April 12, 1823
Born Alexander Ostrovsky. The "father" of Russian drama and theater. Author of fifty plays that still resonate with modernity today.
What kind of word is "bribes"? You made it up yourself to hurt good people. Not bribes, but gratitude! And refusing gratitude is a sin.
We'll never, sir, escape this bark! Because honest labor will never earn us more than our daily bread. And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor, so they can make even more money from their gratuitous labor.
Do people even live around us? Wolves and sheep. Wolves eat sheep, and sheep humbly allow themselves to be eaten.
He grew up in the merchant district of Zamoskvorechye. His father, a graduate of a theological academy, chose a secular career: he worked as a legal attorney and ran a private law practice. He often took work home—according to friends, the Ostrovskys' home was "busy from morning until night with merchants arranging various matters."
[Sasha] had heard God knows how much talk about bankruptcy: it's no wonder that the language of merchants had become, in some way, his language. Others, especially the most biting and apt, he wrote down
(Nikolai Berg)
The house had a large library; Sasha read a lot and early on developed a "passion for writing." But his father dreamed of him becoming a lawyer. The young man never completed law school: he flunked Roman law and, according to one version, was expelled as an incompetent student (according to another, he left voluntarily).
For several years, he served as a clerk in the courts—first for a salary of 4 rubles a month, then for 16. He observed the lawsuits of merchants, townspeople, and peasants dividing up the inheritance of relatives—material for future plays was invaluable.
If you are honest, don’t hang out with the dishonest, don’t rub shoulders with soot, you’ll get dirty yourself.
In 1847, he made his print debut, publishing Ostrovsky's first essay, "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident," and his first play, "A Picture of Family Happiness" (considered a precursor to "The Storm"), in the Moscow City Leaflet. He read the play publicly at a professor's party. Stepan Shevyrev. It was a success. The professor announced "the emergence of a new dramatic luminary," which greatly inspired the author.
From that day on, I began to consider myself a Russian writer, and without a doubt I believed in my calling.
By that time he was living in a civil marriage with a commoner Agafya Ivanovna The couple would have four children, but all died young. Agafya was illiterate, but worldly-wise and observant. When writing the characters and scenes of merchant life in his plays, the writer consulted with his wife and willingly corrected them if she thought anything was inappropriate.
In 1850, the comedy "Our People—Let's Settle Accounts!" was published in the magazine "Moskvityanin." Circulation immediately became scarce. The magazine's subscriber base doubled. Ostrovsky achieved fame.
The entire intelligentsia of Moscow started talking about this play as if it were something extraordinary.
(Nikolai Berg)
However, the author's actions offended influential Moscow merchants. He was dismissed from service, placed under police surveillance, and the play was banned from production. The surveillance was lifted in 1855, and the ban in 1861.
The soul of another is a dark place
"The Storm," "The Marriage of Balzaminov," and "The Dowry"—Ostrovsky left behind around 50 plays. And a completely new approach to theater—with ordinary people on stage, whose dramas grow out of everyday life and the psychology of relationships.
The public goes to the theatre to see a good performance of a good play, not the play itself: the play can also be read
For 30 years, almost every season, new plays by Ostrovsky were staged at the Maly Theatre in Moscow and at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
In 1866 he founded the Artistic Circle, which was attended by Goncharov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tchaikovsky. In 1874 he headed the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers.
In 1867, after Agafya's death, he married an actress Maria Vasilyeva — six children were born in the marriage.
He died in 1886, at the age of 63. Despite his popularity, he did not make a fortune: royalties for his plays were small and often arrived late. Shortly before his death Alexander III He issued a pension of 3000 rubles a year, which Ostrovsky's widow then received. He also paid for the writer's funeral.
