Boris Pasternak

Literature / Writers Datebook: February 10

 

 

 

Brief biography of Boris Pasternak, celebrated 20th-century Russian poet and novelist, famous for epic novel Doctor Zhivago, and 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature. His My Sister Life, written in 1917, is arguably the most influential collection of poetry. 

 

 

 Early Life

Boris Pasternak was born in Moscow on February 10, 1890. His parents were a prominent Jewish painter Leonid Pasternak, a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, who was converted to Orthodox Christianity, and mother Rosa Kaufman, a popular pianist.

He was brought up in a cosmopolitan atmosphere, his father's home being visited by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Leo Tolstoy. His father's conversion to Christianity affected Pasternak deeply, and many of his later poems hold Christian themes. Inspired by his neighbour, composer Alexander Scriabin, Pasternak resolved to become a composer and entered the Moscow Conservatory. However, In 1910, he left the conservatory for the University of Marburg, where he studied under Neo-Kantian philosophers Hermann Cohen and Nicolai Hartmann. Although he was invited to become a scholar, he decided against philosophy as a profession and returned to Moscow in 1914.

Literary Influences

His first collection of poetry, influenced by Alexander Blok and the Russian Futurists, was published later that same year. He was also influenced by his favourite poets Rainer Maria Rilke, Mikhail Lermontov and German Romantics.

During World War I, he taught and worked at a chemical factory in the Urals. This would have provided him with material for his epic novel Dr. Zhivago. Unlike his relatives and many of his friends, Pasternak didn't leave Russia after the revolution. He supported the Russian Revolution but was disappointed by the brutality of the new communist government.

Dr. Zhivago

In the 1930s, he fell off favour with the communist authorities as his writings shifted from political issues to individuals and emotions, and not focusing on socialist themes. 

In 1956, Pasternak completed his masterpiece, Doctor Zhivago, a novel which became an epic film starring Omar Shariff in the title role. The novel describes the Russian Revolution and its effects on the lives of Zhivago, a doctor and poet based on Pasternak, and his love Lara (played by Julie Christie in the film), who was modeled on Pasternak's companion, Olga Ivinskaya. The novel was refused publication as the authorities thought it anticommunist, but the manuscript was smuggled into Italy where it was published to international acclaim.

In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. The Russian government was outraged. He was forced to refuse the prize. Pasternak was persecuted and despite turning down the Nobel Prize, he was officially witch-hunted and threatened with expulsion.

Last Years

Pasternak died of lung cancer on May 30, 1960. Despite only a small notice appearing in the Literary Gazette, thousands of people came from Moscow to his funeral om Peredelkino his resting place. Doctor Zhivago was eventually published in Russia in 1987. Pasternak's post-Zhivago poetry probes the universal questions of love, immortality and reconciliation with God. 

Trivia: In the film "Doctor Zhivago", the haunting song "Lara's Theme" from the Academy Award Winning Music produced by Paul Francis Webster & Maurice Jarre, is popularized by Andy Williams with the title "Somewhere My Love"

 

Photo Credit:

Boris Pasternak. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

 

Resources:

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, edited by Uma McGovern, Chambers, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse, 1994 

 

(c) February 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.