The Real Dr Zhivago

[Guest]

Absorbing documentary presented by Stephen Smith last night. Lots of interviews with family members, the daughter of the "real Lara", the son of the first (Italian) publisher Feltrinelli, the story of how the manuscript was smuggled out of Russia, how the novel became a weapon in the Cold War....and the horrific way in which the regime under both Stalin and Kruschev treated Pasternak and "Lara". It seems Pasternak enjoyed personal protection from the very worst by Stalin who had a soft spot for him, but who didn't hesitate to take it out on "Lara" instead. His Nobel Prize, which he had to refuse in order to stay in Russia....

I read the novel in 1966, 8 years after publication (and before I saw the film). My younger self (I'd already read lots of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky et al) found it a bit of a shambles of a novel, relying heavily on coincidence and rather petering out at the end (which is probably right, as so many lives did in Soviet Russia) - Pasternak was primarily a poet. I haven't revisited it.

Stephen Smith is best known for humorous or tongue-in-cheek items on Newsnight, and his delivery is quirky to say the least, but this was a good effort I thought.

[antongould]

So did I RT - very enjoyable ......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So did I RT - very enjoyable ......

- a pity they didn't mention Pasternak's early attempts at composition, which attracted the approval of family friend Scriabin.

Another unmissable programme in this current series of centennial commemorations was Monday's Revolution: New Art for a New World, studying the history of the Bolshevik Revolution from early optimism to Stalinist repression through the experiences of the visual Artists of the time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09f2m3p/revolution-new-art-for-a-new-world?suggid=b09f2m3p

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I read the novel in 1966, 8 years after publication (and before I saw the film). My younger self (I'd already read lots of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky et al) found it a bit of a shambles of a novel, relying heavily on coincidence and rather petering out at the end (which is probably right, as so many lives did in Soviet Russia) - Pasternak was primarily a poet. I haven't revisited it.

I've not yet read the novel - I've had a copy "waiting for the right moment" for over ten years! (I suppose it needs quite a long "moment".) Nor do I know his poetry. But I have read The Last Summer - the 100-page novella which was the basis of Nigel Osborne's opera The Electrification of the Soviet Union, which might be more to your liking, Richard. (And worth a penny [plus varying levels of P&P under the new Amazon postage system] of anyone's money:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0140015477

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks for that ferney - will do!

Another writer from the Soviet era whom I read in my "Russian period" in the late 60s was Konstantin Paustovsky, who wrote several books of memoirs starting with "Story of a Life". Unlike Pasternak he seems to have stayed out of trouble

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Pasternak's Piano Sonata in B minor, written when he was 19:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GrviOIUX7M

[richardfinegold]

I have read a fair amount of Russian literature
, but always found Zhivago a tough slog. I tried again recently and gave up after a third of the way. This may be one of the few times that the movie trumps the book

[Richard Tarleton]

I have read a fair amount of Russian literature
, but always found Zhivago a tough slog. I tried again recently and gave up after a third of the way. This may be one of the few times that the movie trumps the book

I think you could well be right there, Richard, tho' having read the book first I was puzzled by the introduction of Zhivago's brother as narrator, and the opening scene at the hydro-electric scheme, before it got back on course....

I think we reached peak Julie Christie in the late 60s, she was in everything but the crib as they say in Ireland. I did like Tom Courteney as Strelnikov/Trotsky in his armoured train....

[Nick Armstrong]

So did I RT - very enjoyable ......

I too - and it was. Fascinating about Pasternak's composing activities, too, ferney - I had no idea.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The poet's Artist father, Leonid Pasternak, drew at least two pencil portraits of Scriabin:





... and at least one of Rachmaninoff:

[Serial_Apologist]

Another unmissable programme in this current series of centennial commemorations was Monday's Revolution: New Art for a New World, studying the history of the Bolshevik Revolution from early optimism to Stalinist repression through the experiences of the visual Artists of the time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...uggid=b09f2m3p

I was so bowled over by that programme I clean forgot to raise it on this forum! - so thanks for providing the link, ferney - I think I learned more about Russian art, painting in particular from the early Communist era, than I'd ever known previously: BBC cultural edification at its best, and a reminder that what was once done can still be with the right knowledgeable presenters.

[Richard Tarleton]

That last of Rachmaninoff was hanging on the wall of the Pasternak house in London - we saw it last night!!

[Serial_Apologist]

That last of Rachmaninoff was hanging on the wall of the Pasternak house in London - we saw it last night!!

Resembling a priest! One supposes what looks like a dog collar in that drawing could have been a polo neck.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think I learned more about Russian art, painting in particular from the early Communist era, than I'd ever known previously: BBC cultural edification at its best, and a reminder that what was once done can still be with the right knowledgeable presenters.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Resembling a priest! One supposes what looks like a dog collar in that drawing could have been a polo neck.

- I think it's supposed to be one of those "tall" collars "caught" from the side (like Scriabin's, but without the turned-down corner). It does look odd now you mention it!