What I Didn’t Know About Doctor Zhivago

I first saw the movie Doctor Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, back when I was in high school. And, sure, I’ll admit it: I cried my eyes out at the end. It’s a sad and sweeping story, set in Russia during WW I and the Russian Civil War. The title character, Yuri Zhivago, is drafted during WW I and becomes a battlefield doctor. He enlists the help of Lara as a nurse. Though the two fall in love, they are both married to another and stay true to that marriage. After the war they each return to their separate homes and spouses. They encounter each other again over the course of the film, and the ending is very sad, but you’ll have to watch it yourself to find out what happens.

An image from the film Doctor Zhivago.

Author Boris Pasternak.

Later, I learned that the movie was based on a book by the author Boris Pasternak. Born in 1890 in Russia, Pasternak wrote many novels and poetry collections before his death in 1960. Perhaps best known for his book Doctor Zhivago, which was published in 1957, he also won the Nobel Prize in 1958. But you know what I didn’t know (hence the title of this blog post)? That Doctor Zhivago was published in Italy in 1957, because Russia viewed the novel as anti-Soviet and a rejection of socialist realism. Though Pasternak was worried about the consequences, he allowed the manuscript of Doctor Zhivago to be smuggled out of Russia and into Italy for publication.

The other thing I didn’t know (I learned a lot this week) is that the CIA helped to distribute Doctor Zhivago and drive its popularity. We even have a book about it, which you can find listed below. All of this is fascinating to me because today, November 21st, is the anniversary of the announcement of Doctor Zhivago being published. I also realized that a recent Reese’s Book Club book and bestseller, The Secrets We Kept, is a fictional account of Doctor Zhivago being smuggled out of Russia. Sixty-two years after its publication, Doctor Zhivago is still a powerful work that inspires the imagination. If you haven’t read it or watched the film, you really should.


Nonfiction on Doctor Zhivago

The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book 
By Peter Finn and Petra Couvee 
In May of 1956, an Italian publishing scout took a train to the Russian countryside to visit the country's most beloved poet, Boris Pasternak. He left concealing the original manuscript of Pasternak's much anticipated first novel, entrusted to him with these words from the author: "This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world..."

Lara: The Untold Love Story that Inspired Doctor Zhivago 
By Anna Pasternak 
Drawing on previously neglected family sources and original interviews, Boris's great-niece, Anna Pasternak, explores the hidden act of moral compromise by her great-uncle, and restores to history the passionate affair that inspired and animated Doctor Zhivago.