How the Steel Was Tempered is Nikolai Ostrovsky's epic semi-autobiographical novel, the only book he ever completed before his life was cut tragically short by illness at the age of 32 in 1936. Ostrovsky was a teenage soldier in the Red Army during the Civil War, before continuing his work in the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) and frequently appeared in Soviet magazines and on radio. Through its hero, Pavel Korchagin who begins the story as a boy slaving in the kitchens of a railway station restaurant in wartorn Tsarist Ukraine, the book follows not just Korchagin's developing life but also the development of socialism from the ashes of the First World War, through the triumph of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution to the launch of the Soviet Union's planned economy at the end of the 1920s. In work and war Korchagin's view of life is described by Ostrovsky's brilliant and famous words: "Our dearest possession is life. It is given to us but once. And we must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live, that dying we might say: all my life all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Humankind."

How the Steel Was Tempered is Nikolai Ostrovsky's epic semi-autobiographical novel, the only book he ever completed before his life was cut tragically short by illness at the age of 32 in 1936. Ostrovsky was a teenage soldier in the Red Army during the Civil War, before continuing his work in the Communist Youth League (Komsomol) and frequently appeared in Soviet magazines and on radio. Through its hero, Pavel Korchagin who begins the story as a boy slaving in the kitchens of a railway station restaurant in wartorn Tsarist Ukraine, the book follows not just Korchagin's developing life but also the development of socialism from the ashes of the First World War, through the triumph of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution to the launch of the Soviet Union's planned economy at the end of the 1920s. In work and war Korchagin's view of life is described by Ostrovsky's brilliant and famous words: "Our dearest possession is life. It is given to us but once. And we must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live, that dying we might say: all my life all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Humankind."

“How the Steel Was Tempered” is a socialist realist novel written by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). With 36.4 million copies sold, it is one of the best-selling books of all time and the best-selling book in the Russian language. The story follows the life of Pavel Korchagin, including his fighting in and aftermath of the Russian Civil War when he fought for the Bolsheviks during the war and was injured. The novel examines whether or not Korchagin can heal from his wounds and thus become as strong as steel.

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In Stalinist Russia, the idealized Soviet man projected an image of strength, virility, and unyielding drive in his desire to build a powerful socialist state. In monuments, posters, and other tools of cultural production, he became the demigod of Communist ideology. But beneath the surface of this fantasy, between the lines of texts and in film, lurked another figure: the wounded body of the heroic invalid, the second version of Stalin's New Man. In How the Soviet Man Was Unmade, Lilya Kaganovsky exposes the paradox behind the myth of the indestructible Stalinist-era male. In her analysis of social-realist literature and cinema, she examines the recurring theme of the mutilated male body, which appears with startling frequency. Kaganovsky views this representation as a thinly veiled statement about the emasculated male condition during the Stalinist era. Because the communist state was "full of heroes," a man could only truly distinguish himself and attain hero status through bodily sacrifice-yet in his wounding, he was forever reminded that he would be limited in what he could achieve, and was expected to remain in a state of continued subservience to Stalin and the party. Kaganovsky provides an insightful reevaluation of classic works of the period, including the novels of Nikolai Ostrovskii (How Steel Was Tempered) and Boris Polevoi (A Story About a Real Man), and films such as Ivan Pyr'ev's The Party Card, Eduard Pentslin's The Fighter Pilots, and Mikhail Chiaureli's The Fall of Berlin, among others. The symbolism of wounding and dismemberment in these works acts as a fissure in the facade of Stalinist cultural production through which we can view the consequences of historic and political trauma.

Men's conference speaker and bestselling author Steve Farrar takes readers through the Psalms to see how David endured crushing pressure and fiery trials and emerged a great man, shaped by the hand of God. Men facing difficult challenges in life will relate to chapters on Depression, Betrayal, When Your Family Is Falling Apart, Living With a Bad Decision, Living With Your Critics, and When Your Career Is Interrupted. Farrar encouragingly illustrates how David depended on God to overcome the same sins and trials -- still remaining "a man after God's own heart."