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Doctor Zhivago | Introduction

Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was first published in 1957, not in Pasternak’s homeland, the Soviet Union, but rather in Italy. Pasternak’s manuscript for this novel had to be written in secrecy and then smuggled out of the Soviet Union because of government censorship of Pasternak’s work. Pasternak, as the author espouses through his protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, in this his only novel, believed that art should not be enslaved by politics and thus criticized his oppressive government through his writing.

Doctor Zhivago is an epic work that provides several fictionalized eye-witness accounts of the upheaval in Russia as the tsar is deposed, communism rises from the revolution, and a Marist government attempts to take control. Doctor Zhivago is also a love story of a man torn between two women—his wife, Tonia, and the beautiful Lara with whom Yuri has an affair. This novel explores the idealism of its protagonist, which is contrasted with the brutal reality of war and its effects on ordinary citizens. This work of fiction is also a philosophical treatise on life, religion, and art as expressed by its protagonist. Finally, Pasternak, who was also a poet, wrote Doctor Zhivago in a particularly lyrical style. Much of the text reads like poetry.

Critics, over the years, have had trouble classifying the work since in certain ways it does not conform to the conventions regarding novels. Pasternak often introduces characters who quickly disappear. The author often jumps forward in the story before solving present mysteries and sometimes focuses more on language and philosophical thought than on developing the plot line.

Despite some of these characteristics, Doctor Zhivago draws readers inside the lives and thoughts of its characters, their hopes and frustrations, their disappointments and their passions as they live through the Bolshevik Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union, as a new world order under communism is attempted. One of the messages that Doctor Zhivago delivers is that some dreams are never realized.

Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for this novel. First published in Italian, the work was translated into many different languages and its story served as the basis for film and television dramas. After Pasternak died in 1960, the novel was finally accepted into the Russian literary canon.

Doctor Zhivago Summary

Chapter One: The Five-O’clock Express
Paternak’s Doctor Zhivago begins with the funeral of the protagonist’s mother. Yura Zhivago (who is called Yurii once he becomes an adult) is taken away by his maternal uncle, Nikolai Vedeniapin (or Uncle Kolia), whom Yura admires. Nikolai is a defrocked priest, cast out of the priesthood supposedly for his radical political views. He becomes, later in this book, a well known author, mostly of philosophy tinged with political theories.

Background information is given. Yura’s father, a businessman, was very wealthy. Many buildings and streets in the town where Yura lived with his mother were named Zhivago, illustrating the influence that his father once had. Yura’s father, however, was seldom at home. Yura discovers later that his father had a mistress and squandered the family’s wealth. Yura’s sickly mother often traveled in southern European countries in an attempt to cure her consumption. Yura, by the time of his mother’s death, was used to living in the homes of many different people.

The chapter jumps ahead to 1903. Yura is still with his uncle. They visit another author whose work Uncle Nikolai has edited. Nikolai reminds Yura of his mother, “his mind moved with freedom and welcomed the unfamiliar.” In this chapter, Pasternak initiates one of the main themes of this novel: the importance of the individual. Uncle Nikolai explains his belief that only the individual can express truth. But political thought in Russia at the time so subscribes to the group that Nikolai fears that outcome will be mediocrity. Uncle Nikolai suspects that many people grab on to one idea and stick with it regardless of its value.

Also introduced in this chapter is Misha Gordon, a boy about the same age as Yura who becomes Yura’s lifelong friend. Misha is traveling with his father on a train. On this same train is Yura Zhivago’s father, who eventually throws himself onto the tracks, committing suicide. Also on this train is a character that prevails in the novel, Victor Komarovsky, a lawyer. It is suspected that Komarovsky affected Yura’s father’s suicide, by fostering the older man’s excessive drinking and leading him to financial ruin.

Chapter Two: A Girl from a Different World
An indeterminate amount of time has passed. Larisa (Lara) Guishar and her family, the widowed Amalia Guishar (Lara’s mother) and Rodia (Lara’s younger brother), are introduced. Russia is involved in a war with Japan (which Russia will lose) and the somewhat unorganized and sporadic revolutions of its citizens. The Guishars have just arrived in Moscow. Amalia has some money left from her husband’s estate, but the sum is fast dwindling. She has asked Victor Komarovsky (who was at one time her husband’s lawyer) to help her invest the money. Amalia buys a sewing shop and lives in one of the poorest sections of the city in order to extend her funds. She also has an affair with Komarovsky.

Lara, sixteen years old and just coming into her womanhood, notices the way Komarovsky looks at her, and this makes her very uncomfortable. However, as Komarovsky continues to focus on her, Lara is torn between hating him and being flattered by his attention. Komarovsky takes her out to dinner one night and makes a sexual pass at her. She turns him down initially but later gives in. Komarovsky is fascinated by Lara for her beauty, her intelligence, and her wild nature. Komarovsky scares Lara, and she despises herself for giving in to him.

Later in the chapter, Kuprian Tiverzin is introduced. He will later become a revolutionary. At this point of the story, Tiverzin becomes involved in one of the first labor strikes as the revolution gains momentum. Tiverzin has been identified as one of the leaders of the strike, and his mother warns him to run away. Pasha Antipov, the son of one of the managers of the railroad, seeks Tiverzin’s mother, asking her to give him shelter since his father has been imprisoned.

A mass demonstration is organized; throngs of people crowd the streets, intent on rallying and protesting in front of the tsar’s winter quarters. Tiverzin’s mother takes Pasha with her as she joins the marchers. Cossacks, the tsar’s military guard, surround the demonstrators and shoot indiscriminately into the crowd. Tiverzin’s mother is punched in the back but not seriously injured.

Yura’s uncle Nikolai has been published and is now very much in demand, giving lectures and teaching courses. He has left Yura in the care of the Gromekos. Alexander Gromeko is a chemistry professor. His wife, Anna, is the daughter of Ivan Krueger, a rich industrialist. The Gromekos have a daughter, Antonina (Tonia). Misha Gordon has also been left with the Gromekos, so Yura, Tonia, and Misha all live together through their adolescent years. Nikolai comments on how the three teens share beliefs about sexuality, how they think it is vulgar. Nikolai believes the youths have gone too far in their condemnation of sex.

Lara meets Pasha and notices that the boy has a crush on her. She watches him play with friends as if they are soldiers.

Lara hears that the area of Moscow where she and her mother live will soon be under attack. She and her mother pack their things and move to a cheap hotel outside the district. Lara is happy about the move because she hopes this will keep Komarovsky away from her. Her mother, however, is disheartened when her workers go on strike. Lara fears that her mother may attempt suicide if she learns that her daughter is having an affair with Komarovsky.

One night, a doctor who is visiting the Gromekos (where Yura is living) is called to the hotel. Amalia Guishar has indeed attempted suicide by swallowing iodine. No motive is mentioned. Since the doctor was at the Gromekos when he was called, Yura and Misha ask to go to the hotel with the doctor for the adventure of it. This is the first time that Yura sets eyes on Lara, and he is taken by her, although he does not speak to her. Yura also senses that there is some dark secret between Lara and Komarovsky, but this intuition only makes Lara more intriguing. Yura also realizes that his physical response to Lara is related to what he, Misha, and Tonia have been talking about, the vulgar or sexual side of human interactions. Misha tells Yura that Komarovsky acted as Yura’s father’s lawyer, the man who might have been responsible for Yura’s father’s suicide.

Chapter Three: The Sventitskys’ Christmas Party
Yura is in college studying medicine. He tries to improve the health of Mrs. Gromeko, who has become bedridden. During one of the last talks she has with the two young adults, Anna Gromeko tells Tonia and Yura to become engaged. They are made for one another, Tonia’s mother tells them.

Lara has moved in with a friend’s family, the Kologrivovas, in an attempt to get away from her mother and Komarovsky. She is working as a tutor for the Kologrivovas’s youngest daughter. While there, Lara’s brother shows up and asks Lara for money. The only source of help that Lara can think of is Komarovsky. She finds out that he is at a Christmas Party, and Lara goes there uninvited. She has a gun with her. She sees Komarovsky playing cards with... » Complete Doctor Zhivago Summary