Alexander Ostrovsky’s only nondramatic writings are the semifictional “Zapiski zamoskvoretskogo zhitelya” (notes of a beyond-the-river resident) and occasional critical articles for various literary journals.

Alexander Ostrovsky was the founder of the modern Russian theater. Though his predecessors Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol wrote several memorable plays, their primary genres were poetry and prose, respectively, and they did not contribute significantly to the development of drama. Ostrovsky devoted his entire creative life not only to writing plays but also to producing them. In addition, he took a leading part in bringing variety to the stage by breaking the monopoly of the Imperial theaters. His prolific output of forty-seven original plays, supplemented by collaborative efforts and translations, gave Russia its first solid repertoire. In choice of subject matter, he also broke new ground. His plays for the first time presented the rising Russian merchant class to the audience. This social contingent, barely one generation away from humbler country origin, had not been deemed worthy of artistic portrayal previously, and its highly visible presence in many of Ostrovsky’s plays aroused immediate interest and controversy. The playwright further used his work to emphasize the unjust and utterly dependent position of young women without a dowry, the regressive marriage practices of the time, and the abuses perpetrated by Russia’s growing merchant class. For illuminating this “realm of darkness,” as the prominent critic Nikolay Dobrolyubov called it, and because of his many confrontations with czarist censors, Ostrovsky was considered an important social reformer.

As producer or coproducer of nearly eighty plays, half of them his own, Ostrovsky dominated Russian drama of the nineteenth century. The Maly Theater in Moscow, where most of his plays were performed, came to be known as The Ostrovsky House. The playwright worked hard at creating a more positive image for actors, who were largely treated as vagabonds and prostitutes before he formed guilds for their protection. Two of his plays, The Forest and Artists and Admirers, depict the high moral qualities of actors.

Ostrovsky’s work is difficult to translate because his dramatic language faithfully reproduces the dialects of various social classes and abounds in proverbs and wordplay. As a result, he is not widely staged abroad. His best-known translated piece is The Storm. At home, however, he remains the most extensively read and performed playwright. His simple plots and satiric approaches continue to appeal to mass audiences. After the revolution, he was hailed as an exposer of capitalist vices in czarist Russia, which added to his popularity. In the post-Stalin period, as a less restrictive censorship opened the way for more modern and sophisticated drama, Ostrovsky’s dominance diminished. His major plays, however, are still regularly performed, especially in the provinces, and new productions draw sizable urban audiences. His place in the development of Russian drama is firmly established.