offended by their class, complained to the highest authorities about the daring playwright. The play was immediately banned from production, the author was expelled from service and placed under the strictest police supervision. Moreover, this happened on the personal order of Emperor Nicholas I himself. Supervision was eliminated only after Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne. The theater audience saw the comedy only in 1861, after the ban on its production was lifted.

Early plays

The early work of A. N. Ostrovsky did not go unnoticed; his works were published mainly in the magazine “Moskvityanin”. The playwright actively collaborated with this publication both as a critic and as an editor in 1850-1851. Under the influence of the “young editorial staff” of the magazine and the main ideologist of this circle, Alexander Nikolaevich composed the plays “Poverty is not a vice”, “Don’t sit on your own sleigh”, “Don’t live the way you want”. The themes of Ostrovsky's creativity during this period are the idealization of patriarchy, Russian ancient customs and traditions. These sentiments slightly muted the accusatory pathos of the writer’s work. However, in the works of this cycle there has grown dramatic skill Alexander Nikolaevich. His plays became famous and in demand.

Collaboration with Sovremennik

Beginning in 1853, for thirty years, Alexander Nikolaevich’s plays were shown every season on the stages of the Maly (in Moscow) and Alexandrinsky (in St. Petersburg) theaters. Since 1856, Ostrovsky’s work has been regularly covered in the Sovremennik magazine (works are published). During the social upsurge in the country (before the abolition of serfdom in 1861), the writer’s works again acquired an accusatory edge. In the play “At Someone Else’s Feast there’s a Hangover,” the writer created an impressive image of Bruskov Tit Titych, in which he embodied the rude and dark force home autocracy. Here the word “tyrant” was heard for the first time, which later became attached to a whole gallery of Ostrovsky’s characters. The comedy “Profitable Place” ridiculed the corrupt behavior of officials that had become the norm. The drama “The Kindergarten” was a living protest against violence against the individual. Other stages of Ostrovsky’s creativity will be described below. But the pinnacle of achievement of this period was his literary activity became the socio-psychological drama “The Thunderstorm”.

"Storm"

In this play, the “everyman” Ostrovsky painted the dull atmosphere of a provincial town with its hypocrisy, rudeness, and the unquestioned authority of the “elders” and the rich. In contrast to the imperfect world of people, Alexander Nikolaevich depicts breathtaking pictures of Volga nature. The image of Katerina is filled with tragic beauty and gloomy charm. The thunderstorm symbolizes the heroine’s mental turmoil and at the same time personifies the burden of fear under which they constantly live simple people. The kingdom of blind obedience is undermined, according to Ostrovsky, by two forces: common sense, which Kuligin preaches in the play, and Katerina’s pure soul. In his "Ray of Light in dark kingdom"critic Dobrolyubov interpreted the image main character as a symbol of deep protest, gradually ripening in the country.

Thanks to this play, Ostrovsky's creativity soared to unattainable heights. “The Thunderstorm” made Alexander Nikolaevich the most famous and revered Russian playwright.

Historical motives

In the second half of the 1860s, Alexander Nikolaevich began studying the history of the Time of Troubles. He began to correspond with the famous historian and Nikolai Ivanovich Kostomarov. Based on the study of serious sources, the playwright created a whole cycle historical works: “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky”, “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”, “Tushino”. Problems national history were portrayed by Ostrovsky talentedly and reliably.

Other plays

Alexander Nikolaevich still remained faithful to his favorite theme. In the 1860s he wrote many "everyday" dramas and plays. Among them: “Hard Days”, “The Deep”, “Jokers”. These works consolidated the motifs already found by the writer. Since the late 1860s, Ostrovsky's work has been experiencing a period of active development. In his dramaturgy, images and themes of the “new” Russia that survived the reform appear: businessmen, acquirers, degenerate patriarchal moneybags and “Europeanized” merchants. Alexander Nikolaevich created a brilliant series satirical comedies, debunking the post-reform illusions of citizens: “Mad Money”, “Warm Heart”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Forest”. Moral ideal playwrights are pure in soul, noble people: Parasha from “Warm Heart”, Aksyusha from “Forest”. Ostrovsky’s ideas about the meaning of life, happiness and duty were embodied in the play “Labor Bread”. Almost all of Alexander Nikolaevich’s works written in the 1870s were published in Otechestvennye zapiski.

"Snow Maiden"

The appearance of this poetic play was completely accidental. The Maly Theater was closed for renovation in 1873. Its artists moved to the Bolshoi Theater building. In this regard, the commission for the management of the Moscow Imperial Theaters decided to create a performance in which three troupes would be involved: opera, ballet and drama. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky undertook to write a similar play. “The Snow Maiden” was written by the playwright in a very short time. The author took the plot from a Russian folk tale as a basis. While working on the play, he carefully selected the sizes of the poems and consulted with archaeologists, historians, and antiquity experts. The music for the play was composed by the young P. I. Tchaikovsky. The play premiered in 1873, on May 11, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. K. S. Stanislavsky spoke of “The Snow Maiden” as a fairy tale, a dream told in sonorous and magnificent verse. He said that the realist and everyday life writer Ostrovsky wrote this play as if before that he was not interested in anything except pure romance and poetry.

Work in recent years

During this period, Ostrovsky composed significant socio-psychological comedies and dramas. They talk about tragic destinies sensitive, gifted women in a cynical and selfish world: “Talents and Admirers”, “Dowry”. Here the playwright developed new techniques of stage expression that anticipated the work of Anton Chekhov. While preserving the peculiarities of his dramaturgy, Alexander Nikolaevich sought to embody the “internal struggle” of the characters in an “intelligent, subtle comedy.”

Social activity

In 1866, Alexander Nikolaevich founded the famous Artistic Circle. He subsequently gave the Moscow stage many talented figures. D. V. Grigorovich, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, P. M. Sadovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, G. N. Fedotova, M. E. Ermolova, P. I. Tchaikovsky visited Ostrovsky , L. N. Tolstoy, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. E. Turchaninov.

In 1874, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was created in Russia. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was elected chairman of the association. Photos of the famous public figure were known to every lover of performing arts in Russia. The reformer made a lot of efforts to ensure that the legislation of the theater management was revised in favor of the artists, and thereby significantly improved their financial and social situation.

In 1885, Alexander Nikolaevich was appointed to the post of head of the repertoire department and became the head of the theater school.

Ostrovsky Theater

The work of Alexander Ostrovsky is inextricably linked with the formation of real Russian theater in its modern sense. The playwright and writer managed to create his own theater school and a special holistic concept for staging theatrical performances.

The peculiarities of Ostrovsky's creativity in the theater lie in the absence of opposition to the actor's nature and extreme situations in the action of the play. In the works of Alexander Nikolaevich, ordinary events happen to ordinary people.

Main ideas of reform:

• theater should be built on conventions (there is an invisible “fourth wall” that separates the audience from the actors);
• When staging a performance, you must place your bet on more than one famous actor, but on a team of artists who understand each other well;
• the invariability of the actors’ attitude to language: speech characteristics must express almost everything about the characters presented in the play;
• people come to the theater to watch the actors play, and not to get acquainted with the play - they can read it at home.

The ideas that the writer Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky came up with were subsequently refined by M. A. Bulgakov and K. S. Stanislavsky.

Personal life

The playwright's personal life was no less interesting than his literary creativity. Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky lived in a civil marriage with a simple bourgeois woman for almost twenty years. Interesting Facts and the details of the marital relationship between the writer and his first wife still excite researchers.

In 1847, in Nikolo-Vorobinovsky Lane, next to the house where Ostrovsky lived, a young girl, Agafya Ivanovna, settled with her thirteen-year-old sister. She had no family or friends. No one knows when she met Alexander Nikolaevich. However, in 1848 the young people had a son, Alexei. There were no conditions for raising a child, so the boy was temporarily placed in orphanage. Ostrovsky’s father was terribly angry that his son not only dropped out of a prestigious university, but also got involved with a simple bourgeois woman living next door.

However, Alexander Nikolaevich showed firmness and, when his father and his stepmother left for the recently purchased Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma province, he settled with Agafya Ivanovna in his wooden house.

The writer and ethnographer S. V. Maksimov jokingly called Ostrovsky’s first wife “Marfa Posadnitsa” because she was next to the writer in times of severe need and severe deprivation. Ostrovsky's friends characterize Agafya Ivanovna as a naturally very intelligent and warm-hearted person. She knew the morals and customs very well merchant life and had an unconditional influence on Ostrovsky’s work. Alexander Nikolaevich often consulted with her about the creation of his works. In addition, Agafya Ivanovna was a wonderful and hospitable hostess. But Ostrovsky did not formalize his marriage with her even after his father’s death. All the children born in this union died very young, only the eldest, Alexei, briefly outlived his mother.

Over time, Ostrovsky developed other hobbies. He was passionately in love with Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina, who played Katerina at the premiere of The Thunderstorm in 1859. However, a personal break soon occurred: the actress left the playwright for a rich merchant.

Then Alexander Nikolaevich had a relationship with the young artist Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva. Agafya Ivanovna knew about this, but she steadfastly carried her cross and managed to maintain Ostrovsky’s respect for herself. The woman died in 1867, on March 6, after a serious illness. Alexander Nikolaevich did not leave her bed until the very end. The burial place of Ostrovsky's first wife is unknown.

Two years later, the playwright married Vasilyeva-Bakhmetyeva, who bore him two daughters and four sons. Alexander Nikolaevich lived with this woman until the end of his days.

Death of the writer

The intense social life could not but affect the writer’s health. Moreover, despite the good fees from the production of plays and an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, Money Alexander Nikolaevich never had enough. Exhausted by constant worries, the writer’s body eventually failed. In 1886, on June 2, the writer died on his Shchelykovo estate near Kostroma. The Emperor donated 3 thousand rubles for the playwright's burial. In addition, he assigned a pension of 3 thousand rubles to the writer’s widow, and another 2,400 rubles a year to raise Ostrovsky’s children.

Chronological table

Ostrovsky's life and work can be briefly displayed in a chronological table.

Ostrovsky's life and work were filled with such events. A table indicating the main incidents in the writer’s life will help to better study his biography. The dramatic heritage of Alexander Nikolaevich is difficult to overestimate. Even during the life of the great artist, the Maly Theater began to be called “Ostrovsky’s house,” and this says a lot. Ostrovsky's creativity, short description which is outlined in this article is worth studying in more detail.

Theater as a serious and popular matter
It also started recently for us,
began in earnest with Ostrovsky.

A.A. Grigoriev

Childhood and youth

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823–1886) was born in the old merchant and bureaucratic district of Zamoskvorechye. In Moscow, on Malaya Ordynka, there is still a two-story house in which the future great playwright was born on April 12 (March 31), 1823. Here, in Zamoskvorechye - on Malaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya, Zhitnaya streets - he spent his childhood and youth.

The writer's father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, was the son of a priest, but after graduating from the theological academy he chose a secular profession - he became a judicial official. The mother of the future writer, Lyubov Ivanovna, also came from among the clergy. She died when the boy was 8 years old. After 5 years, the father married again, this time to a noblewoman. Successfully advancing in his career, Nikolai Fedorovich received the title of nobility in 1839, and in 1842 he retired and began to engage in private legal practice. With income from clients - mostly wealthy merchants - he acquired several estates and in 1848, having retired from business, he moved to the village of Shchelykovo in the Kostroma province and became a landowner.

In 1835, Alexander Nikolaevich entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium and graduated in 1840. Even during his gymnasium years, Ostrovsky was attracted to literature and theater. By the will of his father, the young man entered the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, but the Maly Theater, in which the great Russian actors Shchepkin and Mochalov played, attracts him to itself like a magnet. This was not the empty desire of a rich scoundrel who saw pleasant entertainment in the theater: for Ostrovsky the stage became life. These interests forced him to leave the university in the spring of 1843. “From a young age, I gave up everything and devoted myself entirely to art,” he later recalled.

His father still hoped that his son would become an official, and appointed him as a scribe to the Moscow Conscientious Court, which dealt mainly with family property disputes. In 1845, Alexander Nikolaevich was transferred to the office of the Moscow Commercial Court as an official at the “verbal table”, i.e. upon receipt of oral requests from applicants.

His father's law practice, life in Zamoskvorechye and service in court, which lasted almost eight years, gave Ostrovsky many subjects for his works.

1847–1851 – early period

Ostrovsky began writing while still a student. His literary views were formed under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol: a young man from the very beginning literary path declared himself an adherent of the realistic school. Ostrovsky's first essays and dramatic sketches were written in Gogol's style.

In 1847, the newspaper "Moscow City Listok" published two scenes from the comedy "The Insolvent Debtor" - the first version of the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered!" - the comedy "Picture of Family Happiness" and the essay "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident."

In 1849, Ostrovsky completed work on his first big comedy, “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!”

The comedy ridicules the rude and greedy tyrant merchant Samson Silych Bolshov. His tyranny knows no bounds as long as he feels solid ground beneath him - wealth. But greed destroys him. Wanting to get even richer, Bolshov, on the advice of the clever and cunning clerk Podkhalyuzin, transfers all his property into his name and declares himself an insolvent debtor. Podkhalyuzin, having married Bolshov’s daughter, appropriates his father-in-law’s property and, refusing to pay even a small part of his debts, leaves Bolshov in debtor’s prison. Lipochka, Bolshov’s daughter, who became Podkhalyuzin’s wife, does not feel any pity for her father.

In the play "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" the main features of Ostrovsky's dramaturgy have already appeared: the ability to show important all-Russian problems through family and everyday conflict, to create bright and recognizable characters not only of the main ones, but also minor characters. His plays contain rich, lively, folk speech. And each of them has a complicated, thought-provoking ending. Then nothing found in the first experiments will disappear, but only new features will “grow in.”

The position of an “unreliable” writer complicated Ostrovsky’s already difficult living conditions. In the summer of 1849, against the will of his father and without a church wedding, he married a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The angry father refused his son further financial support. The young family was in dire need. Despite his precarious situation, Ostrovsky refused to serve in January 1851 and devoted himself entirely to literary activity.

1852–1855 – “Moscow period”

The first plays allowed to be staged were “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” and “Poverty is Not a Vice.” Their appearance was the beginning of a revolution in everything theater arts. For the first time on stage, the viewer saw simple everyday life. This also required a new style of acting: life truth began to replace pompous declamation and “theatrical” gestures.

In 1850, Ostrovsky became a member of the so-called “young editorial staff” of the Slavophile magazine “Moskvityanin”. But relations with editor-in-chief Pogodin are not easy. Despite the enormous work he was doing, Ostrovsky remained indebted to the magazine all the time. Pogodin paid sparingly.

1855–1860 – pre-reform period

At this time, the playwright's rapprochement with the revolutionary-democratic camp took place. Ostrovsky's worldview is finally determined. In 1856, he became close to the Sovremennik magazine and became its permanent contributor. He established friendly relations with I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy, who collaborated in Sovremennik.

In 1856, together with other Russian writers, Ostrovsky took part in the famous literary and ethnographic expedition organized by the Maritime Ministry to “describe the life, way of life and trades of the population living along the shores of the seas, lakes and rivers European Russia". Ostrovsky was entrusted with examining the upper reaches of the Volga. He visited Tver, Gorodnya, Torzhok, Ostashkov, Rzhev, etc. All observations were used by Ostrovsky in his works.

1860–1886 – post-reform period

In 1862, Ostrovsky visited Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France and England.

In 1865 he founded an artistic circle in Moscow. Ostrovsky was one of its leaders. The artistic circle became a school for talented amateurs - future wonderful Russian artists: O.O. Sadovskoy, M.P. Sadovsky, P.A. Strepetova, M.I. Pisarev and many others. In 1870, on the initiative of the playwright, the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers was created in Moscow; from 1874 until the end of his life, Ostrovsky was its permanent chairman.

Having worked for the Russian stage for almost forty years, Ostrovsky created a whole repertoire - fifty-four plays. “I covered all of Russian life” - from prehistoric, fairy-tale times (“The Snow Maiden”), and events of the past (the chronicle “Kozma Zakharyich Minin, Sukhoruk”) to topical reality. Ostrovsky's works remain on stage at the end of the 20th century. His dramas often sound so modern that they make those who recognize themselves on stage angry.

In addition, Ostrovsky penned numerous translations from Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goldoni, etc. His work covers a huge period: from the 40s. - the times of serfdom and until the mid-80s, marked by the rapid development of capitalism and the growth of the labor movement.

IN last decades life Ostrovsky creates a kind of artistic monument domestic theater. In 1872, he wrote a poetic comedy “The Comedian of the 17th Century” about the birth of the first Russian theater at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. But Ostrovsky’s plays about his contemporary theater are much better known - “Talents and Admirers” (1881) and “ Guilty without guilt" (18983). Here he showed how tempting and difficult the life of an actress is.

In a sense, we can say that Ostrovsky loved the theater the same way he loved Russia: he did not turn a blind eye to the bad and did not lose sight of what was most precious and important.

On June 14, 1886, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky died in his beloved Trans-Volga estate Shchelykovo, in the Kostroma dense forests, on the hilly banks of small winding rivers.

In connection with the thirty-fifth anniversary of A.N.’s dramatic activity. Ostrovsky Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov wrote:

"You have donated a whole library to literature. works of art, they created their own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building at the foundation of which you laid cornerstones Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Gogol. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater.” It, in fairness, should be called: “Ostrovsky Theater.”

Literature

Based on materials from the Encyclopedia for Children. Literature Part I, Avanta+, M., 1999