The history of the creation of Doctor Living Problems is brief. The creative history of the creation of the novel “Doctor Zhivago”

The novel “Doctor Zhivago” is the result of many years of work by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, the fulfillment of a life’s dream. Since 1918, he repeatedly began to create a large-scale work about the destinies of his generation, but for various reasons he was forced to leave the work unfinished. During this time, everything in the world, and especially in Russia, changed too quickly. Tragic events in the history of our country: Civil War, collectivization, the impending Stalinist terror - largely influenced the concept of the work and the fate of its heroes.

Judging by the surviving cover, Pasternak originally wanted to call the novel “Notes of Zhivult.” But it was never finished, and the Great Patriotic War, which began six years later, forced the author to completely reconsider the concept of his work. In the light of the sense of universality born in the war, he was seen differently: it was necessary to talk about the atmosphere of the whole European history, during which his generation was formed.

Pasternak wrote that he would like to create historical image Russia over the past forty-five years. This will become an expression of his views on art, on Christianity, on human life in history and much more. Since he was engaged in translations, he did not immediately turn to the implementation of the plan. The novel was first called “Boys and Girls,” then “The Candle Was Burning,” and by the fall of 1946 the title “Doctor Zhivago” remained.

Then Pasternak began reading chapters of the novel to his friends. In the summer of 1948, four parts of the novel appeared in print and formed the first book. This first version reached the writer’s friends, and based on their feedback, the author began to continue working.

In the magazine "Znamya" for April 1954, the first poems of Yuri Zhivago appeared with explanatory note that they remained after the death of the doctor Yuri Andreevich Zhivago, who died in 1929. It is very symbolic that the death of the main character occurred precisely in this year, which became a time of disruption in life in the Soviet Union.

At the beginning of 1956, Pasternak gave the completed manuscript of the novel to the editorial office of the magazines "Znamya" and " New world", as well as to the publishing house " Fiction" However, the work was published on November 15, 1957 in Italy, and by the end of 1958 it was published in all European languages. In the same year, the Nobel Committee, on the seventh attempt, awarded him the prize “For outstanding achievements in modern lyric poetry and continuation of the tradition of great prose.”

At home, Pasternak was subjected to real persecution: he was expelled from the Union Soviet writers, a whole stream of accusations and insults appeared in the press, and he was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize. The novel was recognized as anti-Soviet, so a terrible scandal broke out: in the press it was called the “Pasternak affair.” This completely undermined the writer’s health, but he was unable to leave Russia.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak died on May 30, 1960, and his novel “Doctor Zhivago” was read in his homeland only in 1988, 33 years after it was written.

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The history of the creation of the novel essentially covers the entire work of Pasternak - from the plans of early prose, when, having finished the book “My Sister is My Life,” he was working on a novel with the provisional title “Three Names” (in 1922, part of it was published as a story under the title “ Groove's Childhood"), through a number of attempts to create a novel about the fate of his generation dating back to the 30s (several variants of the title of prose of that time are known: “The Beginning of the Novel about Patrick”, “When the Boys Grew Up”, “Notes of Zhivoult”) , until the winter of 1945/46. It was then that the final formation of the concept of the novel called “Doctor Zhivago” took place. Work on the book continues until 1955 in parallel with translations from Shakespeare, including the tragedy “Hamlet”. This resonates both with the intention of the novel, which relates history and modernity to eternal problems humanity, and in its final part - “The Poems of Yuri Zhivago” - which opens with the famous poem “Hamlet”.

At the beginning of 1956, Pasternak, hoping for the publication of his completed novel in leading Soviet magazines, submitted it to the editorial office of Novy Mir, but in the fall of the same year he received a letter of refusal. This determined the fate of the work for 30 years to come. Without the knowledge or consent of the author, the novel was published abroad. In November 1957 it was published in Italian translation, followed by English, French, German, Swedish and Norwegian editions. In October 1958, Pasternak was awarded Nobel Prize, and in his homeland a vile persecution begins, which led to a forced refusal of the prize, and then to expulsion from the Writers' Union. And yet, many connoisseurs of Pasternak’s work in our country had the opportunity to get acquainted with this great work through copies of underground samizdat that passed from hand to hand. But the novel “Doctor Zhivago” came to the general reader only in 1988, when it was finally published in the magazine “New World”. Material from the site

I washed away the names. The history of the creation of the novel shows that its title was carefully thought out by the author. He doesn't just follow long tradition Russian classical literature of the 19th century century, in which the name of the main character is often included in the title of the work (“Eugene Onegin”, “Oblomov”, “Anna Karenina”, “Rudin”, etc.), but also indicates his profession - doctor. For the general concept of the work, this clarification is very significant, since the hero, involved in the maelstrom of terrible historical events, retains his view of the world, history, man, determined by his humanistic position as a doctor. This is reflected in a number of plot collisions(Zhivago, as a doctor, visited the fronts of the First World War, then in a partisan detachment during the Civil War), he helps Lara’s mother and thanks to this he meets a girl, whose love he will carry throughout his life. But the most important thing is that the doctor’s duty is to help all those who suffer, regardless of which camp a particular person belongs to. Therefore, the definition of “doctor” takes on more deep meaning, associated with the Christian concept of mercy. In the terrible trials of world wars, revolutions, civil strife, which split not only the country, but also the person himself, the hero preserves what constitutes the basis of a healthy moral nature of a person, and helps others in this. He seems to be called upon to be a healer of human souls, and it is no coincidence that as the plot of the novel progresses Christian motives intensify and reach their completion in the last poetic part.

It is no coincidence that the hero's surname is also included in the title of the novel. She is certainly speaking, associated with the Christian concept: “The Spirit of the Living God.” Thus, already in the title of the work both the deep Christian foundations of the author’s concept and the main ideological and philosophical axis of the novel are defined - the opposition of life and death. Indeed, much points to the messianic role of his central character who went through suffering and trials, who became a kind of atoning victim of a formidable historical “surgery,” but who gained immortality in his creativity and in the grateful memory of people.

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• The history of the creation of Doctor Zhivago

Boris Pasternak is a whole universe, a galaxy that can be studied endlessly. Doctor Zhivago is a planet where the finest combinations of poetry and reality are collected. This book has a special spirit, its own soul. It should be read as slowly as possible, reflecting on each phrase. Only then can you feel the sublimity of the novel and find the poetic sparks that fill every page.

Anna Akhmatova “pushed” Pasternak to think about creating a novel in May 1944, when she invited him to write “Faust” of the twentieth century. And Boris Leonidovich agreed. Only he wrote not as expected from him, but in his own way. After all, Yuri Zhivago, like Faust, is dissatisfied with himself, with his life and strives to change it. But not by making a deal with the devil, but by painstaking work on your soul and its moral principles.

The moral principle in those difficult years was needed more than ever. Time dictated its conditions, but not everyone sought to silently accept them. Pasternak was tormented by a feeling of some kind of persecution and powerlessness. Repressions, arrests, suicides. Unbearable. The “insatiable machine” consumed everything in its path, leaving no chance of survival. That is why in Doctor Zhivago the entire life of the main characters is literally permeated with suffering, mental anguish, uncertainty and poverty. However, Pasternak sincerely believed that the “red monster” would sooner or later moderate his ardor and change his anger to mercy. But things only got worse. Soon it reached Boris Leonidovich himself. The party leadership began to actively suppress literature. Pasternak was not repressed, but in 1946 warnings began to be received against him as a poet who did not recognize “our ideology.” In the official post-war art he did not fit in either as a poet or as a prose writer.

Despite everything that was happening, hard work on the novel continued. The titles changed one after another: “There will be no death,” “Boys and Girls,” “Innokenty Dudorov.” Yuri Andreevich could turn out to be Doctor Zhivult. It is interesting that Pasternak’s personal connections are also reflected in the novel. Olga Ivinskaya, for whom the author had tender feelings, becomes the prototype of Lara.

Journalistic fate of the book

"Through hardship to the stars". This phrase can describe the difficult path that the novel took to end up in the hands of its many readers. Why? Pasternak was refused publication of the book. However, in 1957 it was published in Italy. It was published in the Soviet Union only in 1988, when the author could no longer find out about it.

The story of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" is in some ways special. In 1958, Boris Leonidovich was nominated for the Nobel Prize, which he refused. In addition, a ban was imposed on the publication of the book, and this further fueled interest in the work. Readers expected something special from the novel. But later they were disappointed. This was not hidden even by Boris Pasternak’s close friends, among whom were quite famous writers A.I. Solzhenitsyn and Anna Akhmatova, who made a remark that sowed alienation between the poets.

Genre of the novel "Doctor Zhivago"

It is difficult to define the genre of a novel unambiguously. The work can be considered autobiographical, since it contained the main milestones of the writer’s life. We can safely say that finding ourselves in the whirlpool of ongoing events and subtly sensing the world in all its changes and vibrations, the hero of the novel is the second “I” of Boris Pasternak.

At the same time, the novel is also philosophical, since questions of existence occupy an important place in it.

The work is also interesting from a historical point of view. Pasternak correlates his novel with a true picture of life. "Doctor Zhivago" - Russia shown to us as it really is. From this point of view, the artist’s book is a traditional realistic work, revealing a historical era through the destinies of individual people.

In terms of its metaphorical nature, imagery, symbolism and poetics, Doctor Zhivago is a novel in verse and prose.

For the majority, this is " love story"with an entertaining plot.

Thus, we have before us a multi-genre novel.

Composition "Doctor Zhivago"

As soon as we begin to get acquainted with the book, from the very first chapter our consciousness puts a tick in front of the item “ structural elements compositions". One of them is the protagonist’s notebook, which has become a harmonious continuation of his prose beginning. The poems confirm the tragic perception of reality by the author and Doctor Zhivago, and reveal the overcoming of tragedy in creativity.

An important compositional feature of the novel is the accumulation of chance encounters, unexpected turns fate, various coincidences and coincidences. The heroes of the novel often think that such life turns are in principle impossible and incredible, that this is some kind of dream, a mirage that will disappear as soon as they open their eyes. But no. Everything is real. It is noteworthy that without this the action of the novel could not develop at all. It is not for nothing that the “poetics of coincidence” declares itself. It is justified artistic originality the work and the attitude of the author, who strives to convey to the reader his vision of a particular situation as accurately as possible.

In addition, the structure of the novel is based on the principle of cinematic editing, the selection of independent scenes - frames. The plot of the novel is not based on the acquaintance of the heroes and further development their relationship, but at the intersection of parallel and independently developing destinies.

Themes of Pasternak's novel

The theme of the path is another one of the leading ones in the novel. One strays from this path and goes to the side, and in an arc here he gains spiritual maturity, dooming himself to difficult thoughts in solitude. Which of them does Zhivago belong to? To the second. The doctor’s flight from half-frozen, hungry Moscow to the Urals is a forced step. Setting off on a journey, Yuri does not feel like a victim. He feels that he will find the truth and discover the hidden truth about himself. This is what happens. Creative gift, true love and life philosophy- this is what a person gets who has escaped the boundaries of his consciousness, left the “safe haven”, and is not afraid to go into the unknown.

The author returns us to another side of reality - to man, elevating love as one of the most beautiful phenomena of life. The theme of love is another theme of the novel. It is literally permeated with love: for children, for family, for each other and for the Motherland.

The themes stated in the novel cannot be divided. They look like skillful weaving, which will immediately collapse if you remove even one thread. Nature, love, fate and the path seem to spin in a graceful dance, which gives us an understanding of the genius of this novel.

Problems in the novel

One of the main problems in the novel is fate creative personality in the revolution.

The pursuit of truth entailed a clash of ideals with reality. Creativity collided with revolutionary reality and desperately defended itself. People were forced to defend their right to individuality. However, their desire for creative originality was brutally suppressed and took away any hope of liberation.

It is noteworthy that the text speaks of physical work as real creative work. The problem of beauty, the philosophy of femininity and even the “royalty” of a person engaged in simple labor is connected primarily with the image of Lara. In everyday chores - at the stove or at the trough - she strikes “the spirit with a breathtaking appeal.” Pasternak peers with admiration at the “beautiful, healthy faces” of “people from the people” who have worked on the earth all their lives. The writer managed to show national character heroes. They not only love, think, act - their deep national roots are manifested in all their actions. They even talk “as only Russian people in Russia talk.”

The problem of love is connected with the main characters in the work. This love is fateful, destined for the heroes from above, but encountering obstacles in the form of chaos and disorder in the surrounding world.

The intelligentsia in the novel "Doctor Zhivago"

In the souls of the Russian intelligentsia of that time there lived a readiness for asceticism. The intelligentsia expected the revolution, imagining it rather abstractly, not realizing what consequences it could lead to.

Thanks to spiritual thirst and the desire to comprehend the world around him, Yuri Andreevich Zhivago becomes a thinker and poet. The hero’s spiritual ideals are based on a miracle: throughout his entire life he never lost the ability to perceive the world, human life and nature as a miracle! Everything is in life, and everything is life, only it was, is and will be. In this philosophy, two points attract attention and explain the reasons for the tragic state of affairs of the hero in his contemporary society: Yuri’s uncertain position and rejection of “violence.” The conviction that “one must attract with goodness” did not allow Zhivago to join any of the two warring parties, because violence was the basis of their programs of activity.

Strelnikov is portrayed in the novel as the antipode of Zhivago. He is a ruthless, irreplaceable reasoner, ready to confirm with his weighty proletarian word any, even the most cruel, sentence. His inhumanity was seen as a miracle of class consciousness, which ultimately led him to suicide.

The intelligentsia played far from last role. The desire for novelty, change and a change in the ruling layer wiped off the face of the earth that thin layer of the real intelligentsia, which consisted of scientists, creative figures, engineers and doctors. New “individuals” began to replace them. Pasternak noticed how, in the putrid atmosphere of NEP, a new privileged layer began to take shape with a claim to an intellectual monopoly and continuity with respect to the old Russian intelligentsia. Returning to Moscow, Yuri Zhivago made a living cutting wood for wealthy people. One day he came in to pay. Yuri Andreevich’s books lay on the table. Wanting to look like an intellectual, the owner of the house read the works of Zhivago, but did not even deign to glance at the author himself.

Revolution and Christian motives

“The grain will not sprout if it does not die,” Pasternak loved this gospel wisdom. Finding yourself in difficult situation, a person still cherishes the hope of revival.

According to many researchers, B. Pasternak’s personality model is Christ-oriented. Yuri Zhivago is not Christ, but the “centuries-old prototype” is reflected in his fate.

To understand the novel, it is necessary to understand the author's approach to the Gospel and to the revolution. In the Gospel, Boris Pasternak perceived, first of all, love for one's neighbor, the idea of ​​personal freedom and an understanding of life as a sacrifice. It was with these axioms that the revolutionary worldview, which permitted violence, turned out to be incompatible.

In his youth, the revolution seemed like a thunderstorm to Pasternak’s hero; there seemed to be “something evangelical” in it - in scale, in spiritual content. The spontaneous revolutionary summer gave way to the autumn of collapse. The bloody soldiers' revolution frightens Yuri Zhivago. Contrary to this, admiration for the idea of ​​revolution breaks through with sincere admiration for the first decrees Soviet power. But he looks at what is happening soberly, becoming more and more convinced that reality is at odds with the proclaimed slogans. If at first Zhivago seemed justified to the doctor surgical intervention for the sake of healing society, then, disappointed, he sees that love and compassion disappear from life, and the desire for truth is replaced by concerns about benefit.

The hero rushes between two camps, rejects the violent suppression of the individual. A conflict develops between Christian and new morality based on violence. Yuri finds himself “neither one nor the other.” The fighters repulse him with their fanaticism. It seems to him that outside of the fight they don’t know what to do. War consumes their entire essence, and there is no place for creativity and no need for truth.

Nature in Doctor Zhivago

Man is part of nature. The natural world in the novel is animated and materialized. He does not rise above a person, but seems to exist in parallel with him: he grieves and rejoices, excites and calms, warns of impending changes.

The tragic scene of the funeral of Yura's mother opens the work. Nature mourns along with people to a good person. The wind sings a mournful song in unison with farewell singing funeral procession. And when Yuri Andreevich passes away, some flowers become a replacement for the “missing singing.” The earth takes the “departed” into another world.

The landscape in the novel is scenic painting, giving rise in the human soul to feelings of admiration and enjoyment of beautiful nature. “You can’t stop looking at it!” - How can you live and not notice this beauty?

Favorite image is the Sun, which “shyly” illuminates the area, being a special attraction. Or, “settling behind houses,” it casts red strokes on objects (a flag, traces of blood), as if warning of impending danger. Another generalizing image of nature is a calm, high Sky, conducive to serious philosophical reflections, or, flashing with a “pink fluttering fire”, empathizing with the events taking place in the human community. The landscape is no longer depicted, but acts.

Man is assessed through nature; comparison with it allows one to formulate more exact description image. So Lara, from the point of view of other characters, " Birch Grove with clean grass and clouds."

Landscape sketches are exciting. White water lilies on the pond, yellow acacia, fragrant lilies of the valley, pink hyacinths - all this on the pages of the novel exudes a unique aroma that penetrates the soul and fills it with burning fire.

The meaning of symbolism

Boris Pasternak is a writer of subtle spiritual organization, living in harmony with nature and feeling the nuances of life, knowing how to enjoy every day he lives and accepting everything that happens as given from above. A person who opens his BOOK is immersed in a world filled with sounds, colors, and symbols. The reader seems to be reincarnated as a listener of music masterfully performed by the pianist. No, this is not solemn music sounding in one key. Major is replaced by minor, the atmosphere of harmony is replaced by an atmosphere of breakdown. Yes, such is life, and it is precisely this perception of it that the artist conveys in the novel. How does he do this?

But day is always replaced by night, warmth is always replaced by cold. Cold, Wind, Blizzard, Snowfall are an integral part of our life, an important component, negative side, which you also need to learn to live with. These symbols in Pasternak's novel indicate that surrounding a person the world can be cruel. It is spiritually necessary to prepare yourself for these difficulties.

Human life is beautiful because it consists not only of opposites, but also includes many different shades. The symbol that personifies the diversity of human types is the Forest, where the most different representatives animal and plant world.

The Road, the Path are symbols of movement, striving forward, symbols of knowledge of the unknown, new discoveries. Each person in life has his own Road, his own destiny. It is important that this is not the road of loneliness, which certainly leads to a dead end in life. It is important that this is the Path that leads a person to Good, Love, Happiness.

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In 1956, Pasternak completed work on the novel Doctor Zhivago. The idea for the novel “Doctor Zhivago,” according to the author himself, arose in 1946, when he was in Georgia to celebrate the centenary of N. Baratashvili: “I wanted to do something big, significant - then the idea of ​​a novel arose. I started with pages about the old estate...”

In the spring of 1954, poems from Doctor Zhivago were published in Znamya (No. 4). The publication was accompanied by a brief summary: “The novel will presumably be completed in the summer. It covers the time from 1903 to 1929 with an epilogue relating to the Great Patriotic War. The hero - Yuri Andreevich Zhivago, a doctor, thinking, searching, creative and artistic, dies in 1929. After him, notes and… poems remain.”

In a letter to O. Freidenberg dated October 1, 1948, the poet admitted: “I work like a convict year after year. And indeed, I am madly, indescribably happy with the open, wide freedom of relations with life, this is how I should have been... at eighteen or twenty years old, but then I was shackled... and did not know the language of life, the language of the sky, the language of the earth as well as theirs. I know now.” Pasternak's mood was largely determined by the post-war social situation, when people hoped for change, a rejection of repression and suppression of the individual. But the poet also had “intervals of despair” when he did not have enough mental strength endure what is happening. “This triumphant, self-satisfied situation, proud of its mediocrity, is terrible, eventless, prehistoric, sanctimoniously stagnant,” he wrote to V. Shalamov in October 1954. Pasternak informed him that he had finished the novel in November 1953, and is now working on details.

The happiness of inner freedom achieved through “hard labor” expanded the scope of creativity and created in the poet a sense of the integrity of being. The critic V. Vozdvizhensky noted the free breathing with which the novel was written.

Even before finishing the work, Pasternak introduced its handwritten version to those people whose opinions he especially valued. One of his first readers was Marina Tsvetaeva’s daughter Ariadna Efron. At that time she was in a settlement in Ryazan. In a letter from exile in November 1948, Ariadne told Pasternak her impression of the heroes of the novel: “The images of Lara, Yura, Pavel painfully enter the heart, because we knew them as you gave them, and we lost them... How good, that you did what only you could do - you didn’t let them all leave nameless and unidentified, you gathered them all... revived them with your breath and work.”

At this time, Pasternak was having a hard time experiencing the state of alienation in the writing community: “And, perhaps, they all write poorly there. But it’s better to make mistakes all together than to make mistakes alone.” He was tormented by doubts about his possible wrongness and the rightness of the majority. In correspondence with Pasternak, V. Shalamov expressed a much harsher assessment of the then literary world, believing that “baseness and cowardice reign in him... oblivion of everything that makes up the proud and great name of the Russian writer.” In the situation of Pasternak’s separation from writers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the reasons were laid for the drama that could not help but occur during his attempts to publish the novel “Doctor Zhivago” in 1956 in the magazine “New World” and the publishing house “ Fiction".

According to the poet’s son, in 1956, a representative of the foreign commission of the Writers’ Union brought a representative of the Italian publishing house D. Angelo to Pasternak in Peredelkino, to whom the manuscript of the work was officially handed over for review. This is how the novel came to the Italian publisher Feltrinelli, who soon notified the author of his intention to publish it. Pasternak replied: “If its publication here, promised by many of our magazines, is delayed, and you get ahead of it, the situation for me will be tragically difficult,” although he was convinced that “thoughts are not born in order to be hidden or drowned out in oneself.” , but to be said.”

The editorial board of Novy Mir rejected the novel. The letter, written by Simonov and signed by Lavrenev, Fedin and others, spoke of Zhivago’s “ideological renegadeism” and the “anti-people spirit” of the novel. The publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” also refused to publish the book. In Italy they did not listen to the writer’s opinion, and the novel “Doctor Zhivago” was first published there at the end of 1957.

The conflict between the honest artist and the writers of the “corrupt time” (Shalamov) reached its climax when it became known that Pasternak had been awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958.

In October 1958, Moscow writers expelled Pasternak from the Writers' Union and asked the government to deprive him Soviet citizenship. M. Aliger, V. Inber, A. Barto read out a letter to the government with a request to expel Pasternak abroad. A. Galich wrote about this meeting of writers:

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak received the Nobel Prize for his brilliant creation"Doctor Zhivago" and merits in Russian prose in 1958. But only his son had a chance to receive this award literally, many years later. Only after going through this difficult path from beginning to end, Pasternak was able to depict the fate of the Russian people in different historical eras using the example of the incomparable novel "Doctor Zhivago".

The author of the novel managed to embody in his creation what he saw, heard, felt and experienced. It is no coincidence that the novel is called partly biographical. And now, many years later, after the events described, we, as now, are experiencing the same thing, just after reading a couple of pages of the work. Every problem that permeates the novel is symbolic and relevant. Each poem and description makes you involuntarily plunge into history and feel its breath on your shoulders.

All images of the novel, plot, composition and concept of the novel are unique in in every sense this word. These people and their destinies are intertwined in the frantic dance of history. Each is individual in their own way, each has something to hide, and they are all heroes of B. Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago.”

These people only had the hope that, despite the transition to another nationality, they would soon return, and in some unknown way everything would be settled. But, alas, only a few managed to return to their homeland, and many of them never found a place for themselves there and groaned with homesickness. And they had a difficult fate on their land.

But it was really real life with its own advantages and disadvantages. Each lived everything that was assigned to him with dignity and according to his fate, having learned the mysteries of love and the horrors of war for himself. But while remaining human. Just like the author of the novel, who recreated the scandalous and peculiar era in the novel “Doctor Zhivago” in all its glory.

The history of the creation and publication of the novel "Doctor Zhivago"

First prose works Pasternak dates back to the winter of 1909-1910, as well as his first poetic experiments. In 1918, “Childhood Eyelets” appeared in print, which was immediately noticed by critics. However, despite the enthusiastic reception, the novel, in which “The Childhood of Eyelets” was allocated a fifth of the entire content, was never completed. Perhaps this was due to both the pressure of life circumstances ( for a long time Pasternak was forced to do translations), and with the disadvantage life experience, necessary for the development of a wide novel canvas. However, unlike the earlier prose, this was already the first significant step towards the style of Doctor Zhivago.

The writer’s characteristic attention to individual fate, to an individual personality, as well as the desire to convey historical events from a “subjective” position found their expression in the first prosaic experiments. This is exactly how the draft of the novel was written, mentioned by B. L. Pasternak in the autobiographical essay “People and Positions.”

In 1932, he went to Sverdlovsk in order to find materials about the socialist reconstruction of the Urals. The devastation and unprecedented social contrasts seen there deeply shock Pasternak. He tried to convey the impression he made in separate prose sketches of the novel, work on which stopped due to serious changes in socio-political life, which caused a severe mental crisis for the writer, who was sensitive to the misfortunes that befell the people. In letters to friends, he often complains about the “gray, enervating emptiness.” .

Since the fall of 1936, the tone of the press towards him has changed dramatically. And he himself again takes up prose.

The play “In the Next World” was imbued with immortality - another work of the writer, begun already during the war in Chistopol.

In another, unfinished, novel, “Spektorsky,” B. Pasternak comes to the idea of ​​trying to combine prose and poetry in one work.

Zenith literary fame Pasternak dates back to the second half of the 20s and the first half of the 30s. In his works one of the the most important topics future novel - the problem of the dignity of the artist in the face of his time, embodied in autobiographical prose" Safe conduct". In it, for the first time, the motive of disappointment in “success” will be heard. October revolution, which was perceived by the writer as “overdue inevitability,” a straightening impulse of life. Its consequences only give rise to a feeling of historical “damage”, which, in the end, will lead Pasternak to an irrevocable break in 1936 with the official literary environment. "Safety certificate" was banned in 1933.

The military “unity” breathed a fresh breath of air into the country’s atmosphere and, at the same time, brought new disappointments.

It was then that Pasternak began the novel Doctor Zhivago. He begins a truthful conversation that reveals his personal attitude to reality.

In June 1946, Pasternak reads the first chapter of the novel “Boys and Girls” (one of the draft titles of “Doctor Zhivago”). The second chapter is ready in August - “A Girl from Another Circle”. In the midst of working on a novel, fate seems to begin to test the author. On September 9, an article appears in the Pravda newspaper, which cites the indicting resolution of the USSR Writers' Union, where Pasternak is branded "an author without ideas, far from Soviet reality." In light of these unpleasant events, B. Pasternak’s public reading of the first chapters of the novel, which took place on the same September day, is perceived by many as a daring, senseless challenge to the authorities.

But for now, the writer is still far from an irrevocable break with official literature, since he needs to feed his family. Work on the novel is slowed down due to the reworking of the second chapter. Pasternak strives to create a spin-off version of Doctor Zhivago, where the revolutionary spirit of the era comes first.

The end of winter - spring of 1947 was marked by work on the third chapter ("Christmas tree at the Sventitskys"). During this period, persecution resumes, having subsided in the winter. Perhaps the reason for this was the news about Pasternak’s nomination for the Nobel Prize.

Only a year later, in the spring of 1948, after extensive translation work, Pasternak managed to finish the fourth chapter (“Years in Between,” the title of the first edition) about the First World War.

On June 26, the XI plenum of the Union of Writers of the USSR opens, at which with the report “Our ideological opponents" stands general secretary Writers' Union A. A. Fadeev, who in his speech condemns Pasternak for escaping reality. At the same time, the speaker argues his thoughts based on laudatory articles about B. Pasternak in the West.

However, even under these conditions, Pasternak continues to create: he wrote a dozen poems from “Yurina’s Notebook.” During April - May, he reworks the chapter “The Christmas tree at the Sventitskys” and finally rewrites the chapter “Overdue Inevitabilities” (formerly “Years in Between”). At the same time, the final title “Doctor Zhivago” was approved with the subtitle “Pictures of Half a Century of Use,” discarded by the author in 1955.

B. Pasternak's position is becoming more and more uncertain. Blow follows blow. In 1949, rumors about his arrest spread in Moscow and Leningrad. Another reason for the danger is the increased interest in the Russian poet in the West. Pasternak is again nominated for the Nobel Prize. Olga Ivinskaya, a close friend of the writer, is arrested. Of course, such a confluence of circumstances and experiences could not but leave an imprint on the work on the novel Doctor Zhivago, in which the poetic and prose chapters of the second book were hastily completed.

In August - October 1950, Pasternak completed chapters 5 and 6 of the second book. And again, forced translation work suspended the writing of the novel. According to friends, in December 1951, Pasternak was in obvious decline of spirit. Renewal and transformation come to the writer only with the onset of spring. In May 1952, he finished Chapter 7 of the novel, which is now more criticized than admired.

On the 10th of October, the 10th chapter of the novel was sent for reprint, and on October 20, Boris Pasternak ended up in the Botkin hospital with a massive heart attack, where he remained until January 6, 1953. It was here that the seriously ill writer with particular joy felt his unity with eternal life, his natural gift as an artist from God. More than ever before, Pasternak wanted to talk about God, to “glorify” the Creator of all things.

In the summer, while in the Bolshevo sanatorium, Pasternak writes eleven more poems in “Yurina’s Notebook,” two of which he will delete later. The final order of the “notebook” cycle will be established only in the fall of 1955.

In the fall of 1953, O. Ivinskaya was released from prison. A year later, in the midst of work on the novel, rumors spread again about Pasternak being awarded the Nobel Prize. Finally, on October 10, 1955, the novel staged last point, whose complicated story It's not over yet.

In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for the novel Doctor Zhivago. He voluntarily renounces it because this solemn personal moment is given a purely political character. .