A Russian literary expert says the U.S. secret service oversaw the
publication in Russian of Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago," paving
the way for him to win the world's most coveted literary prize.
By RFE/RL
In 1958, Boris Pasternak, the great Russian poet and
novelist, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for what the Nobel
committee described as his "important achievement both in contemporary
lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition."
Best known in the Soviet Union
for his poetic verse, it was his "epic" novel "Doctor
Zhivago" that gained him the greatest recognition in the West.
A tragic love story set against the tumult of Russia's
Bolshevik Revolution, "Doctor Zhivago" for many readers represented
the epitome of the classic Russian novel.
The novel was first published in Italian in 1957; numerous
translations followed.
In the spring of 1958, the French writer and philosopher
Albert Camus nominated Pasternak for the Nobel Prize. But there was one key
matter standing in his way: the book was not published in Russian, and writers
must have their work published in their native language before they can be
considered for a Nobel Prize.
How The CIA Became Involved
"Initially, during 1956, the Moscow publisher
Goslitizdat -- the Soviet Union's main publishing house -- promised to put out
the book, but after the Hungarian events of October 1956, the policy of the
Soviet Union underwent a radical change," explains Ivan Tolstoi, a Russian
literary expert and correspondent for RFE/RL's Russian Service. "There was
to be no liberalization, no open poetry, prose, or plays -- nothing. They
began, as we used to say in the Soviet Union,
to tighten the screws."
From that moment, efforts began in the West to see
"Zhivago" published in Russian.
But as the political climate in the Soviet
Union darkened, Pasternak's supporters in the West found the
proposition of publishing "Zhivago" increasingly risky.
Intensifying their hesitation, says Tolstoi, was the
realization that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was behind plans to
hasten the Russian edition's arrival.
Tolstoi, who spent the results of years researching the
efforts behind the first publication of Pasternak's classic work in its native
language, claims the CIA -- through a series of elaborate schemes -- ultimately
published the book on its own.
The project, he argues, did more than win Pasternak the
Nobel Prize; it also saved his life. "Thanks to the fact that Pasternak
won the Nobel Prize, Pasternak wasn't arrested," says Tolstoi. "This
deed by the CIA served to ennoble and save Pasternak. The actions of American
intelligence saved a great Russian poet."
But, in a December 14 presentation in Moscow, Tolstoi said "Pasternak had
absolutely nothing to do with" the operation. "The American
intelligence community did and financed everything itself, in order that a
famous novel from an ingenious writer and poet might receive recognition."
Pasternak was forced to decline the award under pressure
from Soviet authorities. But when he died two years later, in 1960, it was in
his home in Peredelkino -- not in prison or exile abroad. It was a better fate
than those of many Russian writers of the time.
Tolstoi said America's
use of culture as a weapon in its ideological battle with the Soviet
Union typifies what he calls "the drama of the Cold
War."
"American intelligence, American policy, in this story,
battled Kremlin ideology and communism not with poison, or kidnappings, or some
other unseemly actions, but with the help of Russian culture," Tolstoi
said. "They used Russian culture to fight against the Soviet state."
An interesting historical footnote, Tolstoi noted, is that
the 1958 edition of "Zhivago" did not reflect Pasternak's final
proofread version of the story, which was published only in 1967 -- nine years
after he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
