The mystery of the first wife of Alexander Ostrovsky. Last days and funeral A

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on April 12 (March 31, old style) 1823 in Moscow.

As a child, Alexander received a good education at home - he studied ancient Greek, Latin, French, German, and later English, Italian, and Spanish.

In 1835-1840, Alexander Ostrovsky studied at the First Moscow Gymnasium.

In 1840 he entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, but in 1843, due to a collision with one of the professors, he left his studies.

In 1943-1945 he served in the Moscow Conscientious Court (a provincial court that considered civil cases through the conciliation procedure and some criminal ones).

1845-1851 - worked in the office of the Moscow Commercial Court, resigning with the rank of provincial secretary.

In 1847, Ostrovsky published in the newspaper "Moscow City Listok" the first draft of the future comedy "Our People - Let's Count Together" entitled "The Insolvent Debtor", then the comedy "Picture of Family Happiness" (later "Family Picture") and the prose essay "Notes of Zamoskvoretsky" resident."

Ostrovsky received recognition from the comedy “Our People - We Will Be Numbered” (original title “Bankrupt”), which was completed at the end of 1849. Before publication, the play received favorable reviews from writers Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, and historian Timofey Granovsky. The comedy was published in 1950 in the magazine "Moskvityanin". The censors, who saw the work as an insult to the merchant class, did not allow its production on stage - the play was first staged in 1861.

Since 1847, Ostrovsky collaborated as an editor and critic with the magazine "Moskvityanin", publishing his plays in it: "The Morning of a Young Man", "An Unexpected Case" (1850), the comedy "Poor Bride" (1851), "Not on Your Sleigh" sit down" (1852), "Poverty is not a vice" (1853), "Don't live the way you want" (1854).

After the publication of "Moskvityanin" ceased, Ostrovsky in 1856 moved to "Russian Messenger", where his comedy "A Hangover at Someone Else's Feast" was published in the second book of that year. But he did not work for this magazine for long.

Since 1856, Ostrovsky has been a permanent contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. In 1857 he wrote the plays “A Profitable Place” and “A Festive Sleep Before Dinner”, in 1858 - “The Characters Didn’t Get Along”, in 1859 - “The Kindergarten” and “The Thunderstorm”.

In the 1860s, Alexander Ostrovsky turned to historical drama, considering such plays necessary in the theater repertoire. He created a cycle of historical plays: "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk" (1861), "The Voevoda" (1864), "Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky" (1866), "Tushino" (1866), the psychological drama "Vasilisa Melentyeva" (1868 ).

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Not only books and their creators - pi-sa-te-li - have their own destiny, but also the wives of pi-sa-te-lei. Among the wives of Russian pi-sa-te-leys of the 19th century, ver-o-yat-but, my very bitter fate was Agafya Iva-nov-na, per- howl of the dra-ma-tur-ga Alek-san-dr. Ni-ko-la-e-vi-cha Os-t-ro-vskogo.

Not only books and their creators - writers, but also writers' wives have their own destiny.

Among the wives of Russian writers of the 19th century, probably the most bitter fate was Agafya Ivanovna, playwright's first wife Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Actually, legally and legally, we do not have the right to call her a wife, since Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky and Agafya Ivanovna - (and we don’t know her last name!) - were not married and were not legally married, although they lived together for 20 years and gave birth to four children . Three children died during their mother’s lifetime, and the eldest son Alexei, who did not have his father’s surname (he was Alexey Alexandrovich Alexandrov), died a few years after her death at the age of about 27 years. As you can see, there are already quite a few mysteries, but they are just beginning.

It would seem that everything should be known to researchers of the life and work of the great Russian playwright (1823-1886), but they too were perplexed by some facts and events in Ostrovsky’s life.

Already in childhood, the boy suffered grief: his mother died after a difficult birth when he was eight years old. The cloudless happy time was cut short. The father, already a well-known lawyer in Moscow, was left alone with six children in his arms; The twins who were born died after their mother.

Lermontov, Nekrasov, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, like Ostrovsky, they lost their mothers in early childhood. And this made them more susceptible to other people's pain than ordinary people. U Pushkin, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin mothers were indifferent to their sons, which undoubtedly left a special mark on the power of their insight in understanding the life around them. Only at the end of the century Alexander Blok And Anton Chekhov showed the whole world images of filial love - what in the old days was called “love to the grave,” but not for a woman, but for a mother. It is possible that the early orphanhood experienced by the luminaries of Russian literature nurtured the power and depth of the works they created.

Childhood hardships also gave me a special outlook on people. A child looking into his mother's grave is the collapse of the world. This happened to Ostrovsky too.

In 1847, when 24-year-old Ostrovsky allegedly met Agafya Ivanovna, both were experiencing personal unsettledness. By this time, Alexander Nikolaevich, having entered at the insistence of his father and studied for three years at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, left it and entered the service of the Moscow Conscientious Court as a junior clerical servant - or simply a scribe. The newspaper “Moscow City Leaflet”, which has just begun publication in Moscow, master of mathematics V.Drashusova has already published Ostrovsky’s works: “Scenes from the comedy “The Insolvent Debtor”, “Picture of Family Happiness” and the prose “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident”. However, the father was skeptical about his son’s literary works and could not forgive him for not graduating from university. The family lived on the banks of the Yauza River in one of the oldest tracts in the city, at the foot of one of the seven Moscow hills.

According to legend, there was a trade route along the river here, and on the shore there was a land road to Kolomna and Ryazan. In the 17th century, the Streltsy settlement of the colonel was located here Vorobin, supported Peter I, when the Streltsy riot began. The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Vorobin became a monument to these events, and the entire area received the name of the Tsar’s associate. There was also a settlement of the masters of the royal silver money court - “silversmiths”. At that time there stood in the parishes of the Trinity Church in Serebryaniki and St. Nicholas in Vorobin - rich courts of merchants and nobles, the court of a prince Yusupova, admiral, in Nikolo-Vorobinsky Lane in 1775 - the courtyard and garden of the “artillery captain and architect IN AND. Bazhenova».

In 1847, young Agafya Ivanovna, approximately the same age as Alexander Nikolaevich, settled in Nikolo-Vorobinsky Lane, together with her 13-year-old sister, without family, without relatives, like a fragment of some kind of wreck. She settled next to the house where Ostrovsky lived.

We do not know where or how their first meeting took place. We can assume that not in church, because young Ostrovsky was reading articles Belinsky and novels George Sand. However, either at the end of 1847 or in 1848, the young people had a son, Alexei. There were no conditions for raising a child, and he had to be temporarily placed in an orphanage.

One can imagine how angry Ostrovsky’s father was, who with his children had recently received nobility (1839) and was married to the baroness Emilia Tessin from an impoverished Swedish family, whose ancestors moved to Russia, that his eldest son not only dropped out of university, but also “confused” with the bourgeois woman next door.

Throughout 1847, 1848 and half of 1849, Ostrovsky worked on his play “Bankrupt, or Our People - We Will Be Numbered.” The father tried in every possible way to break off the relationship between Alexander Nikolaevich and Agafya Ivanovna, but Ostrovsky showed firmness: in the spring of 1849, when the father, his stepmother and their small children went to the recently purchased estate in the Kostroma province of Shchelykovo, he brought to his wooden house, which stood next to his father’s, Agafya Ivanovna, and they settled together for 18 years, which fate allowed them to do.

Perhaps the harsh events of Russian life also prompted the young writer to take decisive action: in April, the authorities, frightened by the revolution of 1848 in France, crushed the circle Petrashevsky, among those arrested was F.M. Dostoevsky. Even seemingly distant disasters sometimes lead to the movement of ice, and a person easily accomplishes what he could not decide to do yesterday.

In November of the same year, Ostrovsky's play was banned by censors. The censor wrote: “All the characters in the play... are notorious scoundrels. The conversations are dirty, the whole play is offensive to the Russian merchants.” Ostrovsky’s father dealt with his son with no less severity: he deprived him of all material assistance.

We don’t know when the young parents were able to take their son Alexei from the orphanage, but life began difficult for them. The father and stepmother opposed their church marriage in every possible way. However, Ostrovsky was in dire need of the love of his Gasha, as he called Agafya Ivanovna. Agafya Ivanovna’s concerns, apparently, were also of a maternal nature; they were necessary for a young man who lost his mother early and grew up with a stern father and a cold stepmother.

One of the mysteries of Ostrovsky’s life is the disappearance of all his letters to his brother. Mikhail Nikolaevich, who rose to the rank of Minister of State Property. Mikhail's letters to Alexander are intact - there are about 400 of them, but the playwright's letters to his brother have disappeared. Correspondence between the brothers was carried out intensively all their lives, and there, of course, all information about Ostrovsky’s personal life was lost. It is impossible to doubt that he described in detail both Agafya Ivanovna and how they became close and became necessary to each other.

What family did Agafya Ivanovna come from? What was her last name? Where she was born? How old was she? Who were her parents? Why was she alone with her little sister? There are many questions - no answers.

Agafya Ivanovna was listed as a Moscow bourgeois. It was possible to become a bourgeois from the peasantry by buying out of serfdom, or it was possible to “register as a bourgeois” from the merchant class without paying on time for the “guild capital,” that is, a merchant’s certificate that gave the right to trade. Such a scandal in the Moscow merchant community is described by a famous writer A.P. Miliukov in his memoirs “In Moscow in the 1820-1830s,” when the merchant was “discharged as a bourgeois” (“Essays on Moscow life.” Compiled by B.S. Zemenkova, M., 1962. P. 76, 356). The poisonous letter is also known S.P. Shevyreva A.N. Verstovsky about the play “The Thunderstorm”: “Ostrovsky enrolled Russian comedy in the merchant guild, started with the first, brought it to the third - and now, having gone bankrupt, it is being discharged with tears into the bourgeoisie. This is the result of “The Thunderstorm”…” (“Literary Heritage”. A.N. Ostrovsky. New materials and research. Book one. M., Nauka, 1974. P. 600). This could have happened to Agafya Ivanovna’s family. The testimony of the playwright’s friends makes us think about this.

S.V. Maksimov, writer and ethnographer, called Agafya Ivanovna “the first companion of his life in severe need, in the fight against deprivation.” Agafya Ivanovna, according to S.V. Maksimov, they “jokingly compared him to the type of Marfa Posadnitsa.” But Marfa Posadnitsa in Veliky Novgorod during its conquest Ivan III in the 1470s suffered terrible losses: children, houses, property. All her wealth was confiscated by the Moscow sovereign, her sons died, and she herself was taken away from her hometown.

Did S.V. know? Maksimov something about Agafya Ivanovna’s past?

Apparently he knew. He writes: “Agafya Ivanovna, simple by birth, very intelligent by nature and cordial towards everyone around her, positioned herself in such a way that we not only deeply respected her, but also loved her deeply.” He claims that she well understood not only middle-class life with all its morals, customs, and language: “She also well understood Moscow merchant life, in its particulars, which, undoubtedly, served her chosen one in many ways. He himself not only did not shy away from her opinions and reviews, but willingly met them halfway, listened to advice and corrected many things after he read what was written in her presence, and when she herself had time to listen to the contradictory opinions of various connoisseurs. A large share of participation and influence is attributed to her by probable rumors in the creation of the comedy “Our People - Let's Be Numbered!”, at least regarding the plot and its external setting. No matter how dangerous it is to resolve such elusive issues in a positive way with the full probability of falling into gross mistakes, nevertheless, the influence on Alexander Nikolaevich of this wonderful and outstanding personality - a typical representative of an ideal native Russian woman - was both undeniable and beneficial" (Ibid. P. 463).

The amazing confession of S.V. Maksimova forces us to reconsider a lot: for example, the opinion that Ostrovsky, not only in his service in court, drew his discoveries from the language and plots of plays. Agafya Ivanovna influenced Ostrovsky and helped him, not at all timid to express her opinion publicly! Participated in the discussion of the play! Maksimov’s words about Ostrovsky as “his chosen one” of Agafya Ivanovna also attract attention.

Everyone especially notes Agafya Ivanovna’s extraordinary abilities as a housewife, who, with limited funds, could create warmth and comfort in the house. Maksimov writes: “The lower floor of the house was given to the tenants, and the owner himself huddled at first and for a long time upstairs. The fight against poverty was carried out invisibly to prying eyes, but was clear to those around him, and in extreme cases was not hidden from relatives and trusted persons,” but “the family situation of our famous playwright owed its skillful and troublesome management to the fact that, with limited material resources, , in the simplicity of life there was contentment in everyday life. Everything that was in the oven was put on the table with playful greetings and affectionate sentences.”

Maksimov says that Agafya Ivanovna had a cheerful and sociable character: “Carefree and inexhaustible fun was supported by her active participation: she sang Russian songs superbly in a lovely voice, of which she knew a lot.”

Referring to Ostrovsky’s friends, he also writes about Agafya Ivanovna P.D. Boborykin:“To her, according to the assurance of these friends, he owed a lot in terms of knowledge of everyday life and, most importantly, the language, conversations, countless shades of humor and eloquence of the inhabitants of those Moscow tracts.” A. Pisemsky, actor F. Burdin, P. Yakushkin, brother Mikhail - everyone conveyed greetings to Agafya Ivanovna, thanking her for her hospitality and care. Leo Tolstoy also met Agafya Ivanovna, who said in his old age about Ostrovsky: “I chose him for this reason and offered him the opportunity that he is independent, simple, and his wife is simple” (Vladimir Lakshin. A.N. Ostrovsky, M. , 2004. P. 418).

However, the playwright did not formalize his church marriage with Agafya Ivanovna even after the death of his father in 1853 (February 22). Why? One can only speculate. A month earlier, on January 14, on the Moscow stage of the Maly Theater, the actress thundered in the play “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” the playwright’s first play. Lyubov Pavlovna Kositskaya-Nikulina. “All of Moscow ran to look at Kositskaya in “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh,” recalled P.D. Boborykin.

The playwright’s acquaintance with the actress took place a long time ago. Like Agafya Ivanovna, she sang Russian folk songs beautifully and knew many of them. Ostrovsky's passion for Kositskaya, apparently, brewed gradually and flared up with deep passion. The premiere of “The Thunderstorm” with Kositskaya in the role of Katerina in 1859 was a resounding success: it is believed that the playwright used her stories about her childhood in the heroine’s monologues.

Soon there was a personal break: the actress fell in love with her admirer, a young merchant Sokolova, who threw money at expensive gifts, and wrote a farewell letter to Ostrovsky.

It was not for nothing that Agafya Ivanovna’s friends called her Marfa Posadnitsa: she knew about Alexander Nikolaevich’s feelings for Kositskaya, but she endured the mental anguish with dignity and did not lose either his respect or his tender attitude towards her. She also knew about the relationship he would soon have with a young artist of the Maly Theater Maria Vasilievna Vasilyeva-Bakhmeteva, and about the two children born to them. She had to go through all this, but when Agafya Ivanovna became seriously ill, Ostrovsky did not leave her bedside. She died on March 6, 1867. And a year later Kositskaya died, in complete poverty, robbed and abandoned by her bankrupt merchant.

Ostrovsky married Maria Vasilievna only two years after the death of Agafya Ivanovna. There is a letter from the playwright's granddaughter MM. Chatelain in June 1960, addressed to a researcher of Ostrovsky’s work A.I. Revyakin, where she sees the reason for his unregistered marriage with his first wife in herself: “She did not agree to a legal marriage, so as not to interfere with him, not to complicate the relationship with his family. In addition, she believed that she, a “simple woman,” was not a match for him.”

Explaining this and agreeing, Revyakin, the author of the only article about Agafya Ivanovna, “Ostrovsky’s First Wife,” writes: “Ashamed of her “simplicity,” Agafya Ivanovna did not go to any public gatherings (merchant or noble club, theaters) and was always buried from few people I knew who visited the playwright. She appeared and in all her spontaneity was revealed only to Ostrovsky’s closest friends” (Ibid. p. 465). However, it is difficult to agree with this.

Revyakin cites entries in the confession books of St. Nicholas Church in Vorobin, where she confessed. But no priest could recognize an extra-church marriage, and the fact that she was admitted to confession and, therefore, to communion proves that life without a wedding was not through the fault or desire of Agafya Ivanovna, that she was rather a forced party, and the priest walked towards her, compassionate. Moreover, the children of Ostrovsky and Agafya Ivanovna were dying (of unmarried parents?), and only the eldest Alexei survived his mother.

As for visiting the merchant and noble clubs, women were admitted there for the most part only to balls and gala dinners. Unmarried, Ostrovsky and Agafya Ivanovna, even if they wanted, could not appear without a public scandal, either in clubs, or in theaters, or at the Countess's Rostopchina. In my article about Ostrovsky and Agafya Ivanovna, I even expressed a hypothesis that perhaps she was married into a merchant family and hence her such a keen knowledge of this life and the impossibility of marrying Alexander Nikolaevich (“A.N. Ostrovsky. Research materials.” Shuya, 2010, pp. 35-36).

The famous “unequal marriage” of the serf actress Parasha Kovaleva-Zhemchugova with the count Sheremetev was known throughout Russia (Kositskaya was also a serf until she was 10 years old).

And it is unlikely that Parasha, getting married to her master, felt like a better match for him than Agafya Ivanovna, who was loved and revered by all Ostrovsky’s friends, including the future strict minister brother Mikhail. For the sake of the children’s lives, Agafya Ivanovna would walk down the aisle!.. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the heroine of the play “Warm Heart” (1869) is named Parasha. V.Ya. Lakshin believed that this name for the author “rhymed with the name of Gasha, Agafya Ivanovna, who died shortly in 1867, Ostrovsky’s first wife... It can be assumed that Parasha is also a memory of her, of her young years - a kind of belated epitaph... The role of Parasha is not I was too good on stage. Perhaps this is due to the poetic-rhetorical touch that lies on this image, the excessive ideality, perhaps, of the character of the heroine, the folk-song style of her speech, soaring above the elements of dense everyday life. Or maybe, to play this role - a warm, passionate heart - an actress of such sincerity, open, infectious temperament has not yet been found” (“Theater”. 1987. No. 6). When the play was written, Kositskaya was no longer alive either. It seems that the playwright’s thought about Parasha Zhemchugova, whom Sheremetev took as his wife (but he did not take Agafya Ivanovna as his wife), in some distant way could have passed through here with its own regret and belated repentance.

The grave of Agafya Ivanovna, buried at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery, has long been lost. There were no traces of her correspondence with Ostrovsky. V.Ya. Lakshin suggested that the second wife, Marya Vasilievna, “selected this part of the archive as an unpleasant reminder of Ostrovsky’s past life.”

The bitter fate of Agafya Ivanovna has long struck me with its injustice: after all, no one even knows her last name. I realized that only the church could preserve her memory. And so my thoughts led me to TsGIAM - the Central State Archive of Moscow. Speaking about confession books, Revyakin pointed to another archive - GIAMO, State Historical Archive of the Moscow Region, and no codes were reported. It seemed to me like some kind of misunderstanding, a mistake. Remembering my previous archival research, I knew that confessional and metrical books of churches in Moscow were in her archive.

How can we find out whether the registry register of the Church of St. Nicholas in Vorobin, next to which Ostrovsky lived with Agafya Ivanovna in his house and where she died, has survived to this day?

Wonderful archivist Galina Mikhailovna Burtseva I was encouraged: the registry book of St. Nicholas Church in Vorobin for 1867 is in the Moscow archives, but is in such a dilapidated state that it is now being microfilmed. I was supposed to go on a trip, but I canceled it: I couldn’t even think that I would leave Moscow before I looked at this book. At the same time, I understood that I had very little hope of finding Agafya Ivanovna: they had been actively looking for her before me.

Searching in the archives, of course, is akin to the excitement of a hunter: you have found a trace, but you are worried - what if the exact day you need is not there, what if there is an ink stain or damage... In a word, it is difficult to convey my state when the long-awaited microfilm film was finally received inserted into the reel, projector, turns of the handle... January, February, finally March 1867. March 6 is the day of death. There is... I can’t believe my eyes, but it’s true!

So, in front of me is “The metric book of the Moscow Spiritual Consistory of the Ivanovo forty in the Nikolaevskaya Church in Vorobin for the registration of those born, married and deceased.” Part three is the dead. In the “day of death” column there are two numbers: March 6-9. Day of death and day of funeral: exactly three days later. In the column “deceased”: “Moscow bourgeois girl Agafya Ivanova" Why - a girl? After all, she gave birth to four children, apparently because she was unmarried... Summer of the deceased- 42. So, Agafya Ivanovna was born in 1825 (or 1824), two years younger than Ostrovsky. What did he die from?- “From water sickness.” Who confessed and gave communion- “Nikolaevskaya, that in Vorobin Church there is a priest Pyotr Fedorov Tabolovsky, he had a sexton with him Ivan Tsvetkov" (The sexton's middle name is not specified). Who performed the burial and where were they buried?- “Nikolaevskaya, in Vorobin, Church Priest Peter Fedorov Tabolovsky, with a deacon Ilya Solovyov, sexton Ivan Tsvetkov and sexton Alexey Dyakonov- at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery."

Everyone who performed the burial put their original signatures in the book.

So, the last name of Agafya Ivanovna is Ivanova. V.Ya. turned out to be right. Lakshin, when he wrote: “Probably, the parents of Ostrovsky’s first wife were peasants who ransomed from the fortress and enrolled in the philistinism. In this case, her name should have been Agafya Ivanovna Ivanova. However, all this is just guesswork” (Vladimir Lakshin. A.N. Ostrovsky. P. 119).

And here two questions inevitably arise: why is there no middle name? And why "girl"? The answers were found nearby in neighboring entries. On April 20, the Birth Register records the birth of the boys Georgy and Alexander to the “Moscow girl Ksenia Eremeeva of the Orthodox faith, illegitimate.” This means that if a woman gave birth out of wedlock, she was still considered a “maiden.”

Almost next to the entry about Agafya Ivanovna on February 3-6, the death of the “Moscow bourgeois widow Stefanida Egorova” is indicated, who died “of old age” at the age of 75 and was buried by the same people as Agafya Ivanovna, and was also buried in the Pyatnitskoye cemetery. She does not have a middle name, just like Agafya Ivanovna. However, women of merchant rank have middle names: “Moscow merchant’s daughter, infant Lyubov Mikhailova Zhuchkova,” “Moscow merchant’s wife Agrippina Ivanova Rysakova” (died at 54 from typhoid fever on May 9-12).

In marriage records, the same rule: for bourgeois and peasants, patronymics are not indicated (“the bride is a peasant widow Elena Petrova, 30 years old on her second marriage,” the groom is “Kostroma tradesman Pavel Ivanov, 32 years old on his first marriage,” etc., no patronymics). As we have seen, even the deacon, sexton and sexton were recorded in the Register of Metrics without a patronymic name.

What happened to Agafya Ivanovna’s grave? There was no one to look after her; we know nothing about the fate of her sister, who lived with her at Ostrovsky’s, except that she selflessly helped Agafya Ivanovna. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that in 1907, when it was compiled by the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich Romanov with assistants “Moscow necropolis” - the inscriptions on the tombstones of all Moscow cemeteries - it no longer existed.

Peace to Agafya Ivanovna's soul! The Orthodox Church preserved for us what could survive. Let's say thank you to our wonderful archives and archivists who protect the treasures.

Svetlana KAYDASH-LAKSHINA

playwright, whose work became the most important stage in the development of the Russian national theater

Alexander Ostrovsky

short biography

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). The younger brother is the 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 “Picture of Family Life” and an 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.

Ostrovsky’s first play, which was able to reach the theater stage, was “Don’t Sit 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 industrial and domestic 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 of the “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 Emperor Alexander III granted him an annual pension of 3 thousand rubles, financial problems did not leave Ostrovsky until the last days of 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 Vasilyevna 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 a theater 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 will be successful, but it will not last long in the repertoire if it is poorly performed: the public goes to the theater to watch good performances of good plays, and not the play itself; you can read the play. Othello is, without a doubt, a 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

In 1881, the successful premiere of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden” took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, 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 renovations, and its troupe moved to the Bolshoi Theater building. 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 it, deciding to use the plot from the folk tale “The Snow Maiden Girl.” 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 searched for the dimensions of the poems, consulted with historians, archaeologists, experts on ancient life, and turned to a large amount of 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 take a 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,” he considered the dramatic work itself to be the pearl of Ostrovsky’s creations, and said about his music for it: “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, 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 Drama Theater 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 the great playwright was born - 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 theater festival “Ostrovsky Days in Kostroma”, which is supervised by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation (All-Russian Theater Society), lights up the stage.
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 ( Grand Prix "Garnet Bracelet") Eleventh Russian Festival “Literature and Cinema” (Gatchina) “ for an incredibly amazing interpretation of the great play by 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 of 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)
"The Morning of a 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.
“Profitable Place” (1856) text The play was first staged on the theater stage on September 27, 1863 at the Alexandrinsky Theater during a benefit performance by Levkeeva. 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)
"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 of the 17th 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), text together with Nikolai Solovyov. 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 the play of the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater named after.

The greatest Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on March 31 (April 12), 1823 in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka.

The beginning of the way

Alexander Nikolaevich’s father graduated first from the Kostroma Theological Seminary, then from the Moscow Theological Academy, but in the end he began to work, in modern terms, as a lawyer. In 1839 he received the rank of nobility.

The mother of the future playwright was the daughter of junior church workers; she died when Alexander was not even eight years old.

The family was wealthy and enlightened. A lot of time and money was spent on educating children. Since childhood, Alexander knew several languages and read a lot. From an early age he felt the desire to write, but his father saw him in the future only as a lawyer.

In 1835, Ostrovsky entered the 1st Moscow Gymnasium. After 5 years, he becomes a law student at Moscow University. The future profession does not attract him, and perhaps that is why a conflict with one of the teachers becomes the reason for leaving the educational institution in 1843.

At the insistence of his father, Ostrovsky first served as a scribe in the Moscow Conscientious Court, then in the Commercial Court (until 1851).

Observing his father's clients, then watching the stories dealt with in court, gave Ostrovsky a wealth of material for future creativity.

In 1846, Ostrovsky first thought about writing a comedy.

Creative success

His literary views were formed during his student years under the influence of Belinsky and Gogol - Ostrovsky immediately and irrevocably decides that he will write only in a realistic manner.

In 1847, in collaboration with actor Dmitry Gorev, Ostrovsky wrote his first play, “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident.” Next year, his relatives move to live on the family estate Shchelykovo in the Kostroma province. Alexander Nikolaevich also visits these places and remains under an indelible impression of nature and the Volga expanses for the rest of his life.

In 1850, Ostrovsky published his first big comedy, “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” in the magazine "Moskvityanin". The play was a great success and received rave reviews from writers, but was prohibited from being re-edited and staged due to a complaint from merchants sent directly to the emperor. The author was dismissed from service and placed under police supervision, which was lifted only after the accession to the throne of Alexander II. Ostrovsky’s very first play revealed the main features of his dramatic works, which were characteristic of all subsequent work: the ability to show the most complex all-Russian problems through personal and family conflicts, to create memorable characters of all characters and to “voice” them with lively colloquial speech.

The position of the “unreliable” worsened Ostrovsky’s already difficult affairs. Since 1849, without his father’s blessing and without getting married in a church, he began to live with a simple bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna. The father completely deprived his son of material support, and the financial situation of the young family was difficult.

Ostrovsky begins permanent collaboration with the Moskvityanin magazine. In 1851 he published The Poor Bride.

Under the influence of the main ideologist of the magazine, A. Grigoriev, Ostrovsky’s plays of this period begin to sound not so much the motives of exposing class tyranny, but rather the idealization of ancient customs and Russian patriarchy (“Don’t sit in your own sleigh,” “Poverty is not a vice,” and others). Such sentiments reduce the criticality of Ostrovsky's works.

Nevertheless, Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy becomes the beginning of a “new world” in all theatrical art. Simple everyday life with “living” characters and colloquial language comes onto the stage. Most actors accept Ostrovsky's new plays with delight; they feel their novelty and vitality. Since 1853, almost every season, new plays by Ostrovsky have appeared at the Moscow Maly Theater and the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg for 30 years.

In 1855-1860, the playwright became close to the revolutionary democrats. He moves to the Sovremennik magazine. The main “event” of Ostrovsky’s plays of this period is the drama of a common man opposing the “powers of this world.” At this time he writes: “There is a hangover at someone else’s feast”, “A profitable place”, “Thunderstorm” (1860).

In 1856, on the orders of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, the best Russian writers were sent on a business trip around the country with the task of describing industrial production and life in various regions of Russia. Ostrovsky travels by steamship from the upper reaches of the Volga to Nizhny Novgorod and makes a lot of notes. They become real encyclopedic notes on the culture and economy of the region. At the same time, Ostrovsky remains an artist of words - he transfers many descriptions of nature and everyday life into his works.

In 1859, the first collected works of Ostrovsky were published in 2 volumes.

Appeal to history

House-museum: A.N. Ostrovsky.

In the 60s, Alexander Nikolaevich turned a special interest to history and struck up an acquaintance with the famous historian Kostomarov. At this time, he wrote the psychological drama “Vasilisa Melentyeva”, the historical chronicles “Tushino”, “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” and others.

He did not stop creating everyday comedies and dramas (“Hard Days” - 1863, “The Deep” - 1865, etc.), as well as satirical plays about the life of the nobility (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man” - 1868, “Mad Money” - 1869 , “Wolves and Sheep”, etc.).

In 1863, Ostrovsky was awarded the Uvarov Prize, awarded for historical works, and was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

The next year pleases him with the birth of his first son, Alexander. In total, Ostrovsky will become the father of six children.

From 1865-1866 (the exact date is not determined), Alexander Nikolaevich created an Artistic Circle in Moscow, from which many talented theater workers would subsequently emerge. In 1870 (according to other sources - in 1874) the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers was organized in Russia, the leader of which the playwright would remain until the end of his life. During this period, the entire flower of Russian cultural society stayed in Ostrovsky’s house. I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, P.M. Sadovsky, M.N. Ermolova, L.N. Tolstoy and many other outstanding personalities of our time will become his sincere friends and acquaintances.

In 1873, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky and the young composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in a few months wrote the opera “The Snow Maiden”, amazing in its style and sound, based on folk tales and customs. Both the playwright and the composer will be proud of their creation all their lives.

With the theater - until the end

In the last years of his life, Ostrovsky often turns to women's destinies in his works. He writes comedies, but more - deep socio-psychological dramas about the fate of spiritually gifted women in the world of practicality and self-interest. “Dowryless”, “The Last Victim”, “Talents and Admirers” and other plays are published.

In 1881, a special commission was organized under the directorate of imperial theaters to create new legislative acts for the operation of theaters throughout the country. Ostrovsky takes an active part in the work of the commission: he writes many “notes”, “considerations” and “projects” on the topic of organizing work in theaters. Thanks to him, many changes are being adopted that significantly improve the pay of actors.

Since 1883, Ostrovsky received from Emperor Alexander III the right to an annual pension in the amount of three thousand rubles. In the same year, Alexander Nikolaevich’s last literary masterpiece was published - the play “Guilty Without Guilt” - a classic melodrama that amazes with the strength of the characters of its characters and an impressive plot. This was a new surge of great dramatic talent under the influence of a memorable trip to the Caucasus.

After 2 years, Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertory department of Moscow theaters and head of the theater school. The playwright is trying to form a new school of realistic acting in the country, highlighting the most talented actors.

Ostrovsky works with theatrical figures, he has many ideas and plans in his head, he is busy translating foreign (including ancient) dramatic literature. But his health is failing him more and more often. The body is exhausted.

On June 2 (14), 1886, in the Shchelykovo estate, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky dies of angina pectoris.

He was buried in the church cemetery near the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province.

The funeral was carried out with funds provided by Alexander III. The widow and children were given a pension.

Interesting facts about Ostrovsky:

Since childhood, the playwright knew Greek, French and German. Later he learned English, Italian and Spanish.

The play “The Thunderstorm” was not immediately cleared by the censors. But the empress liked it, and the censor made concessions to the author.

Biography and episodes of life Alexander Ostrovsky. When born and died Alexander Ostrovsky, memorable places and dates of important events of his life. Quotes from a writer and playwright, Photo and video.

Years of life of Alexander Ostrovsky:

born March 31, 1823, died June 2, 1886

Epitaph

“No, not the skeleton of an obelisk stone
And not the crypt and the cold of the grave,
As alive, as dear, close,
These days we honor him."
From a poem by Viktor Volkov in memory of Ostrovsky

Biography

He was supposed to become a lawyer, but he always really dreamed only of the theater. During his life, Ostrovsky wrote about fifty plays, which are still being filmed and staged in theaters in Russia and around the world. He left behind not just a literary legacy, but also created an entire school of acting.

Ostrovsky's biography began in Moscow, where he was born into an educated and wealthy family. As a young man, he received a good education, graduated from a theological seminary, then a theological academy, a Moscow gymnasium and a university. Ostrovsky's profession as a lawyer did not attract him at all - rather, he simply acted in accordance with the will of his father, whom he did not want to upset. After all, the future writer lost his mother as a child. But Ostrovsky’s curious and observant nature, even in the legal profession, helped him find positive aspects. While working in court, he collected rich material for his work and finally thought about his first comedy. He wrote his debut play in collaboration with actor Dmitry Gorev, and three years later he published his first big work, “Our People - Let’s Be Numbered!” Although the comedy was a great success, it caused indignation among the merchants; they even sent a complaint to the emperor, after which Ostrovsky was fired, arrested, but soon released. And yet, the reputation of “unreliable” was already assigned to Ostrovsky, which often created problems for him.

In 1849, Ostrovsky became involved with the bourgeois Agafya - such a relationship could not be blessed by his father, and the writer lost his financial support. He devoted himself entirely to drama, and soon his plays began to appear every season on the stages of the Maly Theater in Moscow and the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Ostrovsky created an Artistic Circle in Moscow, from which came a whole galaxy of talented theater actors. When Ostrovsky took over as head of the repertoire department, he was very happy about this position, as it allowed him to promote the best and most talented artists. By that time, he was already married a second time - his first wife, with whom he cohabited, died after twenty years of their rather happy and warm family life.

Until the last days of his life, Ostrovsky was full of plans and creative ideas, but the playwright’s health was increasingly failing him. The cause of Ostrovsky's death was angina pectoris. Ostrovsky's funeral took place in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, not far from his family estate Shchelykovo, where the writer died. Ostrovsky's grave is located in the cemetery of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Life line

March 31, 1823 Date of birth of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky.
1840 Graduation from high school, admission to the law department of Moscow University.
1849 The beginning of cohabitation with Agafya Ivanovna (her last name is unknown).
1850 Joining the circle of writers of the Moskvityanin magazine, publication of the play “Our People - Let's Be Numbered!”
1860 Publication of the play "The Thunderstorm".
1862 Trip around Europe.
1863 Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy.
1865 Creation of the Artistic Circle by Ostrovsky.
1867 Death of Agafya.
1869 Marriage to Maria Bakhmetyeva.
1870 Creation of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers.
1886 Head of the repertoire department of Moscow theaters.
June 2, 1886 Date of death of Ostrovsky.
June 5, 1886 Ostrovsky's funeral.

Memorable places

1. Dolgorukov’s mansion, the building of the former 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from which Ostrovsky graduated.
2. Moscow University, from which Ostrovsky graduated.
3. St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, of which Ostrovsky was chosen as a corresponding member.
4. Monument to Ostrovsky in front of the Maly Theater in Moscow.
5. Ostrovsky House Museum in Zamoskovorechye, opened in Ostrovsky’s house, where the writer was born.
6. Ostrovsky Museum-Reserve “Schelykovo”, Ostrovsky’s estate, where he died.
7. Cemetery of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, where Ostrovsky is buried.

Episodes of life

Ostrovsky often drew his stories from real life. So, the playwright attended the funeral of Nikolai Gogol. After he had walked for some time, the writer got into a sleigh with actress Lyubov Nikulina and began a sincere conversation with her. The actress opened up and began to share her childhood memories with Ostrovsky. Ostrovsky listened carefully to Nikulina, and then put her words into the mouth of Katerina, the heroine of his “Thunderstorm”. Nikulina became the first performer of the role of Katerina. According to rumors, Ostrovsky and Nikulina were connected by love feelings, but since both had families, the relationship was not allowed to work out.

Ostrovsky lived for many years with a simple girl, Agafya, without ever officially marrying her. Agafya became a close friend and ally for Ostrovsky. She was well acquainted with merchant life, performed Russian folk songs beautifully, and understood the customs and morals of the Russian people, which is why she is credited with a large share in Ostrovsky’s works. The writer’s friends also retained only warm memories of his first wife.

Despite the success of Ostrovsky’s plays, the writer needed money until the end of his life and worked very hard, which is why he often received accusations that he had “written himself out” or was working solely for money, which, of course, was not true. Ostrovsky achieved material wealth only at the end of his life, when he began to receive a pension and took the position of head of repertoires at Moscow theaters. But by this time his health was already severely depleted.

Covenant

“Know how to live even when life becomes unbearable. Make it useful."

Documentary story “Ostrovsky - the most modern playwright”

Condolences

“It is unnecessary to talk about Ostrovsky’s merits in the history of Russian dramatic art. They have long been recognized by everyone. But he also has another merit to Russian history in general: to the scientist-researcher of our past everyday life, he gave in his dramas and comedies precious and meaningful material to illuminate one of the aspects of an entire period of this particular life.”
Anatoly Koni, lawyer, writer

“Everything in the world is subject to change - from people’s thoughts to the cut of a dress; Only truth does not die, and no matter what new directions, new moods, new forms appear in literature, they will not kill Ostrovsky’s creations, and “the people’s path will not grow overgrown” to this picturesque source of truth.”
Mikhail Provich Sadovsky, actor