How Steel Was Tempered - World Young Adult Literature Classics Collection

Author: Ostrovsky
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The Steel Was Tempered reflects the battle flames, construction scenes, and social life of a specific era through the description of Pavlo Korchagin's growth journey, possessing unique cognitive and educational value. Pavlo was born into a poor railway worker family, playful and rebellious from a young age, with a strong sense of resistance. With the help of the underground worker Zhukhrai, Pavlo gradually embarked on the revolutionary path. He bravely rescued Zhukhrai from bandits, only to be arrested himself and severely tortured, but he revealed nothing. After joining the front lines, Pavlo fought bravely, earning several medals and sustaining multiple injuries, eventually having to leave the front due to the loss of his right eye. On the home front, Pavlo continued to work tirelessly on the construction front, ignoring his injuries and working day and night. On the freezing construction site, Pavlo, along with the League members, fought against the cold, hunger, illness, and bandit raids. Even with his feet frozen and suffering from high fever, he did not leave the front lines until he collapsed on the site, nearly dying from typhoid. After suffering the heavy blows of losing his sight and being paralyzed, Pavlo did not think about the length of his life but how to return to the battlefront as soon as possible. He finally found a way to fight with a smile instead of a knife, realizing his dream of rejoining the ranks day and night. The Steel Was Tempered has numerous readers both in the Soviet Union and abroad and has been translated into twenty languages and published in twenty-six countries. In 1989, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China included The Steel Was Tempered in the list of ten must-read books for young people to set "life's milestones." Many schools and organizations have chosen this book as the first choice when selecting mandatory reading for adolescents. Therefore, in cultivating the life ideals of young people, The Steel Was Tempered is truly an artistic masterpiece worth recommending and reading.