immobility and blindness, in 1930, he began work on his first novel, How the Steel Was Tempered, which became renowned and influential in the Communist world. He also wrote articles for newspapers and journals and spoke often on the radio. In April 1932 he became a member of the Moscow branch of the Association of Proletarian Writers and in June 1934 he joined the Union of Soviet Writers. On 1 October 1935, he was awarded the Order of Lenin. After living for years with paralysis, illness and blindness due to congenital ankylosing spondylitis as well as complications from typhus, Ostrovsky died on 22 December 1936, aged 32. Because of his early death, he was unable to complete his second novel, Born of the Storm, on the Russian Civil War in Ukraine. Legacy His novel How the Steel Was Tempered is considered one of the most influential works of Communist literature. In Moscow during the Communist period the Ostrovsky Museum and the Ostrovsky Humanitarian centre were built. They preserve his study and bedroom, while other exhibits include showcases of the achievements of disabled people like Nikolai Fenomenov and Ludmilla Rogova. There also was established by the Central Committee of Komsomol of Ukraine the Ostrovsky Republican Prize. The 2015 Ukrainian decommunization laws ban the use of Ostrovsky's name for the naming of public places. Hence Kyiv's Ostrovsky Park was renamed Mykola Zerov Park in 2020. A monument to Ostrovsky in Shepetivka was dismantled in December 2022 after the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy had removed it from its list of "monumental art of local significance". Quotations References Sources Елена Толстая-Сегал, К литературному фону книги : 'Как закалялась сталь', Cahiers du Monde Russe Année 1981 22-4 pp. 375–399 Лев Аннинский, Обрученные с идеей (О повести 'Как закалялась сталь' Николая Островского) Раиса Островская, Николай Островский, серия ЖЗЛ, Молодая гвардия, 1984 Евгений Бузни, Литературное досье Николая Островского Тамара Андронова, Слишком мало осталось жить... Николай Островский. Биография. – М.: Государственный музей – Гуманитарный центр «Преодоление» имени Н.А. Островского, 2014. Entry in the Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers Jurij Mycyk. Did the Author of Pavka Korchagin Take Part in the Civil War? Bohdan Dem′janchuk. How Ostrovsky Was Tempered Petro Kraljuk. The “Steel” Man from Shepetivka Svitlana Kabachynsjka. Life Free from Shame The Nikolay Ostrovsky state museum - humanitarian center "Overcoming" at Google Cultural Institute External links 1904 births 1936 deaths People from Rivne Oblast People from Ostrozhsky