"The real literary sensation of 1956 was Dr. Zhivago, a complex novel critical, sharply, but indirectly, of the Soviet regime, by poet and novelist Boris L. Pasternak (1890-1960). The furor caused by Dr. Zhivago stemmed to a large extent from: (1) the stern and serious, although politely worded, refusal of the editors of Novyi Mir to publish the novel in the USSR; (2) Pasternak's granting of permission to an Italian pro-Communist publisher to produce it abroad; (3) the highly publicized official Soviet efforts to dissuade the Italian publisher from bringing out the novel; and (4) the selection of Pasternak as the recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize for literature. Although Pasternak declined the latter honor, his presentation of the negative aspects of Soviet life made him the target of savage criticism by party leaders, including Khrushchev, and by many members of the Union of Soviet Writers. Critics abroad, however, have classed Dr. Zhivago with the important works of modern times."
-Basil Dmytryshyn, USSR: a Concise History
"This novel will be my expression of my views over the arts,
over the Gospels, the life of a person in history, and many other things,"
- letter from Pasternak, 1946
However, for those of you who have read Doctor Zhivago and are seeking further study of the novel, perhaps what I discuss here will provide a different understanding of the book. For those who love to study the Russian Revolution, I hope my observations will tantalize your literary mind.
I believe the importance of this novel lies not in the plot, nor even within any sort of theme. I believe Pasternak used the novel as a tool to expose the untold history of the Revolution. He used a common man, Yura Zhivago, and his life, to divulge that which the Soviet government preferred to leave in the shadows.
Doctor Zhivago was a daring step for Pasternak. Begun shortly after World War II and finished in 1956, he was unable to publish its counter-revolutionary contents in his own country. It was first published in Italy, by a Communist publisher, in Italian and Russian. The following year provided English-speaking readers with a translation, and soon it spread to 18 different languages. Only in 1988 was it published in Pasternak's native land, twenty-eight years after he died.
Doctor Zhivago is both an historical novel and a work of literature. Pasternak included his own philosophy through his characters and their ideas. The historical details that Pasternak included are definitely not in line with the Soviet propaganda about the "glory of the Revolution". He shows the people of Moscow starving in the city and without fuel to light their stoves in the wintertime. In the "re-organization" strategy which took place as the governemnt was abolishing private business, many people went without food, and starved, while the shops were locked up, with no food to sell. All the food was being gathered in large warehouses so that the government could re-distribute it later, according to thei new calculations. There and more and more examples yet to be divulged from Pasternak's novel which reveal the truth of the beginning of Soviet power. He does not treat it with the prescribed awe which the Union of Soviet Writers were dictated to produce. I view it as his own political statement for the truth of Russian history.
EXCERPTS AND OBSERVATIONS
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