Among
Nobel laureates for literature, Boris Pasternak has been the one with all the
asterisks. At first, there was an asterisk saying “award refused,” but then it
was changed to “forced to refuse.” Eventually, the Pasternak family finally
posthumously accepted his rightful prize. It was a proud day for them and the
CIA. The story of Pasternak’s celebrated and censored novel is chronicled in
the documentary special, The Real Doctor
Zhivago, directed by George Cathro, which premieres this Monday on Acorn
TV.
Boris
Pasternak was more Russian than vodka, borsht, or caviar. He hailed from an
elite family, but he initially supported the revolution, out of sympathy for
his less fortunate countrymen. Technically, Pasternak never explicitly turned
against the Soviet system, but he wrote the unvarnished truth as he saw it. His
epic novel Doctor Zhivago was where
he recorded it all.
One
of the great ironies Real Zhivago reveals
is Stalin’s high regard for Pasternak’s poetry. Unbeknownst to Pasternak, the
Soviet dictator interceded with his underlings several times on his behalf. Khrushchev,
not so much. However, Pasternak’s found other fans, most notably the CIA, who
supported the international publication of his great novel and masterminded
schemes to smuggle samizdat copies back into Russia. Yet, in another supreme
irony, a publisher affiliated with the Italian Communist Party was the first
house to publish Doctor Zhivago in
any country.
Host
Stephen Smith talks extensively with Pasternak family members and relatives of
his great love and editor, Olga Ivinskaya, who is widely acknowledged as the
inspiration for Zhivago’s lover, Lara. We also hear from many of his surviving
champions in the west, as well as several Pasternak scholars. Smith takes a
little getting used to (he has the voice of gameshow host, which isn’t
necessarily a bad thing), but he clearly did his homework, demonstrating
intimate familiarity with the novel in question.
Clearly,
the notion that the CIA exploited Pasternak is floated several times during RDZ, but one could argue his increased prominence
also afforded him greater protection, creating a politically climate wherein it
would be risky for the Soviets to make him disappear for long. Indeed, they focused
most of their thuggery on Ivinskaya instead. Regardless, it is painfully
obvious the CIA (as well as the VOA) were much more attuned to the geopolitical
significance of art and culture in the 1950s and 1960s than they are now.
