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The Zhivago Affair
The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book | Peter Finn, Petra Couvee
10 posts | 8 read | 1 reading | 17 to read
Drawing on newly declassified government files, this is the dramatic story of how a forbidden book in the Soviet Union became a secret CIA weapon in the ideological battle between East and West. In May 1956, an Italian publishing scout took a train to a village just outside Moscow to visit Russia’s greatest living poet, Boris Pasternak. He left carrying the original manuscript of Pasternak’s first and only novel, entrusted to him with these words: “This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world.” Pasternak believed his novel was unlikely ever to be published in the Soviet Union, where the authorities regarded it as an irredeemable assault on the 1917 Revolution. But he thought it stood a chance in the West and, indeed, beginning in Italy, Doctor Zhivago was widely published in translation throughout the world. From there the life of this extraordinary book entered the realm of the spy novel. The CIA, which recognized that the Cold War was above all an ideological battle, published a Russian-language edition of Doctor Zhivago and smuggled it into the Soviet Union. Copies were devoured in Moscow and Leningrad, sold on the black market, and passed surreptitiously from friend to friend. Pasternak’s funeral in 1960 was attended by thousands of admirers who defied their government to bid him farewell. The example he set launched the great tradition of the writer-dissident in the Soviet Union. In The Zhivago Affair, Peter Finn and Petra Couvée bring us intimately close to this charming, passionate, and complex artist. First to obtain CIA files providing concrete proof of the agency’s involvement, the authors give us a literary thriller that takes us back to a fascinating period of the Cold War—to a time when literature had the power to stir the world. (With 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations.) From the Hardcover edition.
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AlaMich
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This sounds very intriguing! I haven‘t read Dr Zhivago or seen the movie, but I still want to read this. #booksaboutbooks

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gracemom
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2nd book of 2018. Can‘t wait!

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Amandajoy
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Had a date with a fantastic man today. He took me to a used book store that I‘d never been to. I found this one, and it looks pretty intriguing. All in all, I‘d say it was a good day off.

ralexist That is excellent date :) 7y
LeahBergen You better marry him. 😂😂 7y
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shawnmooney
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Bailedbailed

Another nonfiction book that had a magazine article's worth of interestingness. The part about Pasternak's life was somewhat interesting, but the 'Cold War battle' stuff was mind-numbingly boring. Bailed just before the halfway point. Oh and it didn't help that the audio was narrated by Simon Vance, whose affected, dulcet voice and accent suit novels about Tudor England to a T but jarred and annoyed here.

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shawnmooney
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quirkyreader Find a copy of the letters that they wrote to Rilke and be amazed at the passion poured out in them. 7y
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shawnmooney
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Just starting this on audio. In the opening chapter, much is made of how handsome Pasternak was. I would have to agree. 😛

shawnmooney @jeff When you have a moment please add the co-author: Petra Couvée. Also the subtitle: "The Kremlin, the CIA, and The Battle Over a Forbidden Book." Thanks! (edited) 7y
saresmoore Oh my. He is dreamy! 7y
quirkyreader Some of his photos don't do him justice though. Is this book about his affair with Olga or is it fiction? 7y
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shawnmooney @quirkyreader It is nonfiction about the Cold War battle over the novel. 7y
quirkyreader I just read a "brief lives" type bio about Pasternak. It's on on Listy, but goodreads has it. I think it was by Robert Payne. Fun fact: for one of my Russian studies classes I did a whole project around Dr. Z and how it was suppressed. I was even able to get my hands on a copy of "Pravda" and read articles about the suppression. 7y
quirkyreader I just read a "brief lives" type bio about Pasternak. It's not on Listy, but goodreads has it. I think it was by Robert Payne. Fun fact: for one of my Russian studies classes I did a whole project around Dr. Z and how it was suppressed. I was even able to get my hands on a copy of "Pravda" and read articles about the suppression. 7y
LeahBergen Yep. 😉 7y
jeff @shawnmooney Done! (Petra was actually already listed as a co-author) 7y
shawnmooney @jeff Thanks! (and you were right!) 7y
shawnmooney @quirkyreader I am really enjoying this book so far! 7y
44 likes10 comments
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Keegz63
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Listening so my eyes can recover from 24in48, and my hands are free to fold my neglected laundry 🙄

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akfreeborn
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Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago was so daring to create during Soviet times but the story of how it got published and the toll it took on its author is a story in and of itself. #banned books #somethingforseptember #septphotochallenge

shawnmooney This sounds amazing! It's one of the great regrets of my life that I came so very very close to having tea with Pasternak's sister when I visited Oxford, but no cigar; she was a friend of the woman I was visiting there, but that particular weekend in around 1987 Ann Pasternak Slater was ill so the tea party didn't happen. She died two years later. 8y
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Knowledgelost
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Pickpick

This story behind Doctor Zhivago is just as interesting as the novel itself. Perfect companion piece