Nobel Prize in Literature · 1958
Boris Pasternak
A poet who stayed in Stalin's Russia, wrote Doctor Zhivago, and was forced by his own government to turn down the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel citation: “for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition”The laureate was not allowed to accept the prize at the time.
- Born
- February 10, 1890, Moscow, Russia
- Died
- May 30, 1960, Peredelkino, Russia
Literature prize
1958
Awarded alone.
Age that year
68years
Born in 1890.
Sources cited
21
Fact-checked September 24, 2026.
- A quota on Jewish pupils kept him out of a Moscow state school for a year. He later graduated with a gold medal, which let Jewish students avoid a 3% university quota.
- He accepted the 1958 Nobel Prize by telegram. Four days later, under pressure from Soviet authorities, he sent a second telegram turning it down.
- The CIA secretly printed the first Russian-language edition of Doctor Zhivago and handed copies to Soviet visitors at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.
- Bill Mauldin won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon imagining Pasternak in a Soviet labor camp, asking a fellow prisoner what his crime was.
- His son Yevgeny finally collected the Nobel medal in Stockholm in December 1989, 31 years after the prize was awarded.
The breakthrough
My Sister, Life, classic translations and Doctor Zhivago (1917-1957)
The Nobel Prize honored two things: Pasternak's poetry and his one great novel. He made his name with the poetry collection My Sister, Life, written mostly during the revolutionary months of 1917 and published in 1922. Its rushing rhythms and bold images made him a leading voice in Russian poetry, and generations of Russian readers have learned his poems by heart. When Stalin's terror made original writing dangerous, he turned to translation, and his Russian versions of Shakespeare's tragedies and Goethe's Faust became classics. His novel, Doctor Zhivago, follows a doctor and poet, Yuri Zhivago, from about 1900 through the 1905 revolution, World War I, the 1917 revolution and the civil war, to his death in Moscow in the late 1920s. An epilogue reaches the end of World War II. Zhivago is not a hero of the revolution. He is a private man who wants to love, heal and write while history tears apart the people around him. Soviet novels of that era were expected to work like official posters, with citizens marching happily toward a bright future. Doctor Zhivago was more like a family diary found in a ruined house: it showed what the upheaval cost ordinary people. That is why a Soviet journal rejected it in 1956, charging that it slandered the revolution, and why readers abroad embraced it.[2],[5],[6],[16]
“Immensely thankful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.”
What it meant for humanity
Pasternak gave readers a voice for private conscience in an age that demanded public obedience. In Russia his lyric poetry has been memorized and recited by generations, and his translations of Shakespeare and Goethe are still regarded as classics. Abroad, Doctor Zhivago became an event. The Italian edition appeared in Milan on 22 November 1957 and sold out that day. By 1958 the novel had been translated into 18 languages, and in the United States it spent six months at number one on the New York Times best-seller list. David Lean's 1965 film carried the story to a far wider audience. In his own country the book stayed banned for three decades, yet it still reached readers. In 1958 the CIA secretly printed a Russian-language edition, handed copies to Soviet visitors at the Brussels World's Fair and paid for thousands more to be carried into the Soviet bloc. A CIA division chief wrote that the book's message, a private life and human dignity for everyone regardless of political loyalty, struck at the Soviet idea of sacrificing the individual to the system. The campaign against Pasternak made him a worldwide symbol of the writer's right to tell the truth, and a cartoon of him as a labor-camp prisoner won a Pulitzer Prize. When he died in 1960, hundreds of people, by some accounts many thousands, came to his funeral although it was not officially announced. In 1987 the Soviet Writers' Union reinstated him, and the novel's Soviet publication in 1988 was a landmark of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. In 1989 his son collected his Nobel medal in Stockholm.
- The Italian first edition of Doctor Zhivago sold out on its publication day, 22 November 1957. By 1958 the novel had been translated into 18 languages.[5],[9]
- In the United States the novel spent six months at number one on the New York Times best-seller list.[20]
- The CIA had 1,000 Russian-language copies printed in the Netherlands in 1958, then paid for a second run that included 7,000 copies to be carried into the Soviet Union and 2,000 for a youth festival in Vienna.[15],[16]
- Generations of Russian readers have recited his poems by heart, and his translations of Shakespeare's tragedies and Goethe's Faust are regarded as classics.[5],[6]
- Bill Mauldin won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon showing Pasternak as a Soviet labor-camp prisoner, protesting that he was not allowed to travel to accept his prize.[17]
- In 1987 the Soviet Writers' Union reinstated him, and in 1988 Doctor Zhivago was finally published in the Soviet Union, in the journal Novy Mir.[5],[9]
Impact in numbers
Pasternak's impact is cultural and moral, and it cannot honestly be counted. His poetry changed Russian verse, and his translations gave Russian readers Shakespeare and Goethe in versions still treated as classics. Doctor Zhivago became a worldwide best seller, translated into 18 languages by 1958 and later turned into a famous film. It showed readers what the revolution cost ordinary people, and inside the Soviet Union it circulated only in secret for three decades. The campaign against him turned a poet into a global symbol of the right to write the truth, and his reinstatement in 1987 and the novel's Soviet publication in 1988 marked the opening of Soviet culture. We make no quantified impact claim: no credible figure measures how a book changes lives, and sales would not measure benefit. His record also includes the novel's call for Jews to assimilate, which many Jewish readers found deeply hurtful.
CultureHuman rights
No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.
The double edge
Pasternak's work caused no physical harm, but parts of his record are rightly criticized. The sharpest criticism from Jewish readers concerns Doctor Zhivago itself. Through a Jewish character, Misha Gordon, and through the heroine Lara, the novel suggests that Jews should stop holding on to a separate identity and dissolve into the Christian world around them. Jewish commentators in 1958 read this as a case against Jewish survival, and in 1959 Israel's prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, condemned the book as one of the worst ever written about Jews by an author of Jewish origin. Earlier, on 1 January 1936, Pasternak had published poems praising Stalin in the government newspaper Izvestiya, shortly before the Great Terror set him on a collision course with the regime. Finally, his novel became a secret Cold War weapon without his knowledge: the CIA printed and spread it to embarrass the Soviet government, while Soviet officials portrayed his prize as a political reward for publishing abroad.
- Moderate
Doctor Zhivago urged Jews to give up their identity
In the novel, the Jewish character Misha Gordon and the heroine Lara argue that Jews should stop clinging to a separate identity and dissolve into Christian society. In 1946 Pasternak told his cousin the book would settle accounts with Jewry and all forms of nationalism. Jewish commentators read it as a case against Jewish survival, and David Ben-Gurion condemned it in 1959. Isaiah Berlin recalled that Pasternak wished Jews would assimilate and disappear as a people.[10],[12],[13],[14]
- Minor
Poems praising Stalin (1936)
On 1 January 1936, Pasternak published two poems praising Stalin in the government newspaper Izvestiya, written at the suggestion of the Bolshevik leader Nikolai Bukharin. In 1937, as the Great Terror gained momentum, he broke with the establishment, refusing at great risk to sign a writers' petition demanding the execution of those accused in the show trials.[5],[9],[10]
- Minor
A novel turned into a covert Cold War weapon
The CIA, working through Dutch intelligence and a Dutch publisher, secretly printed Russian-language editions of Doctor Zhivago and hid its own role. According to his family, Pasternak knew nothing of it. Soviet officials, for their part, treated his Nobel Prize as a reward for publishing the novel in the West, and the pressure fell on him and the people close to him.[10],[15],[16]
Against the odds
Pasternak was born in 1890 into a Jewish family in Moscow, a city where Jews' right to live was tightly restricted. When he was a baby, in 1891 and 1892, the authorities expelled about 20,000 Jews from Moscow; the Pasternaks were able to stay. Under an 1887 rule, Jews could make up only 3% of students at state schools and universities in Moscow. That quota kept Boris out of a state gymnasium for a year, until 1901. His parents knew that only a gold medal would let a Jewish graduate enter Moscow University outside its quota, and he earned one in 1908. His parents and sisters left for Germany in 1921, and in 1938 his parents fled the Nazis to England. He last saw them in Berlin in 1923 and never saw them again. He stayed and lived through Stalin's terror, which took the lives of friends such as the Georgian poets Titsian Tabidze and Paolo Yashvili. After the war, Stalin's antisemitic campaign struck Moscow's Jews, and it touched Pasternak too. In 1949 he complained to his cousin that his Jewish origin remained an obstacle he had never overcome. That year the secret police arrested his companion, Olga Ivinskaya, to pressure him. A 1956 KGB file noted that he was Jewish and not a Communist Party member. After the Nobel Prize he was expelled from the Writers' Union, lost his livelihood, was threatened with exile and was forced to refuse the prize.
1891
Discrimination
When he was a baby, an imperial order in 1891 began the expulsion of Jewish artisans from Moscow, and about 20,000 Jews were driven out within a short time. His father painted a desolate elderly Jewish man that year, returning to Jewish subjects.[7],[8]
1901
Quota
An 1887 rule limited Jews to 3% of students at state schools and universities in Moscow. Because of the quota he could not enter the Fifth Moscow Gymnasium until 1901, a year late. His parents knew a gold medal was the only way for a Jewish graduate to enter Moscow University outside its 3% quota.[9],[11]
1938
Persecution
His parents, who had moved to Germany in 1921, fled the Nazis for England in 1938. He had last seen them in Berlin in 1923; on a 1935 trip through Germany he did not visit them, and he never saw them again.[7],[9],[10]
1949
Discrimination
Stalin's postwar antisemitic campaign drove many Moscow Jews from universities and jobs. The campaign against so-called cosmopolitans touched Pasternak too, and in 1949 he wrote to his cousin that his Jewish origin remained an obstacle he had never overcome.[8],[10]
1949
Persecution
Soviet authorities arrested his companion Olga Ivinskaya in 1949 to pressure him. She lost the child she was expecting while in custody, was sent to a labor camp and was freed after Stalin's death.[9],[19]
1956
Censorship
The journal Novy Mir rejected Doctor Zhivago in 1956, accusing it of slandering the October Revolution. The novel stayed unpublished in the Soviet Union until 1988.[5],[9]
1958
Dismissal
After the Nobel Prize was announced, a campaign of abuse followed. He was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers and so lost his livelihood, public meetings demanded his deportation, and he was forced to decline the prize.[1],[3],[5]
1960
Persecution
After his death, Ivinskaya was arrested again and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp as punishment for her ties to him and the novel. She was released early, in the 1960s.[9],[19]
Jewish background
Both parents were Jewish natives of Odessa: the painter Leonid Pasternak and the pianist Rosa (Rozaliia) Kaufman. The family was assimilated, but his father took part in Jewish cultural life, wrote on Rembrandt and the Jews and joined a 1924 expedition to Palestine. Boris went another way. Drawn to Christianity from his youth, he wrote late poems on Gospel themes and in a 1959 letter said his nanny had baptized him as a child. He saw his Jewish origin as an accident of birth that complicated his life, and Isaiah Berlin recalled that he wished Jews would assimilate. Doctor Zhivago voices that view.[6],[7],[9],[10],[14],[21]
Key dates
February 10, 1890
Born in Moscow to Jewish parents from Odessa: the painter Leonid Pasternak and the concert pianist Rosa Kaufman.[1],[9]
1901
Enters the Fifth Moscow Gymnasium a year late, held back by the quota on Jewish pupils. He graduates with a gold medal in 1908.[9]
1912
Studies philosophy at the University of Marburg in Germany. Having already given up music, he soon leaves philosophy too and devotes himself to literature.[2],[5]
1921
His parents and sisters leave Soviet Russia for Berlin. He chooses to stay.[5],[7],[9]
1922
Publishes My Sister, Life, written mostly in 1917, and is recognized as a major new voice in Russian poetry.[2],[5]
1937
At great personal risk, refuses to sign a writers' petition demanding the execution of those accused in Stalin's show trials.[5]
1938
His parents flee Nazi Germany for England. He had last seen them in Berlin in 1923 and never sees them again.[7],[9],[10]
1949
His companion Olga Ivinskaya is arrested and sent to a labor camp, as Soviet authorities try to pressure him.[9],[19]
November 22, 1957
After a Soviet journal rejects it, Doctor Zhivago is published in Italian translation in Milan and sells out on its first day.[5],[9]
October 23, 1958
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature after nominations in 1946-50 and 1957. He accepts by telegram on 25 October, then declines on 29 October under Soviet pressure.[1],[3],[4],[9]
1958
Expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers, losing his livelihood, while public meetings demand his deportation.[5],[9]
May 30, 1960
Dies of lung cancer at Peredelkino, near Moscow. Crowds attend his funeral although it is not officially announced.[1],[6],[9]
1988
Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union for the first time, a year after the Writers' Union posthumously reinstated him.[5],[9]
December 9, 1989
His son Yevgeny collects the Nobel medal at a ceremony in Stockholm, 31 years after the award.[18]
Sources
- 1.Boris Pasternak - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
- 2.Boris Pasternak - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel and Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967), 1958
- 3.Nobel Prize in Literature 1958 - Announcement by Anders Österling, with Pasternak's telegrams of 25 and 29 October 1958 · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel en 1958 and Nobel Lectures), 1958
- 4.Nomination archive: Boris L Pasternak (nominated 1946-1950, 1957 and 1958) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
- 5.Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (by Gregory Freidin and the Britannica editors) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2026
- 6.Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich (by Alexander Genis) · YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
- 7.Pasternak, Leonid (by Mirjam Rajner) · YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
- 8.Moscow (by Leonid Praisman) · YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
- 9.Pasternak, Boris (29 January [10 February, New Style] 1890 - 30 May 1960), by Karen Evans-Romaine · Dictionary of Literary Biography: Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 3 (Gale), via Encyclopedia.com
- 10.Pasternak Boris (in Russian) · Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia (ORT), based on the Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia
- 11.Numerus Clausus · Jewish Virtual Library (from Encyclopaedia Judaica)
- 12.Boris Pasternak's 'Dr. Zhivago' Seen Opposing Jewish Survival · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1958
- 13.Ben Gurion Terms 'Dr. Zhivago' a Most Despicable Book About Jews · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1959
- 14.The Secret Jewish History of Dr. Zhivago (by Benjamin Ivry) · The Forward, 2014
- 15.Miniature Volume of Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago · Central Intelligence Agency (CIA Museum)
- 16.The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book (review by PJ Neal) · Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 59, No. 2 (CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence), 2015
- 17.'I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?' (cartoon by Bill Mauldin) · Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, 1958
- 18.Son of author collects Nobel for 'Dr. Zhivago' · Deseret News, 1989
- 19.Real-Life 'Zhivago' Heroine Dies At 82 · The Spokesman-Review (Associated Press), 1995
- 20.Michael Miller on 'The Zhivago Affair' · National Book Critics Circle, 2015
- 21.Boris Pasternak · Wikipedia
Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 10 corrections made. How we check
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