Decoded Pasternak. Secrets of the Great Novel 'Doctor Zhivago'

A book by the well-known literary historian, Doctor of Philology Boris Sokolov—the author of bestsellers “The Dostoevsky Deciphered” and “The Gogol Deciphered”—tells about the main secrets of the legendary novel “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak, included in the Russian school curriculum. The author provides answers to many questions that invariably arise when reading this great book, which has arguably become one of the most famous novels of the 20th century.

Who served as a prototype for the novel’s main characters?

How did love stories and other facts from Boris Pasternak’s biography appear in “Doctor Zhivago”?

How did Pasternak’s relationship with Stalin—and the entry of Marshal Tukhachevsky into the pages of the novel—take shape in the book?

How did the great Russian poet receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for this novel, and why was he forced to refuse it?

Why didn’t the novel please the authorities, and how was the campaign against its author organized?

How did Pasternak’s attitude toward Soviet power and the October Revolution of 1917, as well as his fascination with anarchism, transform into images of the heroes of “Doctor Zhivago”?