Two popular science biographies of A.N. Ostrovsky in the context of the literary discussion of soil scientists and liberals of the second half of the twentieth century (to the 200th anniversary of the birth of the playwright)

Great russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky (1823-1886), published at the turn of the 70s, is compared in the article in the context of the discussion of liberals and soil scientists, which has become a vivid phenomenon of the literary and spiritual life of the last Soviet decades in general, two popular science biographical books dedicated to the life and work of the largest Russian playwright, the creator of the Russian national dramatic repertoire The 80s of the twentieth century: the book of the soil writer Mikhail Lobanov, published in the series «The Life of wonderful People», as well as the book of Vladimir Lakshin, who belonged to the liberal literary camp, published in the series «Life in Art». The author of the article, carrying out a comparative analysis of the monographs of M. Lobanov and V. Lakshin, identifies the fundamental ideas of the writers of the soil and the writers of liberals, shows how these ideas were embodied in the process of turning to the life and work of the classic playwright.