Biography - Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolaevich. The last days and funeral of A. N. Ostrovsky In what direction did Ostrovsky work?

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 cases).

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

In 1847, Ostrovsky published the first draft in the newspaper "Moscow City Leaflet" future comedy“We will count our own people” under the title “Insolvent Debtor”, then the comedy “Picture of Family Happiness” (later “Family Picture”) and the prose essay “Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident”.

Ostrovsky received recognition from the comedy "Our People - Let's 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". Censorship, which 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 plays " Plum" and "Holiday sleep before lunch", in 1858 - "Didn't get along in character", in 1859 - "Nurse" and "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

1823 , March 31 (April 12) - was born in Moscow on Malaya Ordynka in the family of Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, a lawyer involved in property and commercial matters, a collegiate assessor, who received the nobility in 1839.

1835–1840 - studied at the Moscow provincial gymnasium, graduated ninth out of eleven students in his group.

1840 – enrolled as a student at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. At the insistence of his father, he enters the unloved Faculty of Law instead of the desired Faculty of History and Philology.

1843 - became an official of the Moscow Conscientious Court.

1845 - goes to serve in the Moscow Commercial Court. By rewriting and examining first civil cases in the Conscientious Court, and then financial cases in the Commercial Court, the copyist official did not so much advance in his career as collect material.

1847 - Ostrovsky's first works are published in the "Moscow City List" - "Notes of a Zamoskvoretsky Resident", excerpts from the comedy "The Insolvent Debtor" and the one-act comedy "The Picture of Family Happiness".

1848 – first trip to my father’s estate Shchelykovo (Kostroma province). Since 1868, Ostrovsky has spent every summer here.

1849 - the first big comedy - "Bankrupt" ("Our people - we will be numbered") is finished. In the process of work, “Insolvent Debtor” turned into “Bankrupt”. This four-act play was no longer perceived as the first step of a budding talent, but as a new word in Russian drama. [ ]

1849–1850 , winter - Ostrovsky and P. Sadovsky read the play "Bankrupt" in Moscow literary circles. The play with its accusatory power and artistic skill makes a huge impression on listeners, especially democratic youth.

1851 , January 10 - Ostrovsky was dismissed due to police surveillance established over him. (In 1850, the secret department of the office of the Moscow governor-general began the “Case of the writer Ostrovsky” in connection with the ban on his comedy “Our People – We Will Be Numbered.”)

1853 – the comedy “Don’t Sit in Your Own Sleigh” was completed and staged for the first time on the stage of the Maly Theater, at Nikulina-Kositskaya’s benefit performance. The performance was a great success. This was Ostrovsky's first play performed on the theater stage. Beginning of February - Ostrovsky is in St. Petersburg, directing the production of the comedy “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh” at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
November - in an amateur performance, in Moscow, in the house of S. A. Panova, Ostrovsky played the role of Malomalsky in the comedy “Don’t Get in Your Own Sleigh.” Ostrovsky finished the comedy "Poverty is not a vice."
Late December - Ostrovsky is in St. Petersburg, observing the rehearsals of the play "Poverty is not a vice" at the Alexandrinsky Theater.

1854 , January - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky is present at a dinner with N. A. Nekrasov. Meets with I. S. Turgenev.
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Poverty is not a vice" took place at the Maly Theater. The performance was a huge success.
September 9 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Poverty is not a vice” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during a benefit performance by director Yablochkin. The performance was a great success.

1856 , January 18 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “At Someone Else’s Feast is a Hangover” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Vladimirova’s benefit performance.
April–August – trip along the upper reaches of the Volga. The comedy "Profitable Place" was written.

1858 , October 17 - censorship allowed the printing of Ostrovsky's Collected Works in two volumes, published by gr. G. A. Kusheleva-Bezborodko (at title page The publication date is 1859).
December 7 - Scenes from village life are completed - the play "The Kindergarten".

1859 , March 10 - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg gave a speech at a dinner in honor of the great Russian artist A. E. Martynov; he met here with N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov.
"Getsira" by Terence has been translated. The drama "The Thunderstorm" has been written.
December 2 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Linskaya’s benefit performance.

1860 , January - Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm" is published in No. 1 of the "Library for Reading".
February 23 – in St. Petersburg, at a literary evening in favor of the Literary Fund, Ostrovsky reads an excerpt from the comedy “Our People – We Will Be Numbered.”
October - No. 10 of the Sovremennik magazine published an article by N. -bov (N. A. Dobrolyubov) “A Ray of Light in the Dark Kingdom.”

1861 , January - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg directs the production of the comedy “Our People - We Will Be Numbered” at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
January 16 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Linskaya’s benefit performance.
December – work on the dramatic chronicle “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” was completed.

1862 , January 9 - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg read his drama “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk” with the chairman of the Literary Fund E.P. Kovalevsky.
February - Ostrovsky refused to put his signature on the protest of a group of St. Petersburg reactionary and liberal writers against the democratic journal V. Kurochkin "Iskra", which sharply criticized Pisemsky's reactionary articles in the "Library for Reading".
End of March - before leaving abroad, Ostrovsky met with N. G. Chernyshevsky in St. Petersburg.

1863 , January 1 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “What you go for, that’s what you will find” (“The Marriage of Balzaminov”) took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
January – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s drama “Sin and Misfortune Lives on No One” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
September 27 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Profitable Place” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during a benefit performance for Levkeeva.
November 22 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s play “The Pupil” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Zhuleva’s benefit performance.

1864 , April 15 – allowed by censorship No. 3 (March) magazine " Russian word", in which an article by D. I. Pisarev about the work of Ostrovsky "Motives of Russian Drama" was published.

1865 , end of February - beginning of March - Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg is asking for permission to establish a Moscow artistic circle.
April 23 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “The Voevoda” took place at the Mariinsky Theater, in the presence of the author.
September 25 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “On a Lively Place” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during a benefit performance for Levkeeva.

1866 , May 6 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s drama “The Abyss” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Vasiliev’s benefit performance on the 1st.

1867 , January 16 – the libretto of V. Kashperov’s opera “The Thunderstorm”, written by Ostrovsky, was censored.
On March 25, Ostrovsky in St. Petersburg in the Benardaki Hall gives a public reading in favor of the Literary Fund of the drama “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky.”
July 4 – Ostrovsky visited N.A. Nekrasov in Karabikha.
October 30 – the first performance of V. Kashperov’s opera “The Thunderstorm” took place simultaneously at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and in Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Ostrovsky and his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich bought from their stepmother, Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya, an estate in Shchelykovo, where the playwright subsequently spent the summer months.

1868 , November 1 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.
November - in No. 11 of the magazine "Domestic Notes", published from the beginning of 1868 under the editorship of N. A. Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky's comedy "Simplicity is enough for every wise man" was published. From that time on, Ostrovsky collaborated with Otechestvennye zapiski constantly, until the closure of the journal by the tsarist government in 1884.

1869 , January 29 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Warm Heart” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater at Linskaya’s benefit performance.
February 12 - Ostrovsky enters into a church marriage with artist M.V. Vasilyeva (Bakhmetyeva). (From this marriage Ostrovsky had four sons and two daughters.)

1870 , February - Ostrovsky's comedy "Mad Money" was published in issue No. 2 of "Domestic Notes".
April 16 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Mad Money” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.

1871 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "The Forest" is published in No. 1 of "Notes of the Fatherland".
January 25 – Ostrovsky gives a public reading in favor of the Literary Fund of the comedy “Forest” in the hall of the St. Petersburg Collection of Artists.
September – Ostrovsky’s comedy “It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat” is published in issue No. 9 of Otechestvennye Zapiski.
November 1 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “The Forest” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.
December 3 - in St. Petersburg, at a dinner with N. A. Nekrasov, Ostrovsky read the comedy “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was altyn.”

1872 , January - Ostrovsky’s comedy “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was altyn” was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski.”
January 13 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “It’s not all about Maslenitsa” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
February 17 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s drama “Dmitry the Pretender and Vasily Shuisky” took place at the Mariinsky Theater during Zhuleva’s benefit performance; Ostrovsky, who was present at the performance, was presented with a gilded wreath and address from the troupe.
March 27 - Moscow merchants, admirers of the playwright's talent, honor Ostrovsky with dinner and present him with a silver vase with images of Pushkin and Gogol.
September 20 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “There wasn’t a penny, but suddenly it was altyn” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Malyshev’s benefit performance.

1873 , end of March - April - Ostrovsky finished the play "The Snow Maiden".
September - Ostrovsky's play "The Snow Maiden" is published in issue No. 9 of the magazine "Bulletin of Europe".
December 21 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky entered into an agreement with N. A. Nekrasov and A. A Kraevsky for the publication of a collection of his works.

1874 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "Late Love" was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine "Domestic Notes".
October 21 – The founding meeting of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers took place in Moscow, organized on Ostrovsky’s initiative. The playwright was unanimously elected chairman of the Society.
The collected works of Ostrovsky are published in eight volumes, published by Nekrasov and Kraevsky.

1875 , November - Ostrovsky's comedy "Wolves and Sheep" was published in issue No. 11 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski".
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Rich Brides" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Levkeeva's benefit performance.
December 8 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Wolves and Sheep” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.

1876 , November 22 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Truth is good, but happiness is better” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.

1877 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "Truth is good, but happiness is better" was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski".
December 2 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “The Last Victim” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.

1878 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "The Last Victim" was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski".
October 17 – Ostrovsky finished the drama “Dowry”.
November 22 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s drama “Dowry” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Burdin’s benefit performance.
December – Volume IX of Ostrovsky’s works, published by Salaev, was published.

1879 , January - Ostrovsky's play "Dowry" was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski".

1880 , February - N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov began the opera "The Snow Maiden", independently compiling a libretto based on the text of Ostrovsky's play of the same name.
April 24 - Ostrovsky visited I. S. Turgenev, who came to Moscow in connection with the preparation of the Pushkin celebrations.
June 7 - during a lunch hosted by the Moscow Society of Amateurs Russian literature At the Noble Assembly for writers participating in Pushkin’s celebrations, Ostrovsky delivered a “Table talk about Pushkin.”
August 12 – N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov finished the opera “The Snow Maiden”.

1881 , April - Ostrovsky directs the production of the comedy "Our People - Let's Be Numbered" in the first private theater in Moscow - the Pushkin Theater by A. Brenko.
November 1 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky participated in a meeting of the commission to revise the Regulations on Theaters and presented to the commission a “Note on the situation of dramatic art in Russia at the present time.” Ostrovsky took part in the work of this commission for several months, but “the commission was in reality a deception of hopes and expectations,” as Ostrovsky later wrote about it.
December 6 – Ostrovsky finished the comedy “Talents and Admirers”.

1882 , January - Ostrovsky's comedy "Talents and Admirers" was published in issue No. 1 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski".
The first performance of Ostrovsky's comedy "Talents and Admirers" took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Strelskaya's benefit performance.
The first performance of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Snow Maiden" took place at the Mariinsky Theater.
February 12 - I. A. Goncharov in his letter congratulated Ostrovsky on his 35th anniversary literary activity and highly appreciated the playwright’s work.
April 19 – Alexander III allowed Ostrovsky to establish a private theater in Moscow.

1883 , April 28 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s comedy “Slave Girls” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater with the participation of M. N. Ermolova in the role of Eulalia.
Summer - Ostrovsky began work on the play “Guilty Without Guilt.”
December 17 – in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky visited M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

1884 , January 20 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s play “Guilty Without Guilt” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater.
In issue No. 1 of the magazine "Otechestvennye zapiski" Ostrovsky's drama "Guilty Without Guilt" was published.
March 5 – Ostrovsky was accepted Alexander III in the Gatchina Palace in connection with the award of a lifelong pension in the amount of three thousand rubles (instead of the requested six thousand).
April 20 - The government closed the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, in which Ostrovsky had published 21 plays since 1868, including two written in collaboration with other authors and one translated.
August 28 – Ostrovsky finished his “Autobiographical Note”, in which he summed up his many years of literary and theatrical activity.
November 19 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky signed an agreement with the publisher Martynov to publish a collection of his works.

1885 , January 9 – the first performance of Ostrovsky’s play “Not of This World” took place at the Alexandrinsky Theater during Strepetova’s benefit performance.
Volts were published from January to May. I–VIII Collected Works of Ostrovsky in the edition of N. G. Martynov.
December 4 - in St. Petersburg, Ostrovsky sold N. G. Martynov the right to the second edition of his dramatic translations.

1886 , January 1 - Ostrovsky took up the post of head of the repertory department of the Moscow Imperial Theaters.
April 19 – The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature elected Ostrovsky as an honorary member.
May 23 - L.N. Tolstoy addressed Ostrovsky with a letter in which he asked to allow the publishing house "Posrednik" to reprint some of Ostrovsky's plays in a cheap edition. In this letter, L.N. Tolstoy calls Ostrovsky “undoubtedly a writer of the entire people in the broadest sense.”
On June 2, at 10 a.m., the great Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky died in his workroom in Shchelykovo from a severe attack of angina pectoris (angina pectoris).

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886) - a famous writer and playwright in Russia. One of the founders modern theater, best known for the plays “Dowry” and “The Thunderstorm”, which are still very popular.

On March 31, 1823, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was born on Malaya Ordynka in the city of Moscow. Alexander's father, Nikolai Fedorovich, studied at the Kostroma Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy. Nikolai Fedorovich was an employee of judicial institutions, rose to the rank of titular councilor, and in 1839 received the nobility.

Mother - Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina died when Alexander was 7 years old. 5 years after the death of his wife, Nikolai Fedorovich proposed marriage to Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tessin, who surrounded the children with care and attention. There were four children in the Ostrovsky family, and getting an education came first. Alexander spent his entire childhood in Zamoskvorechye. Thanks to his enthusiastic reading in the family library, the boy firmly decides to become a writer.

Youth: Education and early career

Ostrovsky was educated at home. His father insists on entering the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, and in 1835 Alexander enters.

In 1840 he became a student at the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, from which he was never able to graduate due to a conflict with his teacher. After studying for 3 years, Alexander writes a letter of resignation. Insisting on the profession of a lawyer, the father enrolls his son to serve as a scribe in court, where Ostrovsky worked until 1851.

Creation

Comedy "Our people - let's be numbered!" Alexander’s first work was written in 1846 and was originally titled “The Insolvent Debtor.” The comedy was published in 1850 and brought Ostrovsky literary fame. Such great classics as N.V. spoke positively about the work. Gogol and I.A. Goncharov. However, the play was banned by Nicholas 1, the writer was fired from service and placed under supervision. Only 11 years later the play began to be staged in theaters again.

Creative path of A.N. Ostrovsky continues only after Alexander 2 came to power. In 1856 A.N. Ostrovsky begins to collaborate with the Sovremennik publication. After 3 years, the writer publishes his first collection of works.

In 1865, the play “The Thunderstorm” was written, which is reviewed by many famous critics, including Dobrolyubov.

Theater is an integral part in Ostrovsky's life. In 1886 he created the Artistic Circle, and at the same time Alexander took an active part in the development of Russian national theater. I.A. Goncharov wrote to A.N. Ostrovsky: “You brought a whole library as a gift to literature.” works of art, they created their own special world for the stage. You alone completed the building, at the foundation of which Fonvizin, Griboedov, and Gogol laid the cornerstones. But only after you, we Russians can proudly say: “We have our own Russian, national theater.”

Personal life

The playwright's first love, actress Lyubov Kositskaya, reciprocates Ostrovsky's feelings, however, due to circumstances, the young people are unable to start a family.

For 20 years, the writer has been living in a civil marriage with Agafya Ivanovna. Alexander's father was against this marriage and deprived his young family material support. Despite the fact that Agafya was a poorly educated girl, she read all the works and understood Ostrovsky perfectly. All the children from this marriage died in infancy, and later Agafya Ivanovna herself died.

However, Ostrovsky still managed to have children: four heirs and two daughters from actress Maria Bakhmetyeva. They got married 2 years after Agafya's death.

Ostrovsky spoke eight languages, including Russian.
Due to problems with censorship, the writer was constantly refused to be published.
When writing new play the playwright died of a seizure.
Alexander Nikolaevich often caused ridicule with his extravagant outfits.
I was seriously interested in fishing.

Recent years

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky died on June 2, 1886 at the age of 63 in the Shchelykovo estate. The cause of death is considered to be angina.

The writer's health was severely undermined by exhausting work, however, despite this, he was haunted by financial difficulties all his life. 3000 was allocated for burial, and a pension was paid to the children and widow.

A.N. Ostrovsky was buried in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki, Kostroma province, next to his father.

Role and place in literature

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky - an original Russian writer and playwright XIX century. He is considered the father of modern theater in Russia. Ostrovsky was a member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. He also received the Uvarov Prize.

Origin and first years of life

Alexander Ostrovsky was born in 1823 in Russian Empire(Moscow). Childhood years were spent in merchant society.

Father - Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, the son of a priest, a graduate of the Kostroma Seminary. He worked as a lawyer and provided for his family. Managed to achieve high rank and receive nobility.

Mother - Lyubov Ivanovna Ostrovskaya (nee Savvina), daughter of a sexton. She passed away when the future writer was only 8 years old.

Nikolai Fedorovich worked hard and thanks to his efforts the family lived well. He married a second time to Baroness Emilie von Tessin, who was the daughter of a Swedish aristocrat. The stepmother turned out to be caring and Nikolai Fedorovich’s children accepted her.

The writer's childhood mainly took place in the center of Zamoskvorechye.

Education

Ostrovsky received his first education at home. His father owned a huge library, to which young Alexander had access. At the behest of his father, in 1835 future writer goes to study at the gymnasium, and then enters Moscow University to become a lawyer. But he never finishes his studies, because he finds his real calling - theater. As a compromise, Ostrovsky agreed to work as a clerk in court. He was engaged in this business until 1851.

Creation

Ostrovsky felt a penchant for literary activity early, even when he was just mastering his father’s library in childhood.

The writer began his creative career with the publication of a short play “Painting family life", which was enthusiastically received. According to Professor Shevyrev, young Ostrovsky is a luminary of Russian drama. His talent was also appreciated by other figures, such as Gogol and Goncharov.

The main task that the playwright set for himself was true picture people in their writings.

Since 1856, Ostrovsky has been listed as the editor of the popular Sovremennik magazine.

In 1863, the playwright received the Uvarov Prize.

Important works

“Our people – we’ll be numbered!” - the work from which the writer’s fame began. It was created in 1849.

The author’s main achievements are his works: “The Thunderstorm”, “The Dowry” and “The Snow Maiden”. The play “Dowry” is a multifaceted drama in which the writer unusually describes the characters and accurately conveys the feelings of the main characters. "Thunderstorm" is realistic play, built on the conflict between the old order and the new life. In 1873, the touching play “The Snow Maiden” was published. It is based on a Russian folk tale, but the writer's talent made the play original.

Recent years

IN lately Alexander Ostrovsky lived in poverty, and his illnesses worsened. But the writer continued to work hard, which exhausted his body. The playwright dreamed that the theater school would be revived. The writer died on June 14, 1886.

Chronological table

Year(s)	Event
1823	Alexander Ostrovsky was born
1835	Beginning of studies at the Moscow Gymnasium
1840	Admission to Moscow University
1847	Presentation by the author of his play “Picture of Family Life”
1850	Publication of the play “Our People – Let’s Be Numbered!”
1853	The appearance of the play “Poverty is not a vice”
1860	Publication of the play “The Thunderstorm”
1873	Release of the play “The Snow Maiden”
1879	The appearance of the play "Dowry"
1886	Alexander Ostrovsky passed away

Ostrovsky was a polyglot: he knew many European languages.
The writer's literary activity lasted about 40 years.
Alexander Ostrovsky is the father of modern theatrical art.
The writer treated his works with love and was very offended by criticism.

Alexander Ostrovsky Museum

House-Museum of A.N. Ostrovsky opened in 1984 in Zamoskvorechye, in the house where the playwright spent his childhood.

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 surrounding life. 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. Alexander Nikolaevich by this time, having entered at the insistence of his father and studied for three years at Faculty of Law 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 treated literary works son was skeptical 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 V.I. 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: “Everything characters plays... 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 maternal in nature and were necessary young man, who lost his mother early, 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 was she 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. However dangerous it may be to address such elusive issues in a positive manner, with full probability fall into gross mistakes, nevertheless, the influence on Alexander Nikolaevich of this beautiful and outstanding personality- a typical representative of an ideal 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 first and for a long time upstairs. The struggle 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: with a lovely voice she sang excellent Russian songs, 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 farewell letter 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 mental anguish she endured it with dignity and did not lose either his respect or his tender attitude towards herself. 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. Moreover, she believed that she, " simple woman"He's not a match."

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 was revealed in all her spontaneity only to Ostrovsky’s closest friends” (Ibid. p. 465). However, it is difficult to agree with this.

Revyakin cites entries in the confessional 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 his 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 75 years old and was buried by the same people as Agafya Ivanovna, and was also buried at 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 burghers 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 burgher Pavel Ivanov, 32 years old on her 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” - inscriptions on tombstones all Moscow cemeteries - it no longer existed.

Peace to the soul of Agafya Ivanovna! 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