Sergey Ostrovoy

Sergey Ostrovoy died on December 3, 2005, in Moscow.

In 1969-1988 Ostrovoy was the chairman of the RSFSR federation of tennis.

During the war Ostrovoy continued publishing poetry in various military newspapers, and a book of his poetry was published in 1944.

In July 1941, shortly after the Nazi Germany invasion of the Soviet Union, Ostrovoy enlisted as a volunteer in the Red Army and was sent to the front. A year later he became a correspondent for the newspaper of the 31st Army "Na vraga" ("Against the enemy"). He was wounded near Staritsa and spent some time recovering in a hospital.

Ostrovoy's first essay was published in 1931, and his literary work was regularly published from 1934 onwards. Ostrovoy's first song lyrics collection "Na strazhe granitz" ("Guarding the borders") appeared in 1935.

After finishing 9th grade in school in 1929, Ostrovoy moved to Tomsk, where he worked as a reporter for the newspaper "Krasnoe Znamya" ("Red Banner"). Two years later he moved to Moscow. In Moscow he became a correspondent for the newspaper "Gudok" ("Horn") and traveled widely around the country.

Ostrovoy was married to Nadezhda Nikolaevna Tolstaya (born 1923, Petrograd), a noted harpist. The marriage, Ostrovoy's second, lasted over half a century; his wife Nadezhda was the only person to whom Ostrovoy ever dedicated his poetry.

Sergey Grigorievich Ostrovoy (Сергей Григорьевич Островой; b. September 6, 1911 - d. December 3, 2005) was a Soviet poet, known for writing the lyrics to the various popular songs during the Soviet period.

Sergey Ostrovoy was born on September 6, 1911, in Novonikolaevsk, later renamed Novosibirsk, in a Jewish family. His father was a taiga prospector and a fur merchant, and disapproved of Sergey's literary interests.