How the Steel Was Tempered (Russian: Как закалялась сталь, romanized: Kak zakalyalas stal) or The Making of a Hero, 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.
How the Steel Was Tempered (Russian: Как закалялась сталь, romanized: Kak zakalyalas stal) or The Making of a Hero, 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.