A Captive of Time

In 1946 when working for the Soviet literary monthly Novy Mir Olga Ivinskaya met Pasternak. She remembers and describes her ensuing relationship with BL (as she abbreviates his name throughout) as friend, lover and helper through difficult years in particular after publication 1957 of Doctor Zhivago by Feltrinelli and the Nobel Prize award 1958 (which he had to reject as older readers will remember) until and beyond the death of BL two years later and her conviction on trumped up charges and being sent to Siberia for 4 years. It makes for fascinating reading.

I made a few notes on particular subjects and events she mentions:
About P’s relation to Stalin: She quotes Ehrenburg: ‘Why did Stalin not touch Pasternak, who maintained his show more independence, while he destroyed Koltsov*, who dutifully did everything he was asked to do?’; and BL once describing Stalin as a ‘giant of the pre-Christian era.’ [deciding like a Roman emperor over life and death of his subjects] (144+Note 21). - She writes: ‘I believe that between Stalin and Pasternak there was a remarkable, silent duel.’ (145) - She judges ‘P’s feelings about Stalin to be extremely complex and contradictory’ and notes that he himself compares (indirectly) Shigalevism** to Stalinism. (155+Note 23)
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Koltsov
** after Shigalev in The Possessed / Demons

She discusses his relationships to the poets Akhmatova, Yevtushenko, Mayakovsky, Marina Tsvetayeva and writes that ‘Doctor Zhivago is an autobiography - concerned not with the externals of the author’s life, but with his spiritual history.’ (197)

About the publication of Doctor Zhivago by Feltrinelli in Nov. 1957 and the reaction in the USSR: after a long silence first condemnations that grew to a witch hunt two days after the announcement of the Nobel Literature prize award 23 Oct. 1958. P was expelled from the Writers Union because - as she writes - ‘he had broken the rule that requires you to ignore realities and usurped the right, claimed by the rulers for themselves alone, to have an opinion, to speak and think one’s own thoughts.’ (243) A detailed account of the Oct. 31 general meeting of the writers of Moscow (‘Manikins and Men’, 271-289), …

Fascinating the account of her chance meeting on a train and night-long discussion with Rostropovich without being introduced or introducing each other (in the early seventies, 261ff).

Additional material included in this english edition: Max Hayward wrote an introduction outlining the life of Pasternak up to 1946 when he and Olga met, also Notes and Comments and a Biographical guide to the many persons she mentions. Sources of quotations and an Index are provided.

Having learned in detail about the origins of and reactions to Doctor Zhivago - and from the person who inspired Lara - I will read the novel again. (IV-22) 5* show less

pretty boring