On this day in 1958, the Russian poet Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel Doctor Zhivago. The problem: none of his fellow Russians could read it.
Pasternak was born in 1890 and became a known figure in the country’s poetry scene by the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917. The censorious Soviet government that took power was no fan of his work, and banned Zhivago on its 1956 release on the argument that it made good guys out of pre-revolution aristocrats and looked down upon peasants and workers.
The Soviet government didn’t allow Pasternak to accept the prize, and banished him from the Soviet Writers Union, effectively ending his work as a writer.
That drew more attention to the book, which became one of many works known as samizdat—materials shared quietly, in ways that evaded the authorities’ watchful eyes. The CIA even got involved in its distribution.
In 1965, five years after Pasternak’s death, Zhivago garnered even more fame when it was adapted for the silver screen. Over three decades later he’d be posthumously readmitted to the writers’ union, and his book was finally published in his home country.
You can read more about Pasternak and Zhivago at History.com and the website of Boston University’s Russian poetry program.
