Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak was born on the 30th of May 1890 in Moscow into a wealthy Jewish family. His father Leonid Pasternak worked as a post-Impressionist painter and taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. His mother Rosa Kaufman was a concert pianist who studied under Anton Rubinstein and Theodor Leschetizky. The family home often hosted famous figures like Sergei Rachmaninoff and Rainer Maria Rilke. Young Boris began composing music at age thirteen and entered the Moscow Conservatory to study piano. He left that institution abruptly in 1910 at age twenty to pursue philosophy instead. This early musical training shaped his later poetic rhythm and structure throughout his career.
In 1922 Pasternak published My Sister Life in Berlin and it became an important collection in the Russian language. The book revolutionized Russian poetry and made him a model for younger poets including Osip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetayeva. Before this success he had joined the Russian Futurist group Centrifuge as a pianist while poetry remained only a hobby. In 1914 he published a satirical article in Rukonog attacking Vadim Shershenevich leader of the Mezzanine of Poetry group. This action caused a verbal battle among several members fighting for recognition as true Russian Futurists. The first two books of his poetry appeared shortly after these events and contained striking alliterations mixed with wild rhythmic combinations.
On the night of the 14th of May 1934 Osip Mandelstam was arrested based on a warrant signed by NKVD boss Genrikh Yagoda. Pasternak went immediately to the offices of Izvestia and begged Nikolai Bukharin to intercede on Mandelstam's behalf. A voice from the Kremlin then called asking Stalin to speak with him directly about the arrest. Stalin addressed him in a bluff uncouth fashion using the familiar thou form and asked what literary circles were saying about the situation. Flustered Pasternak denied any discussion existed but Stalin mocked him for not sticking up for a comrade. During the 1937 trial of General Iona Yakir and Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky the Union of Soviet Writers requested all members sign statements supporting the death penalty. Pasternak refused to sign even after leadership visited him personally.
In March 1956 an Italian journalist named Sergio D'Angelo traveled to Peredelkino and offered to submit Doctor Zhivago to publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. At first Pasternak laughed and told him You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad. He believed Feltrinelli's Communist affiliation might force the Soviet State to publish the novel domestically. In 1957 Feltrinelli announced the novel would be published by his company despite repeated demands from visiting Soviet emissaries. The Soviet government forced Pasternak to cable the publisher to withdraw the manuscript but he sent secret letters advising Feltrinelli to ignore them. The book became an instant sensation throughout the non-Communist world upon its release in November 1957. Between 1958 and 1959 the English edition spent twenty-six weeks at the top of The New York Times bestseller list.
On the 23rd of October 1958 Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. On the 25th of October he sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy saying Infinitely grateful touched proud surprised overwhelmed. That same day the Literary Institute in Moscow demanded all students sign petitions denouncing Pasternak and joining spontaneous demonstrations demanding his exile. On the 26th of October the Literary Gazette ran an article titled Reactionary Propaganda Uproar over a Literary Weed. Pasternak learned that if he traveled to Stockholm to collect his medal he would be refused re-entry to the Soviet Union. On the 29th of October he sent a second telegram renouncing the award stating I must renounce this undeserved distinction which has been conferred on me. The Union of Soviet Writers expelled him from their organization and signed petitions demanding he be stripped of citizenship and exiled to his Capitalist paradise.
In October 1946 Pasternak met Olga Ivinskaya who worked at Novy Mir magazine and was thirty-four years old. They began an extramarital relationship that lasted until his death despite his marriage to Zinaida Neuhaus. On the evening of the 6th of October 1949 Ivinskaya was arrested by the KGB while working on translations of Korean poet Won Tu-Son. Her apartment was ransacked and items connected with Pasternak were piled up before her eyes. She was taken to Lubyanka Prison where she refused to say anything incriminating about him. During her ten-year sentence in the GULAG she suffered a miscarriage early on because she was pregnant with Pasternak's child. He later told friends that her heroism saved his life since they hoped evidence extracted from her would put him on trial.
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Common questions
When was Boris Pasternak born and where did he grow up?
Boris Pasternak was born on the 30th of May 1890 in Moscow into a wealthy Jewish family. His father Leonid Pasternak worked as a post-Impressionist painter and his mother Rosa Kaufman was a concert pianist.
What major poetry collection did Boris Pasternak publish in 1922?
In 1922 Pasternak published My Sister Life in Berlin which became an important collection in the Russian language. The book revolutionized Russian poetry and made him a model for younger poets including Osip Mandelstam and Marina Tsvetayeva.
Why did Boris Pasternak refuse to sign statements supporting the death penalty during the 1937 trial?
During the 1937 trial of General Iona Yakir and Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky the Union of Soviet Writers requested all members sign statements supporting the death penalty. Pasternak refused to sign even after leadership visited him personally.
How many weeks did the English edition of Doctor Zhivago spend at the top of The New York Times bestseller list?
Between 1958 and 1959 the English edition spent twenty-six weeks at the top of The New York Times bestseller list. The book became an instant sensation throughout the non-Communist world upon its release in November 1957.
When was Boris Pasternak announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature?
On the 23rd of October 1958 Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He later sent a second telegram on the 29th of October renouncing the award due to pressure from the Soviet government.