Boris Pasternak Research Articles

The invisible hand of Doctor Zhivago: reception of a soft power tool

ABSTRACT In the tumultuous era of the Cold War, Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago found itself at the epicenter of an ideological battle. When the Soviet authorities deemed it an ‘evil libel against the USSR’ and prohibited its publication, the CIA recognized its ‘great propaganda value’ and spearheaded its dissemination in foreign editions, harnessing the novel as a potent soft power tool. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this paper analyzes the influence of a reverse kind of cultural diplomacy related to the translation, diffusion, and promotion of Doctor Zhivago in the West. Drawing from paratextual material in the form of press reviews in Italian, French, English and Dutch from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, it assesses how the sense of confidence, attraction and prestige as pillars of soft power strategies are reflected in the reception of the novel’s translations. The study concludes by offering a nuanced understanding of how the large-scale diffusion of the novel was perceived, highlighting that the translations played a secondary role in the strategy and served as vehicles to amplify the impact of Pasternak’s Nobel Prize, thereby extending its influence globally.

Высокое служение Отечеству: к 75-летию Н.М. Валеева

The article is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Doctor of Philology, Professor, Academician of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Honoured Scholar of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation, the member of the Union of Writers of Russia and the Presidium of the Union of Local Historians of Russia – Nail Mansurovich Valeev. It describes him as an outstanding Russian humanities scholar, literary critic, art critic, historian, local historian, cultural studies scholar, major organiser of scientific events and a public official. His unique and resonant academic work, significant and conceptual projects contribute to the prestige of our republic and country. Over the three decades of his life in the city of Elabuga, he wrote hundreds of articles and ten books about the historical and cultural heritage of Elabuga, about the fate of Elabuga merchants-benefactors. His enormous work on organising a purposeful study of the history of the city led to the recognition of Elabuga as one of the tourist-attractive cities of Russia. Regularly held international scientific conferences devoted to the study of the fate of the merchant dynasties of the city and the creative heritage of the forgotten classic of Russian literature D.I. Stakheev, attracted the attention of scholars from all over Russia and around the world, as well as the descendants of the merchant dynasties of the Stakheevs from Australia, Switzerland, Great Britain, France, etc. to the rich history of the city. Huge work was carried out by N.M. Valeev to draw the attention of the Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences academics and the scholars of the Federal Research Center “Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” to the study and preservation of the historical and cultural heritage of the city of Chistopol. Academic works of N.M. Valeev about the life of Kazan art of the twentieth century, the Literary Chistopol encyclopedia, the monograph Boris Pasternak in Chistopol. To the origins of the “Doctor Zhivago” novel and other works caused a wide resonance around the country and the world, attracted the attention of specialists to the rich history of Tatarstan and Chistopol.

The Retention of Metaphorical Imagery in Translations of Pasternak's Works into Kazakh and English

In this research the retention of metaphorical content in translations of Boris Pasternak's poems into Kazakh and English was examined, highlighting the complexity of transferring metaphors and the need for further analysis. It evaluates how well metaphorical content is preserved in these translations, noting that despite ef-forts, complete conveyance of metaphorical imagery is often challenging. The methodology involves a com-parative analysis of the original text and its translated version to assess the preservation of metaphors. While some metaphors in Pasternak's works can be effectively conveyed in Kazakh and English, challenges arise when dealing with national-specific metaphors. This study contributes significantly to literary studies, com-parative linguistics, and translation theory, particularly in poetry translation, enhancing understanding of the complexities involved in conveying metaphors in literary works.

Поэзия как внутренняя речь. Борис Пастернак в интерпретации Владимира Библера

The article focuses on the concept of inner speech as it was first elaborated by Lev Vygotsky and then taken up by Vladimir Bibler in his analysis of Boris Pasternak's poetry. The first part of the article aims at reconstructing the psychological background of this concept in Vygotsky's theory of speech, - especially as regards its mediating role. The second part addresses Bibler's assertion that both philosophy and poetry employ inner speech to produce meaning (through concepts and words/sounds, respectively). By characterizing Pasternak's early poetry as a form of inner speech, Bibler highlights the immediate connection between his primitive sensible and sensuous experiences and their initial expression in poetic words. In conclusion, it is argued that the concept of inner speech in Pasternak's poetry enhances the understanding of the “metonymous hero” concept introduced by Roman Jakobson and Michel Aucouturier in their works on Pasternak. While emphasizing metonymic structures in Pasternak's poetry foregrounds the notion of object-oriented poetry, Bibler's conceptual perspective, on the contrary, seems to rehabilitate the instance of the subject.

THE EVOLUTION OF ARTISTIC THOUGHT AND LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION IN BORIS PASTERNAK: A HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ANALYSIS

This article examines the overarching trends in the artistic journey of Boris Pasternak, tracing the evolution from complex alliterative and associative imagery and intricate tropology to an «unheard-of simplicity» of verse, while preserving its profound philosophical depth.

Новое о Мандельштаме в Грузии

The article provides a detailed commentary on the first-ever publication in Russian of an entry from the diary of Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze, dated October 31, 1930. This entry refers to Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pasternak, and the Georgian poetic group “The Blue Horns.” It reveals that Pasternak’s journey to Georgia in 1931 was conceived as early as the preceding year, 1930. Additionally, Tabidze’s diary entry contains crucial information about Mandelstam's attitude toward Pasternak in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Mandelstam perceived the invitation extended by Georgian poets to Pasternak to Tiflis as a personal offense. Finally, from this entry, one can understand why members of the “Blue Horns” group, particularly Titsian Tabidze, did not maintain contact with Mandelstam when he visited Georgia for the third time in his life in the autumn of 1930.

Пастернак и Северянин: две редакции «Вокзала»

Boris Pasternak’s early work, in particular, in the first two books of poems, Bliznets v tuchakh (Twin in the Clouds, 1914) and Poverkh bar’erov (Over the Barriers, 1916/1917), demonstrates the “traces” of Igor Severyanin’s (Igor Lotarev) style and imagery. However, in 1928, Pasternak significantly rewrote his early poems for a new book. The poet frees several poems from Severyanin’s influence but does not eliminate the elements of his older contemporary’s poetics and stylistic features. The present article shows the evolution of reminiscences from Severyanin’s texts in early and late editions of Pasternak’s Vokzal (Station, 1913, 1928). In the 1928 edition of Vokzal, Pasternak abandons some of Severyanin’s techniques presented in the 1913 edition in favor of “simplification.” Therefore, he moves away from the “artsy” vocabulary and Latin alphabet and, at the same time, adds colloquial words. Nevertheless, despite the emphasized transition to a new period in his work, Pasternak seems to retain some of his former style’s particular signs.

Transcultural Film Adaptations as Cross-Cultural Dialogue

This article explores a transcultural film adaptation, offerinf new avenues for discussing cross-cultural dialog. The article analyzes the transcultural adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, written by Boris Pasternak. The book was adapted in 1965 by British director David Lean, who cooperated with one of the largest American film studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This work considers the changing meaning of the text, which enters a new national culture, and explores how Pasternak’s novel was changed to fit the new audience. Lean’s adaptation of Doctor Zhivago is analyzed as a dialogue of different cultures, which involve the “Hollywoodization” of Russian literature. The author emphasizes the intertextual and cultural dialogism of Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago and David Lean’s 1965 film adaptation. The film adaptation inserts the novel into much broader dialogic relations, for example, with movies of a specific era, their cinematic technics, and ideologies.

Источники надежды в меняющейся действительности (на материале романа Бориса Пастернака Доктор Живаго)

The article analyzes the sources of hope in the changing reality in Boris Pasternak’s novel Doctor Zhivago. The concept of changing reality is presented through the prism of Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological reflections. In Pasternak’s novel, the high concentration of events of the first part of the 20th century, filled with social upheavals and catastrophes, such as wars and revolutions, becomes part of the protagonist’s biography. The novel reveals the protagonist’s ability to find sources of hope in a hopeless environment. This ability strengths Yuri Zhivago and helps him to live and be engaged in creative activity in hard times. Yuri Andreevich finds salvation in everyday worries, which helps him to overcome chaos in post-revolutionary Moscow. Events filled with the warmth and comfort of everyday life acquire a special status. The next source of hope and inspiration in the book is a creative activity. An inexhaustible source of motivation in the novel is also nature, which is inextricably linked with the theme of creativity. For the protagonist, life is most fully revealed in compassion, active love, admiration for the world, and hope for the triumph of beauty and goodness.

Творчество нобелевских лауреатов Б.Л. Пастернака и М.А. Шолохова: опыт интеграции в западную систему референций (1930–1970-е гг.)

The project’s goal was to cover as comprehensively as possible the reception of the Russian Soviet novelists in the countries, the national languages of which, being the means of international communication, helped spread the literary masterpieces created by Boris Pasternak and Mikhail Sholokhov worldwide. The translations of the novels And Quiet Flows the Don, Virgin Soil Upturned, Doctor Zhivago in the 1930s–1950s proved to be an important ideological and aesthetic factor influencing the global historical and ideological processes. For the first time, the authors studied journals and newspapers that published critical reviews of the works by the Nobel-winning authors. The introduction of Mikhail Sholokhov’s work to Western rea­ders began as early as the 1930s, far ahead of the introduction of Boris Pasternak, whose name was practically unknown to foreign readers before the publication of his translated novel. The antagonism of Sholokhov to Pasternak, provoked by big politics, failed to muffle those voices, which emphasized the unity of the Russian novel tradition and the equality of Soviet nominees throughout its history.

Entangled Memories: representations of Crimea in literature, poetry and art

The United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, has recently added the Historic Centre of Odesa (Ukraine) to its World Heritage List. Odesa is part of the Crimean Peninsula and it is a legendary port that has left its mark on the cinema, literature and the arts. Crimea has always attracted a large number of cultural figures including Alexandr Pushkin, Maxim Gorky, Anna Akhmatova, Ivan Bunin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak, etc. Like the Russian-born Anton Chekhov, Ukrainian authors who have written about the peninsula were, historically, not native Crimeans. Crimea is not only the focus of geopolitical conflict, but also the source of artistic and literary inspiration. In this article, I analyze some perspectives on Crimea, starting with Ivan K. Aivazovsky’s paintings (1817-1900), and some selected texts from those of the above-mentioned authors. For a current view on Crimea, I shall also consider some aspects of Ilya Kaminsky’s contemporary poetry.

WIND: Semantics of the Symbol in Boris Pasternak’s Novel “Doctor Zhivago”

The study was conducted at the intersection of semiotics, linguoculturology and linguopoetics of the text and is devoted to one of the urgent issues - the identification, semantic description and linguistic representation of one of the significant symbols of national mythological thinking - WIND. The purpose of the study is to present a model of the symbolic structure of the symbol WIND and to consider its linguistic transformation in the novel «Doctor Zhivago». The main research method is a semantic-semiotic description of the symbolic structure of the symbol WIND in the categories of signifier A and signified B. By symbol’s semantics we mean the peculiarities of its linguistic embodiment and, as a consequence, the emergence of the author’s transformation of the general cultural symbolic code of a word. The signifier of the symbol - the sensual image of the air flow - in the text can be semanticized both by the words wind, blizzard, storm, etc., and by different syntactic constructions. The signified is a number of symbolic meanings which have developed in the culture of the people as a result of the mythological identification of the air element of nature and man. As a result of the study, five symbolic meanings were found, for the objectification of which dictionary data and folklore texts were used: 1) WIND→SPIRIT, SOUL, 2) WIND→ BIRTH AND DEATH OF A PERSON, 3) WIND→WORD, MESSAGE, 4) WIND→EVIL, MAGIC, 5) WIND→LIFE. In the text, each of these general cultural meanings is transformed into a system of events and characters of the novel. So, the second meaning is represented by four variants of the signified: ‘death of Zhivago’s mother’, ‘birth of a son’, ‘death of Antipov’, ‘death of Yuri Zhivago’. The most frequent in the representation of the two-component structure of the symbol are ascending gradation series, indicating the growth of wind power and its transformation into rain or blizzard. At the same time, a gradation series of words unfolds, conveying the dynamics of the psychological or physical state of the hero. The symbolic meaning is often actualized with the help of other symbols whose signified duplicates the wind symbol. The result of the study is the conclusion about the ambivalent nature of the symbol WIND, which occurs at key moments in the of Yuri Zhivago’s life. The wind is life itself in its mystical understanding like immortality.

Interview: Faust in Three Languages, or How to Translate Goethe without Knowing German

Abstract Vadim Astrakhan is a Russian immigrant to the United States who has made a name for himself as a translator and performer of songs by Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky. While his previous translations were all from Russian, Astrakhan’s latest project is an English verse rendition of Goethe’s Faust. Astrakhan does not know German. He begins by running Goethe’s original text through Google Translate. He then collates the result with various existing English-language versions of Faust as well as the canonical Russian verse translation by Boris Pasternak (published 1953), which was his main inspiration for putting Faust into rhymed English verse. Adrian Wanner, a professor of Russian and comparative literature at Penn State and a native speaker of German, discusses with Astrakhan what prompted him to translate Goethe’s tragedy. The conversation touches on Astrakhan’s use of English and Russian sources and his methodology and goals as a translator, including the crucial importance he ascribes to bringing to life the music and humor of Goethe’s original for a contemporary American theatrical audience.

Interview: Faust in Three Languages, or How to Translate Goethe without Knowing German

Abstract Vadim Astrakhan is a Russian immigrant to the United States who has made a name for himself as a translator and performer of songs by Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky. While his previous translations were all from Russian, Astrakhan’s latest project is an English verse rendition of Goethe’s Faust. Astrakhan does not know German. He begins by running Goethe’s original text through Google Translate. He then collates the result with various existing English-language versions of Faust as well as the canonical Russian verse translation by Boris Pasternak (published 1953), which was his main inspiration for putting Faust into rhymed English verse. Adrian Wanner, a professor of Russian and comparative literature at Penn State and a native speaker of German, discusses with Astrakhan what prompted him to translate Goethe’s tragedy. The conversation touches on Astrakhan’s use of English and Russian sources and his methodology and goals as a translator, including the crucial importance he ascribes to bringing to life the music and humor of Goethe’s original for a contemporary American theatrical audience.

The poet of the piano in poetry: Chopin and Russian writers Miatlev, Fet, Severianin, Pasternak and Akhmatova

The popular designation ‘poet of the piano’ becomes more meaningful when we understand that poets consistently turn to Chopin’s life and music for literary inspiration. Chopin’s short life – filled with nostalgia, melancholy and pain – exemplifies the Romantic notion of the suffering artist and provides fertile ground for poetry. The power of Chopin’s music – and especially the emotion it evokes – is a constant theme in the large, cross-cultural literary output on Chopin. This article samples several poetic texts by both famous and lesser-known Russian writers: Ivan Miatlev (1796–1844), Afanasii Fet (1820–92), Igor’ Severianin (1887–1941), Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) and Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966). In the poems by Miatlev, Fet and Severianin, Chopin’s music becomes emblematic of passionate love, the most frequently encountered trope. In the poems by Pasternak and Akhmatova, that music takes on a tragic dimension. Pasternak’s poem features a musical genre that Chopin pioneered, and the allusions in the poem reflect the fate of the Polish nation in the nineteenth century. The epigraph and diction in Akhmatova’s poem convey trauma and personal suffering – with which Chopin was only too familiar. Although Russia imposed oppressive policies, it was also an admirer of Polish culture, with Russians publishing complete Chopin editions and producing paintings and poems featuring Chopin and his music. When analysing these poems, it becomes clear that the tendency to characterise the relationship between Poland and Russia as one of animosity does not explain the whole picture.

Tysiące innych sekretów

Borys Pasternak, 2021. Szkice, wybór i przeł. Seweryn Pollak, red. Katarzyna Gędas, Piotr Mitzner, Żaneta Nalewajk, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Thousands of Other Secrets The article discusses the first critical edition of Seweryn Pollak’s translations of Boris Pasternak’s essays (Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 2021). The collection prepared by Katarzyna Gędas, Piotr Mitzner, and Żaneta Nalewajk invites its readers to develop a multifocal reading that attends simultaneously to (1) the complex historical, social, political and economic factors involved in the production of translations and its relationship to reading communities (both in Soviet Russia and in the Polish People’s Republic), (2) Pasternak’s personal and creative biography, (3) Pasternak’s views on the tasks of art, literature and artistic translation, (4) the history of the Shakespearean translations in Russian, (5) modernist concepts of literary translation, (6) the essayistic and translational legacy of Seweryn Pollak, and, last but not least, (7) Pollak’s unpublished archives. Particularly the last of the mentioned research areas leaves a sense of insufficiency, incompleteness and regret in the reader’s mind. As sadly reported by the editors of the collection, Pollak’s archives have not yet been duly classified and examined, despite their compelling importance for the history of Polish literary translation and translation studies. The translator’s manuscripts remain scattered across various institutions and still await sustained scholarly attention and coordinated elaboration in a search for their secrets.

SOUL LONGING FOR AGAPE LOVE IN THE POEM “REMEMBER” BY CHRISTINA ROSETTI

“Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.” says -Boris Pasternak. Several literary works engage readers deeply by the narratives they tell or the messages they convey. Readers are consistently motivated by biographies of notable people as well as true tales of bravery, selflessness, and other admirable traits. Such books act as both a bible of values and a window into the life of notable people for the general public. The main types of literature: Drama, Fable, Autobiography, Biography, Poetry, Prose, Science Fiction, and Journalistic Literature. Poetry is a great motivator when we try to learn it. It is rich in tradition, culture and language and gives a great opportunity to learn a language. The main function of poetry is to interpret life. There are poets who have pictured death as both a friend and an enemy. Some claim that passing away can provide relief from troubles and anguish, while others claim that it is cruel and robs a person of the fun and pleasure the world has to offer. In this paper, an attempt has been made to present Christina Rossetti’s longingness to be remembered even after death that separates her from her lover in the poem “Remember”.

Rossica w Dziennikach Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza. Dwudziestowieczność. Wybrane aspekty

The article is devoted to the analysis of broadly understood twentieth-century russica appearing in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s Journals. Individual russica were combined into thematic blocks that cover such spheres of cultural reality as literary life, literary studies, the times of the thaw, the condition of a writer in the Soviet Union, and Ilya Erenburg’s reception of specific Russian writers (Ilya Erenburg, Konstantin Paustowski, Andrei Vozniesienski, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Bella Akhmadulina). The basic phenomena are considered through the lens of cultural comparative studies, which assume that the research object is embedded in specific historical, political and aesthetic realities. The presence of the figure of the diarist clearly outlined in the Diaries allows us to look at the discussed problems not from an “isolating” encyclopaedic perspective, but from a personal perspective, enriched with an emotional layer. This approach is additionally supported by the selection of para-literary materials – i.e. diaries and ephemeral texts.

Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors: The Duvakin Interviews, 1967–1974 By Slav N.Gratchev, MargaritaMarinova, IrinaEvdokimova. Translated by Slav N. Gratchev and Margarita Marinova. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, xii + 234 pp. $80.00. ISBN 978‐1‐4874‐2725‐9

Russian Modernism in the Memories of the Survivors: The Duvakin Interviews, 1967–1974 By Slav N.Gratchev, MargaritaMarinova, IrinaEvdokimova. Translated by Slav N. Gratchev and Margarita Marinova. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, xii + 234 pp. $80.00. ISBN 978‐1‐4874‐2725‐9

Phenomenological aspect of the title of B. Pasternak’s book of poems The Twin in the Clouds

This article focuses on the phenomenological interpretation of Boris Pasternak’s first book of poems, The Twin in the Clouds, examining the artistic intentions that shape the work’s subjective structure. The study delves into the creative conflict involved in defining the lyrical subject, seeking self-identity and engaging in a dialogue with their “double”. The analysis incorporates mythopoetic, hermeneutic and psychoanalytic perspectives to explore the work’s imagery. The author investigates the unique intentional experiences of the lyrical subject within the artistic text’s syntagmatic-paradigmatic connections, transcending conventional sign-defined certainty. This aspect models the existential-ontological realization of the lyrical hero and the author’s self-awareness in phenomenological reflection. The article also examines the linguistic structure of the poetic texts, exploring various interpretations of metaphors that trace back to the sacred tradition of naming. The analytical portion of the article focuses on texts that best demonstrate the ideologically significant aspects of Pasternak’s book. These texts primarily reveal the intentional specificity of resolving the existential conflict of the lyrical subject in their quest for cosmogonic unity with their divine counterpart. The study’s conclusions present findings from an analysis of all poems in the book, considering the actualization of artistic intentions in three main aspects: ontological, gnoseological, and metaphysical. This comprehensive approach uncovers the full range of the hero–subject’s existential experiences.