OSTROVSKY, ALEXANDER NIKOLAEVICH (1823-1886), Russian dramatit author, was born on April 12, 1823 in Moscow, where his father was an official of the senate. He studied law in the university of that city, which he quitted with out having submitted to the final examination. He was then em ployed as a clerk in the Office of the "Court of Conscience," and subsequently in that of the Commercial Court at Moscow. Among his early comedies are Byednaya Nivesta ("The Poor Bride"), Byednost ite Porok ("Poverty not a Vice"), and Ne sari ne sadis (literally "Don't put yourself in another's sledge"). Of this last Nicholas I. said, "it was not a play, but a lesson." The Moscow merchants are strikingly portrayed in Grozd (186o, Eng. trans. The Storm, by C. Garnett, 1898) the most famous of all his plays, and Svoyi lyudi sotchtyomsya ("Between near rela tives no accounts are needed") (185o) which was originally called "The Bankrupt." The Bankrupt was prohibited for ten years, until the accession of Alexander II., and Ostrovsky was dismissed
from the government service and placed under the supervision of the police. The Liberal tendencies of the new reign, however, soon brought relief ; Ostrovsky was one of several well-known literary men who were sent into the provinces to report on the condition of the people. Ostrovsky's field of inquiry lay along the upper Volga. This mission inspired several historical dramas, such as Kuzma Zakharich Minin Soukhorouk, Vassilisa Melentieva and others. Four of his Plays have been translated into English by G. R. Noyes (1917). Ostrovsky enjoyed the patronage of Alexander III., and received a pension of 3,00o roubles a year. With the help of Moscow capitalists he established in that city a model theatre and school of dramatic art, of which he became the first director. He also founded the Society of Russian Dramatic Art and Opera Composers. He died on June 24, 1886.