Boris Pasternak
(1890–1960)

Writers throughout the world often suffer government censure for sharing ideas not approved of by their governments. Boris Pasternak was one of those writers. Born in Moscow, near the end of the nineteenth century, he managed to lead a quiet life during two world wars and years of Stalinist rule. Yet, when he wrote his great novel Doctor Zhivago in 1956, the Soviet authorities forbade its publication. The book was published throughout the world and received great critical acclaim. When awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, Pasternak was forced to refuse the honor and sent to live outside Moscow where he remained until he died. In 1988, thirty-two years after it was first written, Doctor Zhivago was published in Russia.

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