The Ostrovsky Museum in Sochi is located in the house where the writer lived his last years. Even during the life of Nikolai Alekseevich, the street on which he lived was named after the hero of his work - Pavel Korchagin. Today, there is a literary and memorial complex here, where visitors will learn a lot of interesting things about the work of various writers, connected in one way or another with the Black Sea city.
Ostrovsky in Sochi
For the first time, Nikolai Ostrovsky was in Sochi in 1928. The seriously ill, almost blind writer felt so much better in this city that he came to the decision to settle here. This opinion was shared by his relatives, who hoped to alleviate his suffering with the help of a sanatorium treatment.
For eight years, the family moved from one rented apartment to another, trying to create the most comfortable conditions for the actively working writer. The first chapters of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered" began to be published in 1932 in the magazine "Youngguard." The manuscript was completed in 1934.
Gift from the government to N. Ostrovsky
The work gained immense popularity, becoming the most published novel in the Soviet period. The name of its author, the prototype of Pavka Korchagin, became known to every Soviet person.
In 1935, at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, it was decided to build a house in Sochi for the writer Ostrovsky. Architect Y. Kravchuk developed the project, and the writer's mother chose the place for construction.
House on Pavel Korchagin Street
Nikolai Alekseevich wrote to friends about his new housing, that everything was done in such a way that he could work calmly and fruitfully: “I feel the caring hand of my Motherland.”
And it was true. The architect created a modest, small house, reminiscent of a dacha. But at the same time, all the features of the life and work of the writer were taken into account. The building, which later became the Nikolai Ostrovsky Museum in Sochi, was divided into two halves. One part was intended for the family, the writer's mother and sister lived there. In the same half were the dining room, kitchen and hallway. The second part of the house is the writing area. It had a separate entrance and hallway, an office, a secretarial room, a large open veranda and a room for the writer's wife on the second floor.
Atmosphere of the Ostrovsky Museum in Sochi
The special value of this museum is that it was created less than a year after the death of Nikolai Alekseevich. The family provided the employees with interior items, things, books, documents,photographic materials - everything that would help to recreate the conditions in which the writer lived and worked. His friends also donated letters and photographs related to Ostrovsky's name to the museum. The joint efforts of museum workers and people close to the writer managed to preserve the atmosphere of this cozy home.
Visitors of the house-museum report this with gratitude, leaving warm words addressed to the creators of an interesting exposition in the guest book. Within these walls, meetings are held with people who are well acquainted with the details of the writer's biography, celebrate significant dates, and discuss literary works.
Residential half of the house-museum of Ostrovsky in Sochi
The room of Olga Osipovna, Ostrovsky's mother, is still ascetic and modest. There were always many pictures of her children here.
The room of the writer's sister, Ekaterina Alekseevna, looks like an office. The main subject here is a desk, she was responsible for the extensive correspondence of Nikolai Alekseevich, she also became the first director of the opened Ostrovsky Museum in Sochi.
Half of a writer
The rooms in which N. Ostrovsky spent a lot of time were upholstered with dark wood panels to create twilight in the rooms. The bright light made his eyes hurt. The archives were kept in the secretarial room. And the writer spent most of his time in his office. Here he worked, slept and ate. From 1936, he began to write a new novel, Born of the Storm.
The architect provided a comfortable veranda where the writer rested in the hot summer of 1936. He wrote to hisfriends about spending a lot of time outdoors, unable to breathe, catching a warm, gentle breeze from the sea.
Nikolai Ostrovsky
The Ostrovsky Literary and Memorial Museum in Sochi is dedicated to a man who, during his lifetime, became a hero in the eyes of millions of Soviet people. The image of Pavka Korchagin is so closely intertwined with the writer that it is sometimes difficult to understand where the documentary presentation of events ends and fiction begins. Having lost the ability to move, and later his sight, Nikolai Alekseevich did not allow fate to break him. He found strength and will, overcoming physical suffering, to become a writer, to work until his last days.
He was born in 1904 in Ukraine, where he spent his childhood and youth. The October Revolution fell on his teenage years, but from the first days Nikolai took an active part in it. He fought for Soviet power against the counter-revolution, took part in the Civil War. After being seriously wounded, he suffered pneumonia and typhus, which finally undermined his he alth. At the age of 19, the medical commission recognized him as a disabled person of the first group and made a decision: disabled.
And he continued his active life. He worked in the border regions of Ukraine, headed the Komsomol cell. Then there were hospitals and sanatoriums, until in 1928 he arrived in Sochi for the first time by ship from Novorossiysk. They took him to the pier on a stretcher, the writer could not walk.
The main novel of life
Ostrovsky's mother comes to Sochi. Writerthey do an operation in Moscow, but it does not help. Blindness is added to the disease of the joints, a consequence of shell shock in the war. Now communication with the world remains only through friends and radio headphones.
Having come up with a special stencil for himself that allows him to maintain even lines, Ostrovsky begins to write the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”, describing his feelings, experiences, dreams and actions. At this time, he and his family are forced to move from apartment to apartment, looking for more comfortable conditions for a sick body.
In 1934, work on the novel was completed, the story went to press. Ostrovsky lived at that time on Orekhovaya Street, where thousands of letters began to arrive from enthusiastic readers with thanks and wishes of he alth. All this time, friends, coming to Sochi, visited the writer, maintaining constant contact with him.
Readers fell in love with the novel and its protagonist long before the author was awarded the highest award - the Order of Lenin. This day has become a holiday for all admirers of Ostrovsky's work.
The writer started writing a new work. In October 1936, he leaves for Moscow, where he gets worse. On December 22, the writer died. Already on May 1, 1937, the N. Ostrovsky Museum was opened in Sochi.
Museum Collections
The museum maintains relations with the writer's relatives, who still donate items valuable to his admirers.
In the 90s of the last century, a new direction of scientific and research activity was createdmuseum. The employees of the Ostrovsky Museum in Sochi were interested in documents, photographs, letters from writers and poets who had ever lived or worked in their city. This is how the Sochi Literary collection appeared. Today the museum has more than 20,000 items.
The literary collection is located in a building specially built in 1956, which is part of the Ostrovsky Museum complex in Sochi at the address: st. P. Korchagina, 4.
