born April 12, 1823, Moscow, Russia
died June 14, 1886, Shchelykovo
Russian playwright.
His second play, The Bankrupt (1850), exposed bogus bankruptcy cases and led to his dismissal from the civil service. Most of his plays treat characters from the Russian merchant class; they include the comedies Poverty Is No Disgrace (1853), The Thunderstorm (1859), and The Snow Maiden (1873), adapted as an opera by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov . With his 47 plays Ostrovsky created a Russian national repertoire, and he is considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period.