Nikolai Ostrovsky, "How the Steel was Tempered", 1935
Book, 17.5 x 13 x 2.5 cm.
scan: © M HKA, Published by Molodaya Gvardiya
Collection: Collection MHKA, Antwerp.
How the Steel Was Tempered, or The Making of a Hero is a Socialist Realist novel written by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). The central character of the novel, Pavel Korchagin, represents the quintessential hero of Socialist Realism as the defender of the Soviet state in the fight against interventionists during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). The novel was published at a turning point of ideological consolidation in the USSR, and as a consequence, the text of the novel underwent significant changes and was repeatedly re-edited to fulfil Socialist Realist requirements. Thus, those parts of the initial manuscript that included any ambiguous aspects of Soviet politics, discussions with Trotskyists, or descriptions of the complex personal emotional experiences and suffering of the protagonist (which were in fact partly autobiographical) disappeared in later editions of the novel.
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