Editing Boris Pasternak

{{Short description|Russian and Soviet writer (1890–1960)}}
{{family name hatnote|Leonidovich|Pasternak|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Boris Pasternak
| image = Boris Pasternak 1959 photo.jpg
| caption = Pasternak in 1959
| birth_name = Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|10 February|1890|29 January}}
| birth_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1960|5|30|1890|2|10}}
| death_place = [[Peredelkino]], [[Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union
| children = 2
| parent = [[Leonid Pasternak]]
| relatives = [[Lydia Pasternak Slater]] (sister)
| occupation = {{cslist|Poet|writer}}
| notableworks = {{ubl|''My Sister, Life''|''The Second Birth''|''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]''}}
| awards = {{awards|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|(1958; declined)}}
| signature = Boris Pasternak signature.svg
}}

'''Boris Leonidovich Pasternak''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|s|t|ər|n|æ|k}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pasternak "Pasternak"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-rus|Борис Леонидович Пастернак|p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɨrˈnak|a=Ru-Boris Leonidovich Pasternak.ogg}};<ref>{{cite book|author1=F.L. Ageenko|author2=M.V. Zarva|title=Slovar' udarenij|language=ru|location=Moscow|publisher=Russkij jazyk|page=686}}</ref> {{OldStyleDate|10 February|1890|29 January}}{{snd}}30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator.

Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in [[Berlin]] in 1922 and soon became an important collection in the [[Russian language]]. Pasternak's translations of [[stage play]]s by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]], [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca|Calderón de la Barca]] and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] remain very popular with Russian audiences.

Pasternak was the author of ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1957), a novel that takes place between the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] and the First World War. ''Doctor Zhivago'' was rejected for publication in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], but the manuscript was smuggled to Italy and was first published there in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2014-press-releases-statements/cia-declassifies-agency-role-in-publishing-doctor-zhivago.html|title=CIA Declassifies Agency Role in Publishing Doctor Zhivago|work=Central Intelligence Agency|date=14 April 2014|access-date=19 September 2014|archive-date=21 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721133219/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2014-press-releases-statements/cia-declassifies-agency-role-in-publishing-doctor-zhivago.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pasternak was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1958, an event that enraged the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], which forced him to decline the prize. In 1989, Pasternak's son Yevgeny finally accepted the award on his father's behalf. ''Doctor Zhivago'' has been part of the main Russian school curriculum since 2003.<ref name=r1/>

{{TOClimit|3}}

== Early life ==
[[File:Leonid_Pasternak_-_Boris_and_Alexander.jpg|thumb|Boris (left) with his brother Alex; painting by their father, [[Leonid Pasternak]]]]

Pasternak was born in Moscow on {{OldStyleDate|10 February|1890|29 January}} into a wealthy, assimilated [[Jewish]] family.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Pasternak.html |title=Boris Leonidovich Pasternak Biography |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=24 January 2014}}</ref> His father was the [[post-Impressionist]] painter [[Leonid Pasternak]], who taught as a professor at the [[Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture|Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture]]. His mother was Rosa Kaufman, a concert pianist and the daughter of [[Odessa]] industrialist [[Isadore Kaufman]] and his wife. Pasternak had a younger brother, Alex, and two sisters, [[Lydia Pasternak Slater|Lydia]] and Josephine. The family claimed descent on the paternal line from [[Isaac Abarbanel]], the famous 15th-century [[Sephardic Jewish]] [[Philosophy|philosopher]], [[Rabbinic commentaries|Bible commentator]], and treasurer of [[Portugal]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Christopher Barnes|author2=Christopher J. Barnes|author3=Boris Leonidovich Pasternak|title=Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tle7SAlWFRkC|date= 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52073-7|page=2}}</ref>

=== Early education ===
From 1904 to 1907, Boris Pasternak was the cloister-mate of Peter Minchakievich (1890–1963) in [[Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra|Holy Dormition Pochayev Lavra]] (now in Ukraine). Minchakievich came from an Orthodox Ukrainian family and Pasternak came from a Jewish family. Some confusion has arisen as to Pasternak attending a military academy in his boyhood years. The uniforms of their monastery Cadet Corp were only similar to those of The Czar Alexander the Third Military Academy, as Pasternak and Minchakievich never attended any military academy. Most schools used a distinctive military-looking uniform particular to them as was the custom of the time in Eastern Europe and Russia. Boyhood friends, they parted in 1908, friendly but with different politics, never to see each other again. Pasternak went to the [[Moscow Conservatory]] to study music (and later to Germany to study philosophy), and Minchakievich went to [[University of Lviv|Lvov University]] to study history and philosophy. The good dimension of the character Strelnikov in ''Dr. Zhivago'' is based upon Peter Minchakievich. Several of Pasternak's characters are composites. After World War One and the Revolution, fighting for the Provisional or Republican government under Kerensky, and then escaping a Communist jail and execution, Minchakievich trekked across Siberia in 1917 and became an American citizen. Pasternak stayed in Russia.

In a 1959 letter to Jacqueline de Proyart, Pasternak recalled:
{{blockquote|I was baptized as a child by my [[nanny]], but because of the restrictions imposed on Jews, particularly in the case of a family which was exempt from them and enjoyed a certain reputation in view of my father's standing as an artist, there was something a little complicated about this, and it was always felt to be half-secret and intimate, a source of rare and exceptional inspiration rather than being calmly taken for granted. I believe that this is at the root of my distinctiveness. Most intensely of all my mind was occupied by Christianity in the years 1910–12, when the main foundations of this distinctiveness—my way of seeing things, the world, life—were taking shape...<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 137.</ref>}}

Shortly after his birth, Pasternak's parents had joined the [[Tolstoyan]] Movement. Novelist [[Leo Tolstoy]] was a close family friend, as Pasternak recalled, {{qi|my father illustrated his books, went to see him, revered him, and [...] the whole house was imbued with his spirit.}}<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 25.</ref>

[[File:Boris Pasternak in youth.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Pasternak c. 1908]]
In a 1956 essay, Pasternak recalled his father's feverish work creating illustrations for Tolstoy's novel ''[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|Resurrection]]''.<ref name="Past28"/> The novel was serialized in the journal ''[[Niva (magazine)|Niva]]'' by the publisher [[Adolf Marks|Fyodor Marx]], based in St Petersburg. The sketches were drawn from observations in such places as courtrooms, prisons and on trains, in a spirit of realism. To ensure that the sketches met the journal deadline, train conductors were enlisted to personally collect the illustrations. Pasternak wrote,

{{blockquote|My childish imagination was struck by the sight of a train conductor in his formal railway uniform, standing waiting at the door of the kitchen as if he were standing on a railway platform at the door of a compartment that was just about to leave the station. Joiner's glue was boiling on the stove. The illustrations were hurriedly wiped dry, fixed, glued on pieces of cardboard, rolled up, tied up. The parcels, once ready, were sealed with sealing wax and handed to the conductor.<ref name="Past28">[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], pp. 27–28.</ref>}}

According to [[Max Hayward]], {{qi|In November 1910, when Tolstoy fled from his home and died in the stationmaster's house at [[Astapovo]], Leonid Pasternak was informed by telegram and he went there immediately, taking his son Boris with him, and made a drawing of Tolstoy on his deathbed.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 16.</ref>

Regular visitors to the Pasternaks' home also included [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Alexander Scriabin]], [[Lev Shestov]], and [[Rainer Maria Rilke]]. Pasternak aspired first to be a musician.<ref>Boris Pasternak (1967), "Sister, My Life". Translated by C. Flayderman. Introduction by Robert Payne. Washington Square Press.</ref> Inspired by Scriabin, Pasternak briefly was a student at the [[Moscow Conservatory]]. In 1910, he abruptly left for the [[University of Marburg]] in [[German Empire|Germany]], where he studied under [[neo-Kantian]] philosophers [[Hermann Cohen]], [[Nicolai Hartmann]], and [[Paul Natorp]].

== Life and career ==
=== Olga Freidenberg ===
In 1910 Pasternak was reunited with his cousin [[Olga Freidenberg]] (1890–1955). They had shared the same nursery but had been separated when the Freidenberg family moved to [[Saint Petersburg]]. They fell in love immediately but were never lovers. The romance, however, is made clear from their letters, Pasternak writing:
{{blockquote|You do not know how my tormenting feeling grew and grew until it became obvious to me and to others. As you walked beside me with complete detachment, I could not express it to you. It was a rare sort of closeness, as if we two, you and I, were in love with something that was utterly indifferent to both of us, something that remained aloof from us by virtue of its extraordinary inability to adapt to the other side of life.}}
The cousins' initial passion developed into a lifelong close friendship. From 1910 Pasternak and Freidenberg exchanged frequent letters, and their correspondence lasted over 40 years until 1954. The cousins last met in 1936.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://ivka.rsuh.ru/binary/85345_30.1476388407.9268.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ivka.rsuh.ru/binary/85345_30.1476388407.9268.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Women Classical Scholars: Unsealing the Fountain from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly|author=Nina V. Braginskaya|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-108965-7|editor1=Rosie Wyles |editor2=Edith Hall|editor2-link=Edith Hall |pages=286–312|translator=Zara M. Tarlone|chapter=Olga Freidenberg: A Creative Mind Incarcerated}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/23/books/books-of-the-times-228311.html|title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=23 June 1982}}</ref>

=== Ida Wissotzkaya ===
[[File:BORIS BESIDE THE BALTIC AT MEREKULE, 1910 by L.Pasternak.jpg|thumb|right|''Boris Pasternak in 1910'', by his father Leonid Pasternak]]
Pasternak fell in love with Ida Wissotzkaya, a girl from a notable Moscow Jewish [[:ru:Высоцкий, Вульф Янкелевич|family of tea merchants]], whose company [[Wissotzky Tea]] was the largest tea company in the world. Pasternak had tutored her in the final class of high school. He helped her prepare for finals. They met in Marburg during the summer of 1912 when Boris' father, [[Leonid Pasternak]], painted her portrait.<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978 p 395">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 395.</ref>

Although Professor Cohen encouraged him to remain in Germany and to pursue a Philosophy doctorate, Pasternak decided against it. He returned to Moscow around the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In the aftermath of events, Pasternak proposed marriage to Ida. However, the Wissotzky family was disturbed by Pasternak's poor prospects and persuaded Ida to refuse him. She turned him down and he told of his love and rejection in the poem "Marburg" (1917):<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978 p 395"/>

<poem>I quivered. I flared up, and then was extinguished.
I shook. I had made a proposal—but late,
Too late. I was scared, and she had refused me.
I pity her tears, am more blessed than a saint.</poem>

Around this time, when he was back in Russia, he joined the [[Russian Futurist]] group Centrifuge (Tsentrifuga)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|author=Christopher Barnes|title=Boris Pasternak: a Literary Biography|volume =1|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|page=166}}</ref> as a pianist; poetry was still only a hobby for him at that time.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|author=Vladimir Markov|title=Russian Futurism: a History|publisher=University of California Press|year=1968|pages=229–230}}</ref> It was in their group journal, ''Lirika'', where some of his earliest poems were published. His involvement with the Futurist movement as a whole reached its peak when, in 1914, he published a satirical article in ''Rukonog'', which attacked the jealous leader of the "Mezzanine of Poetry", [[Vadim Shershenevich]], who was criticizing ''Lirika'' and the [[Ego-Futurism|Ego-Futurists]] because Shershenevich himself was barred from collaborating with Centrifuge, the reason being that he was such a talentless poet.<ref name=":0" /> The action eventually caused a verbal battle amongst several members of the groups, fighting for recognition as the first, truest Russian Futurists; these included the [[Cubo-Futurism|Cubo-Futurists]], who were by that time already notorious for their scandalous behaviour. Pasternak's first and second books of poetry were published shortly after these events.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Gregory Freidin|author-link=Gregory Freidin|title=Boris Pasternak|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boris-Pasternak|access-date=4 July 2020|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

Another failed love affair in 1917 inspired the poems in his third and first major book, ''My Sister, Life''. His early verse cleverly dissimulates his preoccupation with [[Immanuel Kant]]'s philosophy. Its fabric includes striking alliterations, wild rhythmic combinations, day-to-day vocabulary, and hidden allusions to his favourite poets such as [[Rilke]], [[Lermontov]], [[Pushkin]] and German-language Romantic poets.

During World War I, Pasternak taught and worked at a chemical factory in [[Vsevolodo-Vilva]] near [[Perm, Russia|Perm]], which undoubtedly provided him with material for ''Dr. Zhivago'' many years later. Unlike the rest of his family and many of his closest friends, Pasternak chose not to leave Russia after the [[October Revolution]] of 1917. According to [[Max Hayward]],

{{blockquote|Pasternak remained in Moscow throughout the [[Russian Civil War|Civil War]] (1918–1920), making no attempt to escape abroad or to the [[White Movement|White-occupied]] south, as a number of other Russian writers did at the time. No doubt, like Yuri Zhivago, he was momentarily impressed by the "splendid surgery" of the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917, but—again to judge by the evidence of the novel, and despite a personal admiration for [[Vladimir Lenin]], whom he saw at the 9th Congress of Soviets in 1921—he soon began to harbor profound doubts about the claims and credentials of the regime, not to mention its style of rule. The terrible shortages of food and fuel, and the depredations of the [[Red Terror]], made life very precarious in those years, particularly for the "[[bourgeois]]" [[intelligentsia]]. In a letter written to Pasternak from abroad in the twenties, [[Marina Tsvetayeva]] reminded him of how she had run into him in the street in 1919 as he was on the way to sell some valuable books from his library in order to buy bread. He continued to write original work and to translate, but after about the middle of 1918 it became almost impossible to publish. The only way to make one's work known was to declaim it in the several "literary" cafes which then sprang up, or—anticipating [[samizdat]]—to circulate it in manuscript. It was in this way that ''My Sister, Life'' first became available to a wider audience.<ref name="Ivinskaya, p. 23">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 23.</ref>}}

[[File:Mayakovsky Pasternak.jpg|thumb|Pasternak (second from left) in 1924, with friends including [[Lilya Brik]], [[Sergei Eisenstein]] (third from left) and [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] (centre)]]
When it finally was published in 1922, Pasternak's ''My Sister, Life'' revolutionised Russian poetry. It made Pasternak the model for younger poets, and decisively changed the poetry of [[Osip Mandelshtam]], [[Marina Tsvetayeva]] and others.

Following ''My Sister, Life'', Pasternak produced some hermetic pieces of uneven quality, including his masterpiece, the lyric cycle ''Rupture'' (1921). Both Pro-Soviet writers and their [[White émigré]] equivalents applauded Pasternak's poetry as pure, unbridled inspiration.

In the late 1920s, he also participated in the much celebrated tripartite correspondence with [[Rilke]] and [[Tsvetayeva]].<ref>{{Cite journal|author-link=John Bayley (writer)|author=John Bayley|title=Big Three|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/5268|journal=[[The New York Review of Books]]| volume= 32|date= 5 December 1985|access-date=28 September 2007}}</ref> As the 1920s wore on, however, Pasternak increasingly felt that his colourful style was at odds with a less educated readership. He attempted to make his poetry more comprehensible by reworking his earlier pieces and starting two lengthy poems on the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]]. He also turned to prose and wrote several autobiographical stories, notably "The Childhood of Luvers" and "Safe Conduct". (The collection ''Zhenia's Childhood and Other Stories'' would be published in 1982.)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NqHAQgAACAAJ&q=editions:ISBN0850314666|title=Zhenia's Childhood and Other Stories|publisher=[[Allison & Busby]]|date=1982|isbn=978-0-85031-467-0}}</ref>

[[File:Boris Pasternak with family 1920s.jpg|thumb|Pasternak with his wife Evgeniya Lurye and their son Yevgeny]]
In 1922 Pasternak married Evgeniya Lurye (Евгения Лурье), a student at the Art Institute. The following year their son Yevgeny was born.

Evidence of Pasternak's support of still-revolutionary members of the leadership of the Communist Party as late as 1926 is indicated by his poem "In Memory of Reissner"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/reissner/works/hamburg/app3.htm |title=In Memory of Reissner |author=Boris Pasternak |date=1926|website=marxists.org |access-date=19 September 2014}}</ref> presumably written upon the premature death from typhus of Bolshevik leader [[Larissa Reissner]] aged 30 in February of that year.

By 1927, Pasternak's close friends [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] and [[Nikolai Aseyev]] were advocating the complete subordination of the arts to the needs of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]].<ref>[[#Slater|Slater]], p. 78.</ref> In a letter to his sister Josephine, Pasternak wrote of his intentions to "break off relations" with both of them. Although he expressed that it would be deeply painful, Pasternak explained that it could not be prevented. He explained:
{{blockquote|They don't in any way measure up to their exalted calling. In fact, they've fallen short of it but—difficult as it is for me to understand—a modern [[sophist]] might say that these last years have actually demanded a reduction in conscience and feeling in the name of greater intelligibility. Yet now the very spirit of the times demands great, courageous purity. And these men are ruled by trivial routine. Subjectively, they're sincere and conscientious. But I find it increasingly difficult to take into account the personal aspect of their convictions. I'm not out on my own—people treat me well. But all that only holds good up to a point. It seems to me that I've reached that point.<ref>[[#Slater|Slater]], p. 80.</ref>}}

By 1932, Pasternak had strikingly reshaped his style to make it more understandable to the general public and printed the new collection of poems, aptly titled ''The Second Birth''. Although its Caucasian pieces were as brilliant as the earlier efforts, the book alienated the core of Pasternak's refined audience abroad, which was largely composed of anti-communist émigrés.

In 1932, Pasternak fell in love with Zinaida Neuhaus, the wife of the Russian pianist [[Heinrich Neuhaus]]. They both got divorces and married two years later.

Pasternak continued to change his poetry, simplifying his style and language through the years, as expressed in his next book, ''Early Trains'' (1943).

=== Stalin Epigram ===
In April 1934 [[Osip Mandelstam]] recited his "[[Stalin Epigram]]" to Pasternak. After listening, Pasternak told Mandelstam: {{qi|I didn't hear this, you didn't recite it to me, because, you know, very strange and terrible things are happening now: they've begun to pick people up. I'm afraid the walls have ears and perhaps even these benches on the boulevard here may be able to listen and tell tales. So let's make out that I heard nothing.}}<ref name="Ivin61">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 61–63.</ref>

On the night of 14 May 1934, Mandelstam was arrested at his home based on a warrant signed by [[NKVD]] boss [[Genrikh Yagoda]]. Devastated, Pasternak went immediately to the offices of ''[[Izvestia]]'' and begged [[Nikolai Bukharin]] to intercede on Mandelstam's behalf.

Soon after his meeting with Bukharin, the telephone rang in Pasternak's Moscow apartment. A voice from [[Moscow Kremlin|the Kremlin]] said, {{qi|Comrade [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] wishes to speak with you.}}<ref name="Ivin61"/> According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak was struck dumb. {{qi|He was totally unprepared for such a conversation. But then he heard ''his'' voice, the voice of Stalin, coming over the line. The Leader addressed him in a rather bluff uncouth fashion, using the familiar ''thou'' form: 'Tell me, what are they saying in your literary circles about the arrest of Mandelstam?'}} Flustered, Pasternak denied that there was any discussion or that there were any literary circles left in Soviet Russia. Stalin went on to ask him for his own opinion of Mandelstam. In an "eager fumbling manner" Pasternak explained that he and Mandelstam each had a completely different philosophy about poetry. Stalin finally said, in a mocking tone of voice: {{qi|I see, you just aren't able to stick up for a comrade}}, and put down the receiver.<ref name="Ivin61"/>

=== Great Purge ===
{{Main|Great Purge}}
According to Pasternak, during the 1937 trial of General [[Iona Yakir]] and Marshal [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]], the [[Union of Soviet Writers]] requested all members to add their names to a statement supporting the death penalty for the defendants. Pasternak refused to sign, even after leadership of the Union visited him.<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978 pp 132-133">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 132–133.</ref>
Soon after, Pasternak appealed directly to Stalin, describing his family's strong [[Tolstoyan]] convictions and putting his own life at Stalin's disposal; he said that he could not stand as a self-appointed judge of life and death. Pasternak was certain that he would be arrested,<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978 pp 132-133"/> but instead Stalin is said to have crossed Pasternak's name off an execution list, reportedly declaring, {{qi|Do not touch this cloud dweller}} (or, in another version, {{qi|Leave that [[Foolishness for Christ|holy fool]] alone!}}).<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 133.</ref>

Pasternak's close friend [[Titsian Tabidze]] did fall victim to the Great Purge. In an autobiographical essay published in the 1950s, Pasternak described the execution of Tabidze and the suicides of [[Marina Tsvetaeva]] and [[Paolo Iashvili]].

Ivinskaya wrote, {{qi|I believe that between Stalin and Pasternak there was an incredible, silent [[duel]].}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p 135.</ref>

=== World War II ===
When the [[Luftwaffe]] began bombing Moscow, Pasternak immediately began to serve as a fire warden on the roof of the writer's building on Lavrushinski Street. According to Ivinskaya, he repeatedly helped to dispose of German bombs which fell on it.<ref name="Ivin72">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 72–73.</ref>

In 1943, Pasternak was finally granted permission to visit the soldiers at the front. He bore it well, considering the hardships of the journey (he had a weak leg from an old injury), and he wanted to go to the most dangerous places. He read his poetry and talked extensively with the active and injured troops.<ref name="Ivin72"/>

Pasternak later said, {{qi|If, in a bad dream, we had seen all the horrors in store for us after the war, we should not have been sorry to see Stalin fall, together with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]. Then, an end to the war in favour of our [[Allies of World War II|allies]], civilized countries with democratic traditions, would have meant a hundred times less suffering for our people than that which Stalin again inflicted on it after his victory.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 80.</ref>

=== Olga Ivinskaya ===
In October 1946, the twice-married Pasternak met [[Olga Ivinskaya]], a 34 year old single mother employed by ''[[Novy Mir]]''. Deeply moved by her resemblance to his first love Ida Vysotskaya,<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 12, 395, footnote 3.</ref> Pasternak gave Ivinskaya several volumes of his poetry and literary translations. Although Pasternak never left his wife Zinaida, he started an extramarital relationship with Ivinskaya that would last for the remainder of Pasternak's life. Ivinskaya later recalled, {{qi|He phoned almost every day and, instinctively fearing to meet or talk with him, yet dying of happiness, I would stammer out that I was 'busy today.' But almost every afternoon, toward the end of working hours, he came in person to the office and often walked with me through the streets, boulevards, and squares all the way home to Potapov Street. 'Shall I make you a present of this square?' he would ask.}}

She gave him the phone number of her neighbour Olga Volkova who resided below. In the evenings, Pasternak would phone and Volkova would signal by Olga banging on the water pipe which connected their apartments.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 12.</ref>

When they first met, Pasternak was translating the verse of the Hungarian [[List of national poets|national poet]], [[Sándor Petőfi]]. Pasternak gave his lover a book of Petőfi with the inscription, {{qi|Petőfi served as a code in May and June 1947, and my close translations of his lyrics are an expression, adapted to the requirements of the text, of my feelings and thoughts for you and about you. In memory of it all, B.P., 13 May 1948.}}

Pasternak later noted on a photograph of himself: {{qi|Petőfi is magnificent with his descriptive lyrics and picture of nature, but you are better still. I worked on him a good deal in 1947 and 1948, when I first came to know you. Thank you for your help. I was translating both of you.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 27.</ref> Ivinskaya would later describe the Petőfi translations as "a first declaration of love".<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 28.</ref>

According to Ivinskaya, Zinaida Pasternak was infuriated by her husband's infidelity. Once, when his younger son Leonid fell seriously ill, Zinaida extracted a promise from her husband, as they stood by the boy's sickbed, that he would end his affair with Ivinskaya. Pasternak asked Luisa Popova, a mutual friend, to tell Ivinskaya about his promise. Popova told him that he must do it himself. Soon after, Ivinskaya happened to be ill at Popova's apartment, when suddenly Zinaida Pasternak arrived and confronted her.

Ivinskaya later recalled,
{{blockquote|But I became so ill through loss of blood that she and Luisa had to get me to the hospital, and I no longer remember exactly what passed between me and this heavily built, strong-minded woman, who kept repeating how she didn't give a damn for our love and that, although she no longer loved [Boris Leonidovich] herself, she would not allow her family to be broken up. After my return from the hospital, Boris came to visit me, as though nothing had happened, and touchingly made his peace with my mother, telling her how much he loved me. By now she was pretty well used to these funny ways of his.<ref name="Ivinskaya, p. 23">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 23.</ref>}}

In 1948, Pasternak advised Ivinskaya to resign her job at ''Novy Mir'', which was becoming extremely difficult due to their relationship. In the aftermath, Pasternak began to instruct her in translating poetry. In time, they began to refer to her apartment on Potapov Street as, "Our Shop".

On the evening of 6 October 1949, Ivinskaya was arrested at her apartment by the [[KGB]]. Ivinskaya relates in her memoirs that, when the agents burst into her apartment, she was at her typewriter working on translations of the [[Korean poetry|Korean poet]] Won Tu-Son. Her apartment was ransacked and all items connected with Pasternak were piled up in her presence. Ivinskaya was taken to the [[Lubyanka (KGB)|Lubyanka Prison]] and repeatedly interrogated, where she refused to say anything incriminating about Pasternak. At the time, she was pregnant with Pasternak's child and had a miscarriage early in her ten-year sentence in the [[GULAG]].

Upon learning of his [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]]' arrest, Pasternak telephoned Luisa Popova and asked her to come at once to [[Gogol Boulevard]]. She found him sitting on a bench near the [[Kropotkinskaya|Palace of Soviets Metro Station]]. Weeping, Pasternak told her, {{qi|Everything is finished now. They've taken her away from me and I'll never see her again. It's like death, even worse.}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 86">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 86.</ref>

According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|After this, in conversation with people he scarcely knew, he always referred to Stalin as a 'murderer.' Talking with people in the offices of literary periodicals, he often asked: 'When will there be an end to this freedom for lackeys who happily walk over corpses to further their own interests?' He spent a good deal of time with [[Anna Akhmatova|Akhmatova]]—who in those years was given a very wide berth by most of the people who knew her. He worked intensively on the second part of ''Doctor Zhivago''.}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 86"/>

In a 1958 letter to a friend in [[West Germany]], Pasternak wrote, {{qi|She was put in jail on my account, as the person considered by the [[KGB|secret police]] to be closest to me, and they hoped that by means of a gruelling interrogation and threats they could extract enough evidence from her to put me on trial. I owe my life, and the fact that they did not touch me in those years, to her heroism and endurance.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 109.</ref>

=== Translating Goethe ===
Pasternak's translation of the [[Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy|first part]] of ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'' led him to be attacked in the August 1950 edition of ''[[Novy Mir]]''. The critic accused Pasternak of distorting [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s "progressive" meanings to support {{qi|the reactionary theory of 'pure art'}}, as well as introducing aesthetic and [[individualist]] values. In a subsequent letter to the daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva, Pasternak explained that the attack was motivated by the fact that the supernatural elements of the play, which ''Novy Mir'' considered, "irrational", had been translated as Goethe had written them. Pasternak further declared that, despite the attacks on his translation, his contract for the [[Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy|second part]] had not been revoked.<ref name="Ivin78"/>

=== Khrushchev thaw ===
When Stalin died of a stroke on 5 March 1953, Ivinskaya was still imprisoned in the [[Gulag]], and Pasternak was in Moscow. Across the nation, there were waves of panic, confusion, and public displays of grief. Pasternak wrote, {{qi|Men who are not free... always idealize their bondage.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 144.</ref>

After her release, Pasternak's relationship with Ivinskaya picked up where it had left off. Soon after he confided in her, {{qi|For so long we were ruled over by a madman and a murderer, and now by a fool and a pig. The madman had his occasional flights of fancy, he had an intuitive feeling for certain things, despite his wild obscurantism. Now we are ruled over by mediocrities.}}<ref name="Ivin142">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 142.</ref> During this period, Pasternak delighted in reading a clandestine copy of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'' in English. In conversation with Ivinskaya, Pasternak explained that the pig dictator [[Napoleon (Animal Farm)|Napoleon]], in the novel, "vividly reminded" him of Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]].<ref name="Ivin142"/>

=== ''Doctor Zhivago'' ===
[[File:Boris Pasternak 1958b.jpg|thumb|left|Pasternak, 1958]]
Although it contains passages written in the 1910s and 1920s, ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' was not completed until 1955. Pasternak submitted the novel to ''[[Novy Mir]]'' in 1956, which refused publication due to its rejection of [[socialist realism]].<ref>"Doctor Zhivago": Letter to Boris Pasternak from the Editors of ''Novyi Mir''. Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 3, The Russian Intelligentsia (Summer 1960), pp.{{spaces}}648–668.</ref> The author, like his [[protagonist]] [[Yuri Zhivago]], showed more concern for the welfare of individual characters than for the "progress" of society. Censors also regarded some passages as [[anti-Soviet]], especially the novel's criticisms<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/13/world/doctor-zhivago-to-see-print-in-soviet-in-88.html|title='Doctor Zhivago' to See Print in Soviet in '88|author=Felicity Barringer|date=13 February 1987|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 February 2019|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> of [[Stalinism]], [[Collectivisation]], the [[Great Purge]], and the [[Gulag]].

Pasternak's fortunes were soon to change, however. In March 1956, the [[Italian Communist Party]] sent a journalist, [[Sergio D'Angelo]], to work in the Soviet Union, and his status as a journalist as well as his membership in the Italian Communist Party allowed him to have access to various aspects of the cultural life in Moscow at the time. A Milan publisher, the communist [[Giangiacomo Feltrinelli]], had also given him a commission to find new works of Soviet literature that would be appealing to Western audiences, and upon learning of ''Doctor Zhivago''{{'}}s existence, D'Angelo travelled immediately to Peredelkino and offered to submit Pasternak's novel to Feltrinelli's company for publication. At first Pasternak was stunned. Then he brought the manuscript from his study and told D'Angelo with a laugh, {{qi|You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.}}<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], p. 275.</ref>

According to Lazar Fleishman, Pasternak was aware that he was taking a huge risk. No Soviet author had attempted to deal with Western publishers since the 1920s, when such behavior led the Soviet State to declare war on [[Boris Pilnyak]] and [[Evgeny Zamyatin]]. Pasternak, however, believed that Feltrinelli's Communist affiliation would not only guarantee publication, but might even force the Soviet State to publish the novel in Russia.<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], pp. 275–276.</ref>

In a rare moment of agreement, both Olga Ivinskaya and Zinaida Pasternak were horrified by the submission of ''Doctor Zhivago'' to a Western publishing house. Pasternak, however, refused to change his mind and informed an emissary from Feltrinelli that he was prepared to undergo any sacrifice in order to see ''Doctor Zhivago'' published.<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], p. 276.</ref>

In 1957, Feltrinelli announced that the novel would be published by his company. Despite repeated demands from visiting Soviet emissaries, Feltrinelli refused to cancel or delay publication. According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|He did not believe that we would ever publish the manuscript here and felt he had no right to withhold a masterpiece from the world – this would be an even greater crime.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 203.</ref> The Soviet government forced Pasternak to cable the publisher to withdraw the manuscript, but he sent separate, secret letters advising Feltrinelli to ignore the telegrams.{{r|washingtonpost}}

Helped considerably by the Soviet campaign against the novel (as well as by the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s secret purchase of hundreds of copies of the book as it came off the presses around the world – see "[[#Nobel Prize|Nobel Prize]]" section below), ''Doctor Zhivago'' became an instant sensation throughout the non-Communist world upon its release in November 1957. In the [[State of Israel]], however, Pasternak's novel was sharply criticized for its [[Jewish assimilation|assimilationist]] views towards the [[Jewish people]]. When informed of this, Pasternak responded, {{qi|No matter. I am above race...}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 136.</ref> According to Lazar Fleishman, Pasternak had written the disputed passages prior to Israeli independence. At the time, Pasternak had also been regularly attending Russian Orthodox [[Divine Liturgy]]. Therefore, he believed that Soviet Jews converting to Christianity was preferable to assimilating into [[atheism]] and [[Stalinism]].<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], pp. 264–266.</ref>

The first English translation of ''Doctor Zhivago'' was hastily produced by [[Max Hayward]] and [[Manya Harari]] in order to coincide with overwhelming public demand. It was released in August 1958, and remained the only edition available for more than fifty years. Between 1958 and 1959, the English language edition spent 26 weeks at the top of ''[[The New York Times]]''' bestseller list.

Ivinskaya's daughter Irina circulated typed copies of the novel in [[Samizdat]]. Although no Soviet critics had read the banned novel, ''Doctor Zhivago'' was pilloried in the State-owned press. Similar attacks led to a humorous Russian saying, "I haven't read Pasternak, but I condemn him".<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 268–271.</ref>

During the aftermath of the Second World War, Pasternak had composed a series of poems on [[Gospel]] themes. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak had regarded Stalin as a {{qi|giant of the pre-Christian era.}} Therefore, Pasternak's decision to write [[Christian poetry]] was {{qi|a form of protest}}.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 134.</ref>

On 9 September 1958, the ''Literary Gazette'' critic Viktor Pertsov retaliated by denouncing {{qi|the decadent religious poetry of Pasternak, which reeks of mothballs from the [[Russian Symbolism|Symbolist]] suitcase of 1908–10 manufacture.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 231.</ref> Furthermore, the author received much [[hate mail]] from Communists both at home and abroad. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak continued to receive such letters for the remainder of his life.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 230.</ref>

In a letter written to his sister Josephine, however, Pasternak recalled the words of his friend Ekaterina Krashennikova upon reading ''Doctor Zhivago''. She had said, {{qi|Don't forget yourself to the point of believing that it was you who wrote this work. It was the [[Russian people]] and their sufferings who created it. Thank God for having expressed it through your pen.}}<ref>[[#Slater|Slater]], p. 403.</ref>

=== Nobel Prize ===
According to Yevgeni Borisovich Pasternak, {{qi|Rumors that Pasternak was to receive the Nobel Prize started right after the end of [[World War II]].}} According to the former Nobel Committee head [[Lars Gyllensten]], his nomination was discussed every year from 1946 to 1950, then again in 1957 (it was finally awarded in 1958). Pasternak guessed at this from the growing waves of criticism in USSR. Sometimes he had to justify his European fame: 'According to the Union of Soviet Writers, some literature circles of the West see unusual importance in my work, not matching its modesty and low productivity...'<ref name="english.pravda.ru">{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/18-12-2003/4383-pasternak-0/ |title=Boris Pasternak: Nobel Prize, Son's Memoirs |publisher=English.pravda.ru |date=18 December 2003 |access-date=24 January 2014}}</ref>

Meanwhile, Pasternak wrote to Renate Schweitzer<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 220.</ref> and his sister, [[Lydia Pasternak Slater]].<ref>[[#Slater|Slater]], p. 402.</ref> In both letters, the author expressed hope that he would be passed over by the Nobel Committee in favour of [[Alberto Moravia]]. Pasternak wrote that he was wracked with torments and anxieties at the thought of placing his loved ones in danger.

On 23 October 1958, Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize. The citation credited Pasternak's contribution to Russian lyric poetry and for his role in {{qi|continuing the great Russian epic tradition.}} On 25 October, Pasternak sent a [[telegram]] to the [[Swedish Academy]]: {{qi|Infinitely grateful, touched, proud, surprised, overwhelmed.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 221.</ref> That same day, the Literary Institute in Moscow demanded that all its students sign a petition denouncing Pasternak and his novel. They were further ordered to join a "spontaneous" demonstration demanding Pasternak's exile from the Soviet Union.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 223–224.</ref> Also on that day, the ''Literary Gazette'' published a letter which was sent to B. Pasternak in September 1956 by the editors of the Soviet literary journal [[Novy Mir]] to justify their rejection of [[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]. In publishing this letter the Soviet authorities wished to justify the measures they had taken against the author and his work.<ref>"Doctor Zhivago": Letter to Boris Pasternak from the Editors of ''Novyi Mir''. Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 3, The Russian Intelligentsia (Summer, 1960), pp.{{spaces}}648–668.</ref> On 26 October, the ''Literary Gazette'' ran an article by David Zaslavski entitled, ''[[Reactionary]] Propaganda Uproar over a Literary Weed''.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 224.</ref>

According to [[Solomon Volkov]]:
{{blockquote|The anti-Pasternak campaign was organized in the worst Stalin tradition: denunciations in ''Pravda'' and other newspapers; publications of angry letters from, "ordinary Soviet workers", who had not read the book; hastily convened meetings of Pasternak's friends and colleagues, at which fine poets like [[Vladimir Soloukin]], [[Leonid Martynov]], and [[Boris Slutsky]] were forced to censure an author they respected. Slutsky, who in his brutal prose-like poems had created an image for himself as a courageous soldier and truth-lover, was so tormented by his anti-Pasternak speech that he later went insane. On October 29, 1958, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Young Communist League, dedicated to the [[Komsomol]]'s fortieth anniversary, its head, [[Vladimir Semichastny]], attacked Pasternak before an audience of 14,000 people, including Khrushchev and other Party leaders. Semichastny first called Pasternak, "a mangy sheep", who pleased the enemies of the Soviet Union with, "his slanderous so-called work." Then Semichastny (who became head of the KGB in 1961) added that, "this man went and spat in the face of the people." And he concluded with, "If you compare Pasternak to a pig, a pig would not do what he did," because a pig, "never shits where it eats." Khrushchev applauded demonstratively. News of that speech drove Pasternak to the brink of suicide. It has recently come to light that the real author of Semichastny's insults was Khrushchev, who had called the Komsomol leader the night before and dictated his lines about the mangy sheep and the pig, which Semichastny described as a, "typically Khrushchevian, deliberately crude, unceremoniously scolding."<ref>Solomon Volkov (2008) ''The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn'', Alfred A. Knopf, pp. 195–196. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-4272-2}}.</ref>}}

Furthermore, Pasternak was informed that, if he traveled to [[Stockholm]] to collect his Nobel Medal, he would be refused re-entry to the Soviet Union. As a result, on 29 October Pasternak sent a second telegram to the Nobel Committee: {{qi|In view of the meaning given the award by the society in which I live, I must renounce this undeserved distinction which has been conferred on me. Please do not take my voluntary renunciation amiss.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 232.</ref> The Swedish Academy announced: {{qi|This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.}}<ref name=nobel_lectures>
{{cite book
| title = Literature 1901–1967
| url = https://archive.org/details/literature19011900fren
| url-access = registration
| editor = Horst Frenz
| series = Nobel Lectures
| year = 1969
| publisher = Elsevier
| location = Amsterdam
| isbn = 9780444406859
}}
(via {{cite web
| url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1958/press.html
| title = Nobel Prize in Literature 1958 – Announcement
| access-date =24 May 2007
| publisher = [[Nobel Foundation]]
}})
</ref>
According to Yevgenii Pasternak, {{qi|I couldn't recognize my father when I saw him that evening. Pale, lifeless face, tired painful eyes, and only speaking about the same thing: 'Now it all doesn't matter, I declined the Prize.'}}<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

=== Deportation plans ===
Despite his decision to decline the award, the Union of Soviet Writers continued to demonise Pasternak in the State-owned press. Furthermore, he was threatened at the very least with formal exile to the West. In response, Pasternak wrote directly to Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]],
{{blockquote|I am addressing you personally, the C.C. of the C.P.S.S., and the Soviet Government. From Comrade Semichastny's speech I learn that the government, 'would not put any obstacles in the way of my departure from the U.S.S.R.' For me this is impossible. I am tied to Russia by birth, by my life and work. I cannot conceive of my destiny separate from Russia, or outside it. Whatever my mistakes or failings, I could not imagine that I should find myself at the center of such a political campaign as has been worked up round my name in the West. Once I was aware of this, I informed the Swedish Academy of my voluntary renunciation of the Nobel Prize. Departure beyond the borders of my country would for me be tantamount to death and I therefore request you not to take this extreme measure with me. With my hand on my heart, I can say that I have done something for Soviet literature, and may still be of use to it.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 240–241.</ref>}}

In ''The Oak and the Calf'', [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]] sharply criticized Pasternak, both for declining the Nobel Prize and for sending such a letter to Khrushchev. In her own memoirs, Olga Ivinskaya blames herself for pressuring her lover into making both decisions.

According to Yevgenii Pasternak, {{qi|She accused herself bitterly for persuading Pasternak to decline the Prize. After all that had happened, open shadowing, friends turning away, Pasternak's suicidal condition at the time, one can... understand her: the memory of Stalin's camps was too fresh, [and] she tried to protect him.}}<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

On 31 October 1958, the [[Union of Soviet Writers]] held a trial behind closed doors. According to the meeting minutes, Pasternak was denounced as an [[Inner emigration|internal émigré]] and a Fascist [[fifth columnist]]. Afterwards, the attendees announced that Pasternak had been expelled from the Union. They further signed a petition to the [[Politburo]], demanding that Pasternak be stripped of his Soviet citizenship and exiled to {{qi|his Capitalist paradise.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 251–261.</ref> According to Yevgenii Pasternak, however, author [[Konstantin Paustovsky]] refused to attend the meeting. [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]] did attend, but walked out in disgust.<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

According to Yevgenii Pasternak, his father would have been exiled had it not been for Indian Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], who telephoned Khrushchev and threatened to organize a Committee for Pasternak's protection.<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

It is possible that the 1958 Nobel Prize prevented Pasternak's imprisonment due to the Soviet State's fear of international protests. Yevgenii Pasternak believes, however, that the resulting persecution fatally weakened his father's health.<ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601758.html |title=The Plot Thickens A New Book Promises an Intriguing Twist to the Epic Tale of 'Doctor Zhivago' |author=Peter Finn |date=26 January 2007 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=24 January 2014}}</ref>

Meanwhile, [[Bill Mauldin]] produced [[:File:I won the Nobel Prize for Literature.jpg|a cartoon about Pasternak]] that won the 1959 [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning]]. The cartoon depicts Pasternak as a [[GULAG]] inmate splitting trees in the snow, saying to another inmate: {{qi|I won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What was your crime?}}<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/mauldin/mauldin-intro.html Bill Mauldin Beyond Willie and Joe] (Library of Congress).</ref>

=== Last years ===
[[File:Dommuzejpasternak.jpg|thumb|Boris Pasternak's [[dacha]] in [[Peredelkino]], where he lived between 1936 and 1960]]
[[File:Boris Pasternak 1958.jpg|thumb|Pasternak at Peredelkino in 1958]]
[[File:Boris Pasternak 1959.jpg|thumb|Pasternak at Peredelkino in 1959]]
Pasternak's post-''Zhivago'' poetry probes the universal questions of love, immortality, and reconciliation with God.<ref>[http://www.hoover.org/hila/exhibits/3243901.html Hostage of Eternity: Boris Pasternak] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927114626/http://www.hoover.org/hila/exhibits/3243901.html |date=27 September 2006 }} (Hoover Institution).</ref><ref>[http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/april28/pasternak-428.html Conference set on Doctor Zhivago writer] (Stanford Report, 28 April 2004).</ref> Boris Pasternak wrote his last complete book, ''When the Weather Clears'', in 1959.

According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak continued to stick to his daily writing schedule even during the controversy over ''Doctor Zhivago''. He also continued translating the writings of [[Juliusz Słowacki]] and [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]]. In his work on Calderon, Pasternak received the discreet support of Nikolai Mikhailovich Liubimov, a senior figure in the Party's literary apparatus. Ivinskaya describes Liubimov as, "a shrewd and enlightened person who understood very well that all the mudslinging and commotion over the novel would be forgotten, but that there would always be a Pasternak."<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 292.</ref> In a letter to his sisters in [[Oxford]], England, Pasternak claimed to have finished translating one of Calderon's plays in less than a week.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 39.</ref>

During the summer of 1959, Pasternak began writing ''The Blind Beauty'', a trilogy of [[stage play]]s set before and after [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]'s abolition of [[serfdom in Russia]]. In an interview with Olga Carlisle from ''[[The Paris Review]]'', Pasternak enthusiastically described the play's plot and characters. He informed Olga Carlisle that, at the end of ''The Blind Beauty'', he wished to depict "the birth of an enlightened and affluent middle class, open to occidental influences, progressive, intelligent, artistic".<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4679/the-art-of-fiction-no-25-boris-pasternak|title=Boris Pasternak, The Art of Fiction No. 25|journal=The Paris Review|issue=24|author=Olga Carlisle|date=Summer–Fall 1960|volume=Summer-Fall 1960}}</ref> However, Pasternak fell ill with terminal lung cancer before he could complete the first play of the trilogy.

== Death ==
Boris Pasternak died of lung cancer in his [[dacha]] in Peredelkino on the evening of 30 May 1960. He first summoned his sons, and in their presence said, {{qi|Who will suffer most because of my death? Who will suffer most? Only Oliusha will, and I haven't had time to do anything for her. The worst thing is that she will suffer.}}<ref name="Ivin323">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 323–326.</ref> Pasternak's last words were, {{qi|I can't hear very well. And there's a mist in front of my eyes. But it will go away, won't it? Don't forget to open the window tomorrow.}}<ref name="Ivin323"/>

=== Funeral demonstration ===
Despite only a small notice appearing in the ''Literary Gazette'',<ref name="Ivin323"/> handwritten notices carrying the date and time of the funeral were posted throughout the Moscow subway system.<ref name="Ivin323"/> As a result, thousands of admirers braved Militia and KGB surveillance to attend Pasternak's funeral in [[Peredelkino]].<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 326–327.</ref>

Before Pasternak's civil funeral, Ivinskaya had a conversation with [[Konstantin Paustovsky]]. According to her,
{{blockquote|He began to say what an authentic event the funeral was—an expression of what people really felt, and so characteristic of the Russia which stoned its prophets and did its poets to death as a matter of longstanding tradition. At such a moment, he continued indignantly, one was bound to recall the funeral of Pushkin and the Tsar's courtiers – their miserable hypocrisy and false pride. "Just think how rich they are, how many Pasternaks they have—as many as there were Pushkins in the Russia of Tsar Nicholas... Not much has changed. But what can one expect? They are afraid..."<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 328.</ref>}}

Then, in the presence of a large number of foreign journalists, the body of Pasternak was removed to the cemetery. According to Ivinskaya,
{{blockquote|The graveside service now began. It was hard for me in my state to make out what was going on. Later, I was told that Paustovski had wanted to give the funeral address, but it was in fact Professor Asmus who spoke. Wearing a light colored suit and a bright tie, he was dressed more for some gala occasion than for a funeral. "A writer has died," he began, "who, together with Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, forms part of the glory of Russian literature. Even if we cannot agree with him in everything; we all none the less owe him a debt of gratitude for setting an example of unswerving honesty, for his incorruptible conscience, and for his heroic view of his duty as a writer." Needless to say, he mentioned [Boris Leonidovich]'s, "mistakes and failings," but hastened to add that, "they do not, however, prevent us from recognizing the fact that he was a great poet." "He was a very modest man," Asmus said in conclusion, "and he did not like people to talk about him too much, so with this I shall bring my address to a close."<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 330–331.</ref>}}

To the horror of the assembled Party officials, however, someone with "a young and deeply anguished voice"<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 331">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 331.</ref> began reciting Pasternak's banned poem ''Hamlet''.
{{Verse translation|italicsoff=y|lang=ru|
Гул затих. Я вышел на подмостки.
Прислонясь к дверному косяку,
Я ловлю в далёком отголоске,
Что случится на моём веку.

На меня наставлен сумрак ночи
Тысячью биноклей на оси.
Если только можно, Aвва Отче,
Чашу эту мимо пронеси.

Я люблю твой замысел упрямый
И играть согласен эту роль.
Но сейчас идёт другая драма,
И на этот раз меня уволь.

Но продуман распорядок действий,
И неотвратим конец пути.
Я один, всё тонет в фарисействе.
Жизнь прожить – не поле перейти.
|
The murmurs ebb; onto the stage I enter.
I am trying, standing at the door,
To discover in the distant echoes
What the coming years may hold in store.

The nocturnal darkness with a thousand
Binoculars is focused onto me.
Take away this cup, O Abba, Father,
Everything is possible to Thee.

I am fond of this Thy stubborn project,
And to play my part I am content.
But another drama is in progress,
And, this once, O let me be exempt.

But the plan of action is determined,
And the end irrevocably sealed.
I am alone; all round me drowns in falsehood:
Life is not a walk across a field.<ref>Lydia Pasternak Slater (1963) ''Pasternak: Fifty Poems'', Barnes & Noble Books, p. 57.</ref>}}

According to Ivinskaya,
{{blockquote|At this point, the persons stage-managing the proceedings decided the ceremony must be brought to an end as quickly as possible, and somebody began to carry the lid toward the coffin. For the last time, I bent down to kiss Boris on the forehead, now completely cold... But now something unusual began to happen in the cemetery. Someone was about to put the lid on the coffin, and another person in gray trousers... said in an agitated voice: "That's enough, we don't need any more speeches! Close the coffin!" But people would not be silenced so easily. Someone in a colored, open-necked shirt who looked like a worker started to speak: "Sleep peacefully, dear Boris Leonidovich! We do not know all your works, but we swear to you at this hour: the day will come when we shall know them all. We do not believe anything bad about your book. And what can we say about all you others, all you brother writers who have brought such disgrace upon yourselves that no words can describe it. Rest in peace, Boris Leonidovich!" The man in gray trousers seized hold of other people who tried to come forward and pushed them back into the crowd: "The meeting is over, there will be no more speeches!" A foreigner expressed his indigation in broken Russian: "You can only say the meeting is over when no more people wish to speak!"<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 331"/>}}

The final speaker at the graveside service said,
{{blockquote|God marks the path of the elect with thorns, and Pasternak was picked out and marked by God. He believed in eternity and he will belong to it... We excommunicated [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]], we disowned [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Dostoevsky]], and now we disown Pasternak. Everything that brings us glory we try to banish to [[Free world|the West]]... But we cannot allow this. We love Pasternak and we revere him as a poet... Glory to Pasternak!<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 331–332.</ref>}}

As the spectators cheered, the bells of Peredelkino's Church of the Transfiguration began to toll. Written prayers for the dead were then placed upon Pasternak's forehead and the coffin was closed and buried. Pasternak's gravesite would go on to become a major [[shrine]] for members of the [[Soviet dissident]] movement.<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 332">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 332.</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[File:The Soviet Union 1990 CPA 6257 stamp (Nobel laureate in Literature Boris Pasternak. A scene based on the novel Doctor Zhivago).jpg|thumb|Pasternak on a 1990 Soviet stamp]]
After Pasternak's death, Ivinskaya was arrested for the second time, with her daughter, Irina Emelyanova. Both were accused of being Pasternak's link with Western publishers and of dealing in hard currency for ''Doctor Zhivago''. All of Pasternak's letters to Ivinskaya, as well as many other manuscripts and documents, were seized by the [[KGB]]. The KGB quietly released them, Irina after one year, in 1962, and Olga in 1964.<ref name=independent>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-olga-ivinskaya-1600834.html |title=OBITUARY: Olga Ivinskaya |work=The Independent |location=UK |date=13 September 1995 |access-date=27 October 2010}}</ref> By this time, Ivinskaya had served four years of an eight-year sentence, in retaliation for her role in ''Doctor Zhivago'''s publication.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/13/obituaries/olga-ivinskaya-83-pasternak-muse-for-zhivago.html |title=Olga Ivinskaya, 83, Pasternak Muse for 'Zhivago' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 September 1995 |access-date=27 October 2010}}</ref> In 1978, her memoirs were smuggled abroad and published in Paris. An English translation by [[Max Hayward]] was published the same year under the title ''A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak''.

Ivinskaya was [[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|rehabilitated]] only in 1988. After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], Ivinskaya sued for the return of the letters and documents seized by the KGB in 1961. The [[Russian Supreme Court]] ultimately ruled against her, stating that "there was no proof of ownership" and that the "papers should remain in the state archive".<ref name=independent/> Ivinskaya died of cancer on 8 September 1995.<ref name=nytimes/> A reporter on [[NTV (Russia)|NTV]] compared her role to that of other famous [[muse]]s for Russian poets: "As [[Pushkin]] would not be complete without [[Anna Kern]], and [[Yesenin]] would be nothing without [[Isadora Duncan|Isadora]], so Pasternak would not be Pasternak without [[Olga Ivinskaya]], who was his inspiration for ''Doctor Zhivago''.".<ref name=nytimes/>

Meanwhile, Boris Pasternak continued to be pilloried by the Soviet State until [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] proclaimed [[Perestroika]] during the 1980s.

In 1980, an asteroid was named [[3508 Pasternak]] after Boris Pasternak.<ref>{{cite web |title=IAU Minor Planet Center |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=3508 |website=minorplanetcenter.net |access-date=10 February 2021}}</ref>

In 1988, after decades of circulating in [[Samizdat]], ''Doctor Zhivago'' was serialized in the literary journal ''[[Novy Mir]]''.<ref>[http://magazines.russ.ru/novyi_mi/soder/80-89.html Contents] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061009193844/http://magazines.russ.ru/novyi_mi/soder/80-89.html |date=9 October 2006}} of [[Novy Mir]] magazines {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

In December 1989, Yevgenii Borisovich Pasternak was permitted to travel to Stockholm in order to collect his father's Nobel Medal.<ref>[http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/18-12-2003/4383-pasternak-0/ "Boris Pasternak: The Nobel Prize. Son's memoirs"], ''Pravda'', 18 December 2003.</ref> At the ceremony, acclaimed cellist and Soviet dissident [[Mstislav Rostropovich]] performed a [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] serenade in honor of his deceased countryman.

The Pasternak family papers are stored at the [[Hoover Institution]] Archives, [[Stanford University]]. They contain correspondence, drafts of ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' and other writings, photographs, and other material, of Boris Pasternak and other family members.

Since 2003, during the first presidency of [[Vladimir Putin]], the novel ''Doctor Zhivago'' has entered the Russian school curriculum, where it is read in the 11th grade of secondary school.<ref name=r1>[http://www.aif.ru/culture/book/_ne_chital_no_osuzhdayu_5_faktov_o_romane_doktor_zhivago_ «Не читал, но осуждаю!»: 5 фактов о романе «Доктор Живаго»] 18:17, 23 October 2013, Елена Меньшенина.</ref>

=== Commemoration ===
In October 1984 by decision of a court, Pasternak's [[dacha]] in [[Peredelkino]] was taken from the writer's relatives and transferred to state ownership. Two years later, in 1986, the House-Museum of Boris Pasternak was founded<ref name=autogenerated2>M. Feinberg (2010). Comments from the book. B. Pasternak, Z. Pasternak ''The Second Birth''. M.: House-Museum of Boris Pasternak. p. 469.</ref> (the first [[Historic house museum|house-museum]] in [[Soviet Union|the USSR]]).

In 1990, the year of the poet's 100th anniversary, the Pasternak Museum opened its doors in [[Chistopol]], in the house where the poet evacuated to during the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Great Patriotic War]] (1941–1943),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://museum.prometey.org/info;2|title=Boris Pasternak museum in Chistopol|publisher=museum.prometey.org|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref> and in [[Peredelkino]], where he lived for many years until his death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.ru/M449|title=Information about Pasternak's house museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729082228/http://www.museum.ru/M449|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-date=29 July 2013}}</ref> The head of the poet's house-museum is Natalia Pasternak, his daughter-in-law (widow of the youngest son [[Leonid Pasternak|Leonid]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rosbalt.ru/main/2006/11/10/274340.html|title=The monument on Boris Pasternak's grave was desecrated|date=10 November 2006|publisher=rosbalt.ruaccessdate=2020-01-02}}</ref>

In 2008 a museum was opened in [[Vsevolodo-Vilva]] in the house where the budding poet lived from January to June 1916.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.perm.ru/forvisitor/15|title=Pasternak's house in Vsevolodo-Vilva|publisher=museum.perm.ru|access-date=23 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://dompasternaka.ru/about/|title="Pasternak's house" official website|publisher=dompasternaka.ru|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-date=4 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904012022/http://www.dompasternaka.ru/about/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2009 on the City Day in [[Perm, Russia|Perm]] the first Russian monument to Pasternak was erected in the square near the [[Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre|Opera Theater]] (sculptor: Elena Munc).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lenta.ru/news/2009/06/12/pasternak/|title=The first Russian monument to Pasternak was opened in Perm|date=12 June 2009|publisher=lenta.ru|access-date=1 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inauka.ru/fact/article70671.html|title=Bronze statue of Pasternak will return to Volkhonka|author=Yu. Ignatiyeva |date=14 December 2006|publisher=inauka.ru|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061216194519/http://www.inauka.ru/fact/article70671.html|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-date=16 December 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Pasternaklaan Zoetermeer.jpg|thumb|left|Boris Pasternak Street [[Zoetermeer]], [[Netherlands]]]]

A [[memorial plaque]] was installed on the house where Pasternak was born.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=184558|title=Memorial plaque to Pasternak|author=Polina Yermolayeva|date=28 May 2008|publisher=vesti.ru|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref>

In memory of the poet's three-time stay in [[Tula, Russia|Tula]], on 27 May 2005 a marble memorial plaque to Pasternak was installed on the Wörmann hotel's wall, as Pasternak was a [[Nobel Prize|Nobel laureate]] and dedicated several of his works to Tula.<ref>[http://www.tounb.ru/kp/news/Календарь_полный,2015.pdf Tula Region MEMORIES DATES 2015] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311085725/https://www.tounb.ru/kp/news/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9,2015.pdf |date=11 March 2022 }}. Tula. Aquarius (2014)</ref>

On 20 February 2008, in [[Kyiv]], a memorial plaque<ref name="jew">[http://jewishkiev.com.ua/novosti-fonda/v-kieve-ukrali-pamyatnye-tablichki-vladimiru-gorovitsu-i-borisu-pasternaku.html Vladimir Horowitz and Boris Pasternak's memorial plaques were stolen in Kyiv], jewishkiev.com.ua (13 November 2015).</ref> was put up on the house No.9 on Lipinsky Street, but seven years later it was stolen by vandals.<ref>Yaroslav Markin (16 November 2015) [https://vesti-ukr.com/kiev/123800-v-kieve In Kyiv unknown vandals started their hunting season]. vesti-ukr.com.</ref>

In 2012 a monument to Boris Pasternak was erected in the district center of [[Muchkapsky (urban locality)|Muchkapsky]] by Z. Tsereteli.

In 1990, as part of the series "Nobel Prize Winners",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/262674-Portrait_of_writer_BL_Pasternak_1890-1960-Nobel_Prize_Winners-Soviet_Union_USSR|title=Portrait of writer B.L. Pasternak (1890–1960)|publisher=Colnect.com|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref> [[Soviet Union|the USSR]] and [[Sweden]] ("Nobel Prize Winners – Literature")<ref>{{cite web|url=https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/825732-Lagerkvist_Pasternak-Nobel_Prize_Winners_-_Literature-Sweden|title=Lagerkvist/Pasternak|publisher=Colnect.com|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref> issued stamps depicting Boris Pasternak.

In 2015, as part of the series "125th Annive. of the Birth of Boris Pasternak, 1890–1960", [[Mozambique]] issued a [[miniature sheet]] depicting Boris Pasternak.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/800398-125th_Annive_of_the_Birth_of_Boris_Pasternak_1890-1960-125th_Annive_of_the_Birth_of_Boris_Pasternak_1890-1960-Mozambique|title=125th Annive. of the Birth of Boris Pasternak, 1890–1960|publisher=Colnect.com|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref> Although this issue was acknowledged by the postal administration of Mozambique, the issue was not placed on sale in Mozambique, and was only distributed to the new issue trade by Mozambique's philatelic agent.

In 2015, as part of the series "125th Birth Anniversary of Boris Pasternak", [[Maldives]] issued a [[miniature sheet]] depicting Boris Pasternak.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://colnect.com/en/stamps/stamp/846311-125th_Birth_Anniversary_of_Boris_Pasternak-125th_Birth_Anniversary_of_Boris_Pasternak-Maldives|title=125th Birth Anniversary of Boris Pasternak|publisher=Colnect.com|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref> The issue was acknowledged by the Maldive postal authorities, but only distributed by the Maldive philatelic agent for collecting purposes.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of B. Pasternak's Nobel Prize, the Principality of [[Monaco]] issued a postage stamp in his memory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chichkin.org/wellcome_to_chichkine/artikelnr/38|title=Postage stamp dedicated to Boris Pasternak|date=3 February 2009|publisher=chichkin.org|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904224416/http://www.chichkin.org/wellcome_to_chichkine/artikelnr/38|archive-date=4 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 27 January 2015, in honor of the poet's 125th birthday, the [[Russian Post]] issued an envelope with the original stamp.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stamppost.ru/news/125_let_so_dnja_rozhdenija_b_l_pasternaka/2015-01-31-382|title=The 125th Birth Anniversary of B.L.{{spaces}}Pasternak|publisher=stamppost.ru|access-date=2 January 2020}}</ref>

On 1 October 2015, a monument to Pasternak was erected in [[Chistopol]].{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

On 10 February 2020, a celebration of the 130th birthday anniversary was held at [[Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy]] in Moscow.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ilawjournals.com/a-celebration-in-honor-of-the-130th-anniversary-of-pasternak-will-be-held-at-enea/ |title=A celebration in honor of the 130th anniversary of Pasternak will be held at ENEA |publisher=ilawjournals.com | first=Marcus |last=-Cloud |date=7 February 2020 |access-date=1 December 2011}}</ref>

On 10 February 2021, [[Google]] celebrated his 131st birthday with a [[Google Doodle]]. The Doodle was displayed in Russia, Sweden, some Middle Eastern countries and some Mediterranean countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/boris-pasternaks-131st-birthday/ |title=Boris Pasternak's 131st Birthday |website=Google |date=10 February 2021 }}</ref>

=== Cultural influence ===
[[File:Boris Pasternak 1921 by Yu Annenkov.jpg|thumb|Portrait by [[Yury Annenkov]], 1921]]
* A [[minor planet]] ([[3508 Pasternak]]) discovered by Soviet astronomer [[Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina]] in 1980 is named after him.<ref>{{cite book| author = Lutz D. Schmadel| title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names| page = 294| edition = 5th| year = 2003| publisher = Springer Verlag| location = New York| isbn = 978-3-540-00238-3}}</ref>
* [[Russian-American]] singer and songwriter [[Regina Spektor]] recites a verse from "Black Spring", a 1912 poem by Pasternak in her song "Apres Moi" from her album ''[[Begin to Hope]]''.
*Russian-Dutch [[composer]] [[Fred Momotenko]] (Alfred Momotenko) wrote a companion composition to [[Sergej Rachmaninov]]'s [[All-Night Vigil]] [[Opus number|Op]] 37. based on the eponymous poem from the diptych [[Doktor Zhivago]] [http://www.alfredmomotenko.com/nastrastnoy/ ''Na Strastnoy'']

=== Adaptations ===
The first [[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|screen adaptation]] of ''Doctor Zhivago'', adapted by [[Robert Bolt]] and directed by [[David Lean]], appeared in 1965. The film, which toured in the [[Roadshow theatrical release|roadshow]] tradition, starred [[Omar Sharif]], [[Geraldine Chaplin]], and [[Julie Christie]]. Concentrating on the [[love triangle]] aspects of the novel, the film became a worldwide blockbuster, but was unavailable in Russia until [[perestroika]].

In 2002, the novel was adapted as a [[Doctor Zhivago (TV serial)|television miniseries]]. Directed by Giacomo Campiotti, the serial starred [[Hans Matheson]], [[Alexandra Maria Lara]], [[Keira Knightley]], and [[Sam Neill]].

The Russian TV version of 2006, directed by [[Aleksandr Proshkin]] and starring [[Oleg Menshikov]] as Zhivago, is considered {{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} more faithful to Pasternak's novel than David Lean's 1965 film.

== Work ==
=== Poetry ===
==== Thoughts on poetry ====
According to [[Olga Ivinskaya]]:
{{blockquote|In Pasternak the "all-powerful god of detail" always, it seems, revolted against the idea of turning out verse for its own sake or to convey vague personal moods. If "eternal" themes were to be dealt with yet again, then only by a poet in the true sense of the word—otherwise he should not have the strength of character to touch them at all. Poetry so tightly packed (till it crunched like ice) or distilled into a solution where "grains of true prose germinated," a poetry in which realistic detail cast a genuine spell—only such poetry was acceptable to Pasternak; but not poetry for which indulgence was required, or for which allowances had to be made—that is, the kind of ephemeral poetry which is particularly common in an age of literary conformism. [Boris Leonidovich] could weep over the "purple-gray circle" which glowed above [[Alexander Blok|Blok]]'s tormented muse and he never failed to be moved by the terseness of [[Pushkin]]'s sprightly lines, but rhymed slogans about the production of tin cans in the so-called "poetry" of [[Surkov]] and his like, as well as the outpourings about love in the work of those young poets who only echo each other and the classics—all this left him cold at best and for the most part made him indignant.<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 145">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 145.</ref>}}

For this reason, Pasternak avoided literary cafes where young poets regularly invited them to read their verse. According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|It was this sort of thing that moved him to say: 'Who started the idea that I love poetry? I can't stand poetry.'}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 145"/>

Also according to Ivinskaya, {{qi|'The way they could write!' he once exclaimed—by 'they' he meant the Russian classics. And immediately afterward, reading or, rather, glancing through some verse in the ''Literary Gazette'': 'Just look how tremendously well they've learned to rhyme! But there's actually nothing there—it would be better to say it in a news bulletin. What has poetry got to do with this?' By 'they' in this case, he meant the poets writing today.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 146.</ref>

==== Translation ====
Reluctant to conform to [[socialist realism]], Pasternak turned to translation in order to provide for his family. He soon produced acclaimed translations of [[Sándor Petőfi]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[Paul Verlaine]], [[Taras Shevchenko]], and [[Nikoloz Baratashvili]]. [[Osip Mandelstam]], however, privately warned him, {{qi|Your collected works will consist of twelve volumes of translations, and only one of your own work.}}<ref name="Ivin78">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 78–79.</ref>

In a 1942 letter, Pasternak declared, {{qi|I am completely opposed to contemporary ideas about translation. The work of Lozinski, Radlova, [[Samuil Marshak|Marshak]], and [[Kornei Chukovsky|Chukovski]] is alien to me, and seems artificial, soulless, and lacking in depth. I share the nineteenth-century view of translation as a literary exercise demanding insight of a higher kind than that provided by a merely philological approach.}}<ref name="Ivin78"/>

According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak believed in not being too literal in his translations, which he felt could confuse the meaning of the text. He instead advocated observing each poem from afar to plumb its true depths.<ref name="Ivin28">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 28–29.</ref>

Pasternak's translations of [[William Shakespeare]] (''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', ''[[Othello]]'', [[Henry IV, Part 1|''King Henry IV'' (Part I)]] and [[Henry IV, Part 2|(Part II)]], ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[King Lear]]'')<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 127.</ref> remain deeply popular with Russian audiences because of their colloquial, modernised dialogues. Pasternak's critics, however, accused him of "pasternakizing" Shakespeare. In a 1956 essay, Pasternak wrote: {{qi|Translating Shakespeare is a task which takes time and effort. Once it is undertaken, it is best to divide it into sections long enough for the work to not get stale and to complete one section each day. In thus daily progressing through the text, the translator finds himself reliving the circumstances of the author. Day by day, he reproduces his actions and he is drawn into some of his secrets, not in theory, but practically, by experience.}}<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 142.</ref>

According to Ivinskaya:
{{blockquote|Whenever [Boris Leonidovich] was provided with literal versions of things which echoed his own thoughts or feelings, it made all the difference and he worked feverishly, turning them into masterpieces. I remember his translating [[Paul Verlaine]] in a burst of enthusiasm like this – ''[[:s:fr:Art poétique (Verlaine)|Art poétique (Verlaine)]]'' was after all an expression of his own beliefs about poetry.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 34.</ref>}}

While they were both collaborating on translating [[Rabindranath Tagore]] from [[Bengali language|Bengali]] into Russian, Pasternak advised Ivinskaya: "1) Bring out the theme of the poem, its subject matter, as clearly as possible; 2) tighten up the fluid, non-European form by rhyming internally, not at the end of the lines; 3) use loose, irregular [[Meter (poetry)|meters]], mostly ternary ones. You may allow yourself to use [[assonance]]s."<ref name="Ivin28"/>

Later, while she was collaborating with him on a translation of [[Vítězslav Nezval]], Pasternak told Ivinskaya:
{{blockquote|Use the literal translation only for the ''meaning'', but do not borrow words as they stand from it: they are absurd and not always comprehensible. Don't translate everything, only what you can manage, and by this means try to make the translation more precise than the original – an absolute necessity in the case of such a confused, slipshod piece of work."<ref name="Ivin28"/>}}

According to Ivinskaya, however, translation was not a genuine vocation for Pasternak. She later recalled:
{{blockquote|One day someone brought him a copy of a British newspaper in which there was a double feature under the title, "Pasternak Keeps a Courageous Silence." It said that if Shakespeare had written in Russian he would have written in the same way he was translated by Pasternak... What a pity, the article continued, that Pasternak published nothing but translations, writing his own work for himself and a small circle of intimate friends. "What do they mean by saying that my silence is courageous?" [Boris Leonidovich] commented sadly after reading all this. "I am silent because I am not printed."<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 35.</ref>}}

=== Music ===
Boris Pasternak was also a composer, and had a promising musical career as a musician ahead of him, had he chosen to pursue it. He came from a musical family: his mother was a concert pianist and a student of [[Anton Rubinstein]] and [[Theodor Leschetizky]], and Pasternak's early impressions were of hearing piano trios in the home. The family had a [[dacha]] (country house) close to one occupied by [[Alexander Scriabin]]. [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] were all visitors to the family home. His father Leonid was a painter who produced one of the most important portraits of Scriabin, and Pasternak wrote many years later of witnessing with great excitement the creation of Scriabin's [[Symphony No. 3 (Scriabin)|Symphony No. 3]] (''The Divine Poem''), in 1903.

Pasternak began to compose at the age of 13. The high achievements of his mother discouraged him from becoming a pianist, but – inspired by Scriabin – he entered the [[Moscow Conservatory]], but left abruptly in 1910 at the age of twenty, to study philosophy in [[Marburg University]]. Four years later he returned to Moscow, having finally decided on a career in literature, publishing his first book of poems, influenced by [[Aleksandr Blok]] and the [[Russian Futurists]], the same year.

Pasternak's early compositions show the clear influence of Scriabin. His single-movement Piano Sonata of 1909 shows a more mature and individual voice. Nominally in B minor, it moves freely from key to key with frequent changes of key-signature and a chromatic dissonant style that defies easy analysis. Although composed during his time at the Conservatory, the Sonata was composed at Rayki, some 40{{spaces}}km north-east of Moscow, where Leonid Pasternak had his painting studio and taught his students.

== Selected books by Pasternak ==
=== Poetry collections ===
* ''Twin in the Clouds'' (1914)
* ''Over the Barriers'' (1916)
* ''Themes and Variations'' (1917)
* ''My Sister, Life'' (1922)
* ''Second Birth'' (1932)
* ''On Early Trains'' (1944)
* ''Selected Poems'' (1946)
* ''Poems'' (1954)
* ''When the Weather Clears'' (1959)
* ''In The Interlude: Poems 1945–1960'' (1962)

=== Books of prose ===
* ''Safe Conduct'' (1931)
* ''[[The Last Summer (Pasternak novella)|The Last Summer]]'' (1934)
* ''Childhood'' (1941)
* ''Selected Writings'' (1949)
* ''Collected Works'' (1945)
* ''Goethe's Faust'' (1952)
* ''Essay in Autobiography'' (1956)
* ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1957)

== See also ==
* [[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book|ref=Fleishman|author=Fleishman, Lazar |title=Boris Pasternak: The Poet and His Politics|year=1990|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-07905-2}}
* {{cite book|ref=Pasternak59|author=Pasternak, Boris |year=1959|title=I Remember: Sketches for an Autobiography|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=978-1-299-79306-4}}
* {{cite book|ref=Ivinskaya|author=Ivinskaya, Olga |year=1978|title=A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak|publisher= Doubleday|isbn=978-0-00-635336-2}}.
* {{cite book|ref=Slater|editor=Slater, Maya|title=Boris Pasternak: Family Correspondence 1921–1960|isbn=978-0-8179-1025-9|publisher=Hoover Press|year= 2010}}

== Further reading ==
* Conquest, Robert. (1962). ''[https://archive.org/details/pasternakaffair The Pasternak Affair: Courage of Genius. A Documentary Report].'' New York: J.B. Lippincott Company.
** {{cite journal |doi=10.2307/126724|jstor=126724|title=The Pasternak Affair: Courage of Genius|journal=Russian Review|volume=21|issue=3|pages=292|year=1962|last1=Maguire|first1=Robert A.|last2=Conquest|first2=Robert}}
** {{cite journal |doi=10.2307/304612|jstor=304612|title=The Pasternak Affair: Courage of Genius|journal=The Slavic and East European Journal|volume=7|issue=2|pages=183|year=1963|last1=Struve|first1=Gleb|last2=Conquest|first2=Robert}}
* Paolo Mancosu, ''Inside the Zhivago Storm: The Editorial Adventures of Pasternak's Masterpiece,'' Milan: Feltrinelli, 2013
* {{cite book|first1=Frederick T. |last1=Griffiths|first2= Stanley J. |last2=Rabinowitz|first3=Lazarus|last3=Fleishmann|url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/30919/641422.pdf?sequence=1|title=Epic and the Russian Novel from Gogol to Pasternak|format=pdf|pages=241|series=Studies in Russian and Slavic Literatures, Cultures and History|publisher=Academic Studies Press|year=2011|location=Boston|isbn= 978-1-936235-53-7|oclc=929351556}}
* Mossman, Elliott (ed.) (1982) ''The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg 1910 – 1954'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, {{ISBN|978-0-15-122630-6}}
* Peter Finn and Petra Couvee, ''The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book,'' New York: Pantheon Books, 2014
* Paolo Mancosu, ''Zhivago's Secret Journey: From Typescript to Book,'' Stanford: Hoover Press, 2016
* Anna Pasternak, ''Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago'', Ecco, 2017; {{ISBN|978-0-06-243934-5}}.
* Paolo Mancosu, ''Moscow has Ears Everywhere: New Investigations on Pasternak and Ivinskaya,'' Stanford: Hoover Press, 2019

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Boris Pasternak}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Pasternak, Boris}}
* [http://www.theparisreview.org/viewinterview.php/prmMID/4679 Read Pasternak's interview with ''The Paris Review''] Summer-Fall 1960 No. 24
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/364 Pasternak profile at Poets.org]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/zhivago/ei_pasternak.html PBS biography of Pasternak] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605181725/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/zhivago/ei_pasternak.html |date=5 June 2016 }}
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf70000535/ Register of the Pasternak Family Papers at the Hoover Institution Archives]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190329181426/http://pasternak-trust.org/boris/biography/ profile and images at the Pasternak Trust]
* [http://www.uni-marburg.de/aktuelles/unijournal/uj39/uj39.pdf pp. 36–39: Pasternak as a student at Marburg University, Germany]
* [http://stihipoeta.ru/poety-serebryanogo-veka/boris-pasternak/ Boris Pasternak poetry]
* [https://ruverses.com/boris-pasternak/ The Poems] by Boris Pasternak (English)
* [[hdl:1813/43519|Creation of Doctor Zhivago: a talk by E.B. Pasternak]] – Cornell University Lecture Tape Collection, 1990

{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1951–1975}}
{{1958 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Bancarella Prize}}
{{Soviet dissidents}}
{{Doctor Zhivago}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasternak, Boris}}
[[Category:Boris Pasternak| ]]
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