Was Pasternak's Path To The Nobel Prize Paved By The CIA?

Did the CIA fund a Russian-language publication of Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" in order to help the dissident author win the Nobel Prize? Ivan Tolstoi, a literary historian and correspondent with RFE/RL's Russian Service, has spent the better part of two decades trying to find out. Tolstoi's research has resulted in a book, "The Laundered Novel: Doctor Zhivago, Between the KGB and the CIA,” which was recently published in Russia. In this ... Full Story »

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Posted by: Posted by Derek Hawkins - Feb 21, 2009 - 5:14 AM PST
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Edited by: Derek Hawkins - Feb 21, 2009 - 5:14 AM PST

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2.5
by Lewyn Li - Feb. 21, 2009

The piece can be divided into two halves: the first half describes the journalist's own history with Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" as he was growing up; the second half somewhat summarizes his arguments for a role of the CIA in Zhivago's publication in Russian. Personally, I found the first half far more interesting and credible. The second half consists of a lot of speculations about WHY the CIA would be interested in humiliating the USSR, but little in terms of actual ... More »

The piece raises the question of the relationship between politics and literature, which I think is an under-appreciated topic. Pasternak was ... More »

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4.5
by Derek Hawkins - Feb. 21, 2009
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by Kenneth Sibbett - Feb. 21, 2009
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