Summary
Boris Pasternak's epic novel Doctor Zhivago is considered one of the great works of 20th- century Russian literature. First published in Italy in 1957 after being banned in the Soviet Union, the sweeping story follows the life of physician and poet Yuri Zhivago during the tumultuous period of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. Pasternak earned the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 for this novel, though he was forced to decline the award under pressure from Soviet authorities. Doctor Zhivago is renowned for its vivid depiction of Russian history and its exploration of the struggle between individual desires and societal demands. The book was famously adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1965, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.
Plot
Doctor Zhivago follows the life of Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, during the tumultuous period of Russian history spanning the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war. As a young man, Yuri marries his childhood friend Tonya, but later falls in love with nurse Lara Antipova while serving as a medical officer during World War I. After the October Revolution, Yuri and his family flee Moscow to a rural estate in the Ural Mountains. There, Yuri has a chance encounter with Lara and they begin an affair.
Yuri is later abducted and forced to serve as a medical officer for the Communist partisans. After two years, he escapes and returns to find his family has managed to escape Russia. He reunites with Lara briefly before she leaves the country with her former lover, Victor Komarovsky. Yuri then returns to Moscow, where he lives in poverty and declining health. He fathers two children with another woman but eventually dies of heart failure while riding a tram.
The novel concludes years after the doctor’s death, when Yuri's half-brother Yevgraf meets a young woman named Tanya he believes may be Yuri and Lara's daughter. The final section features a selection of Yuri's poems, meant to represent his artistic legacy that survived the tumultuous times he lived through.
Themes
Love and passion in times of war and revolution
Individual freedom vs. societal expectations
The power of art and poetry to transcend suffering
Loss of idealism and disillusionment with political ideology
Nature as a source of solace and renewal
The unpredictability of fate and coincidence
Perseverance of the human spirit in the face of oppression
Setting
Boris Pasternak's epic novel Doctor Zhivago is set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Russia, spanning the tumultuous period from the 1905 Russian Revolution through World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the subsequent Russian Civil War. The story unfolds across a vast geographical area, moving between Moscow, the Ural Mountains, and Siberia as the characters are swept up in the dramatic historical events reshaping their nation.
Much of the novel takes place in Moscow, where the protagonist Yuri Zhivago grows up and later works as a physician. Key scenes also occur in the fictional town of Yuriatin in the Ural Mountains, based on the real city of Perm where Pasternak had lived briefly. The harsh Siberian wilderness provides a striking backdrop for portions of the narrative, as characters flee the upheaval in European Russia or find themselves exiled there.
Pasternak vividly evokes the atmosphere of Russia during this era of profound change, contrasting the refined world of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia with the chaos and deprivation of war and revolution. The author draws on his own experiences of the period to create an immersive historical setting, bringing to life both the grand sweep of history and the intimate details of daily life during these turbulent times. Through this rich backdrop, Pasternak explores themes of love, art, and individual freedom in the face of authoritarian power.
Characters
Yuri Zhivago: The protagonist, a physician and poet caught up in the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Idealistic and conflicted between his passions and obligations.
Lara Antipova: Yuri's great love and mistress. A strong-willed nurse who endures many hardships.
Tonya Gromeko: Yuri's wife and childhood friend. Loyal and steadfast, despite Yuri's infidelity.
Pasha Antipov / Strelnikov: Lara's husband, who becomes a fearsome Red Army commander known as Strelnikov.
Viktor Komarovsky: An influential lawyer and politician who takes advantage of Lara in her youth.
Yevgraf Zhivago: Yuri's half-brother, a dedicated Bolshevik. He narrates parts of the story.
Anna Gromeko: Tonya's mother, who raises Yuri after he is orphaned.
Alexander Gromeko: Tonya's father, a professor who becomes Yuri's guardian.
Misha Gordon: Yuri's lifelong friend, a Jewish intellectual.
Nika Dudorov: Another of Yuri's friends from youth, who becomes a teacher.
Quick facts
Doctor Zhivago was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988 due to its criticism of the Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet policies.
Boris Pasternak was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958 after facing threats of exile from Soviet authorities.
The CIA secretly printed and distributed Russian-language copies of the novel in 1958 as propaganda against the Soviet regime.
Pasternak's mistress, Olga Ivinskaya, served as the inspiration for the character of Lara in the novel.
The novel took more than 10 years to write and contains passages Pasternak wrote in the 1910s and 1920s.
Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli smuggled the manuscript out of the Soviet Union to publish it in 1957.
The 1965 film adaptation, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, won five Academy Awards and is considered one of the highest-grossing films of all time.
Pasternak used the fictional town of Yuriatin as a stand-in for the real city of Perm, where he lived briefly in 1916.
The novel has been adapted into multiple TV series, films, plays, and musicals over the decades.
Doctor Zhivago was finally published in the Soviet Union in 1988 during the period of glasnost reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev.
About the Author
Boris Pasternak was a renowned Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator who lived from 1890 to 1960. Born into an artistic family in Moscow, Pasternak initially pursued music before turning to literature. He first gained recognition as a poet in the 1920s with collections like My Sister, Life, which revolutionized Russian poetry with its vivid imagery and unconventional style.
Pasternak's most famous work is the novel Doctor Zhivago, completed in 1955. This novel was rejected for publication in the Soviet Union due to its criticisms of the Bolshevik Revolution and Communist rule. The novel was smuggled out of the country and published abroad in 1957, becoming an international sensation. This led to Pasternak being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which Soviet authorities forced him to decline.
Throughout his career, Pasternak walked a fine line between artistic integrity and political compliance in the oppressive Soviet system. While he produced works praising Stalin and the Soviet state, he also maintained his own poetic vision and refused to fully conform to socialist realism. Pasternak's courage in writing Doctor Zhivago made him a symbol of artistic resistance, though it came at great personal cost.
Beyond his original works, Pasternak was also an accomplished translator who produced influential Russian versions of Shakespeare's plays as well as works by Goethe, Rilke, and others. After his death, Pasternak's reputation was rehabilitated in Russia, where he is now considered one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century. His life and work continue
