Boris Pasternak: Difference between revisions

| image = Boris Pasternak 1959 photo.jpg

| birth_place = Moscow, Russia

| death_place = [[Peredelkino]], Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union

| children = 2

| parent = [[Leonid Pasternak]]

| relatives = [[Lydia Pasternak Slater]] (sister)

'''Boris Leonidovich Pasternak'''{{family name footnote|Leonidovich|Pasternak|lang=Eastern Slavic}}{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|s|t|ər|n|æ|k}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pasternak "Pasternak"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{langx|ru|Борис Леонидович Пастернак}},  {{IPA|ru|bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɨrˈnak|IPA}};<ref>{{cite book|author1=F.L. Ageenko|author2=M.V. Zarva|title=Slovar' udarenij|language=ru|location=Moscow|publisher=Russkij jazyk|page=686}}</ref>}} ({{OldStyleDate|10 February|1890|29 January}}{{snd}}30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator.

Pasternak was the author of ''[[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1957), a novel that takes place between the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] and the Second World War. ''Doctor Zhivago'' was rejected for publication in the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], but the manuscript was smuggled to Italy and was first published there in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2014-press-releases-statements/cia-declassifies-agency-role-in-publishing-doctor-zhivago.html|title=CIA Declassifies Agency Role in Publishing Doctor Zhivago|work=Central Intelligence Agency|date=14 April 2014|access-date=19 September 2014|archive-date=21 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721133219/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2014-press-releases-statements/cia-declassifies-agency-role-in-publishing-doctor-zhivago.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Shortly after his birth, Pasternak's parents had joined the [[Tolstoyan]] Movement. Novelist [[Leo Tolstoy]] was a close family friend, as Pasternak recalled, {{qi|my father illustrated his books, went to see him, revered him, and [...] the whole house was imbued with his spirit.}}<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 25.</ref>

According to [[Max Hayward]], {{qi|In November 1910, when Tolstoy fled from his home and died in the stationmaster's house at [[Astapovo]], Leonid Pasternak was informed by telegram and he went there immediately, taking his son Boris with him, and made a drawing of Tolstoy on his deathbed.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 16.</ref>

In April 1934 [[Osip Mandelstam]] recited his "[[Stalin Epigram]]" to Pasternak. After listening, Pasternak told Mandelstam: {{qi|I didn't hear this, you didn't recite it to me, because, you know, very strange and terrible things are happening now: they've begun to pick people up. I'm afraid the walls have ears and perhaps even these benches on the boulevard here may be able to listen and tell tales. So let's make out that I heard nothing.}}<ref name="Ivin61">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 61–63.</ref>

Soon after his meeting with Bukharin, the telephone rang in Pasternak's Moscow apartment. A voice from [[Moscow Kremlin|the Kremlin]] said, {{qi|Comrade [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] wishes to speak with you.}}<ref name="Ivin61"/> According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak was struck dumb. {{qi|He was totally unprepared for such a conversation. But then he heard ''his'' voice, the voice of Stalin, coming over the line. Stalin addressed him in a rather bluff uncouth fashion, using the familiar ''thou'' form: 'Tell me, what are they saying in your literary circles about the arrest of Mandelstam?'}} Flustered, Pasternak denied that there was any discussion or that there were any literary circles left in Soviet Russia. Stalin went on to ask him for his own opinion of Mandelstam. In an "eager fumbling manner" Pasternak explained that he and Mandelstam each had a completely different philosophy about poetry. Stalin finally said, in a mocking tone of voice: {{qi|I see, you just aren't able to stick up for a comrade}}, and put down the receiver.<ref name="Ivin61"/>

Soon after, Pasternak appealed directly to Stalin, describing his family's strong [[Tolstoyan]] convictions and putting his own life at Stalin's disposal; he said that he could not stand as a self-appointed judge of life and death. Pasternak was certain that he would be arrested,<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978 pp 132-133"/> but instead Stalin is said to have crossed Pasternak's name off an execution list, reportedly declaring, {{qi|Do not touch this cloud dweller}} (or, in another version, {{qi|Leave that [[Foolishness for Christ|holy fool]] alone!}}).<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 133.</ref>

Ivinskaya wrote, {{qi|I believe that between Stalin and Pasternak there was an incredible, silent [[duel]].}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p 135.</ref>

Pasternak later said, {{qi|If, in a bad dream, we had seen all the horrors in store for us after the war, we should not have been sorry to see Stalin fall, together with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]. Then, an end to the war in favour of our [[Allies of World War II|allies]], civilized countries with democratic traditions, would have meant a hundred times less suffering for our people than that which Stalin again inflicted on it after his victory.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 80.</ref>

In October 1946, the twice-married Pasternak met [[Olga Ivinskaya]], a 34 year old single mother employed by ''[[Novy Mir]]''. Deeply moved by her resemblance to his first love Ida Vysotskaya,<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 12, 395, footnote 3.</ref> Pasternak gave Ivinskaya several volumes of his poetry and literary translations. Although Pasternak never left his wife Zinaida, he started an extramarital relationship with Ivinskaya that would last for the remainder of Pasternak's life. Ivinskaya later recalled, {{qi|He phoned almost every day and, instinctively fearing to meet or talk with him, yet dying of happiness, I would stammer out that I was 'busy today.' But almost every afternoon, toward the end of working hours, he came in person to the office and often walked with me through the streets, boulevards, and squares all the way home to Potapov Street. 'Shall I make you a present of this square?' he would ask.}}

When they first met, Pasternak was translating the verse of the Hungarian [[List of national poets|national poet]], [[Sándor Petőfi]]. Pasternak gave his lover a book of Petőfi with the inscription, {{qi|Petőfi served as a code in May and June 1947, and my close translations of his lyrics are an expression, adapted to the requirements of the text, of my feelings and thoughts for you and about you. In memory of it all, B.P., 13 May 1948.}}

Pasternak later noted on a photograph of himself: {{qi|Petőfi is magnificent with his descriptive lyrics and picture of nature, but you are better still. I worked on him a good deal in 1947 and 1948, when I first came to know you. Thank you for your help. I was translating both of you.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 27.</ref> Ivinskaya would later describe the Petőfi translations as "a first declaration of love".<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 28.</ref>

Upon learning of his [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]]' arrest, Pasternak telephoned Luisa Popova and asked her to come at once to [[Gogol Boulevard]]. She found him sitting on a bench near the [[Kropotkinskaya|Palace of Soviets Metro Station]]. Weeping, Pasternak told her, {{qi|Everything is finished now. They've taken her away from me and I'll never see her again. It's like death, even worse.}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 86">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 86.</ref>

According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|After this, in conversation with people he scarcely knew, he always referred to Stalin as a 'murderer.' Talking with people in the offices of literary periodicals, he often asked: 'When will there be an end to this freedom for lackeys who happily walk over corpses to further their own interests?' He spent a good deal of time with [[Anna Akhmatova|Akhmatova]]—who in those years was given a very wide berth by most of the people who knew her. He worked intensively on the second part of ''Doctor Zhivago''.}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 86"/>

In a 1958 letter to a friend in [[West Germany]], Pasternak wrote, {{qi|She was put in jail on my account, as the person considered by the [[KGB|secret police]] to be closest to me, and they hoped that by means of a gruelling interrogation and threats they could extract enough evidence from her to put me on trial. I owe my life, and the fact that they did not touch me in those years, to her heroism and endurance.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 109.</ref>

Pasternak's translation of the [[Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy|first part]] of ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'' led him to be attacked in the August 1950 edition of ''[[Novy Mir]]''. The critic accused Pasternak of distorting [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s "progressive" meanings to support {{qi|the reactionary theory of 'pure art'}}, as well as introducing aesthetic and [[individualist]] values. In a subsequent letter to the daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva, Pasternak explained that the attack was motivated by the fact that the supernatural elements of the play, which ''Novy Mir'' considered, "irrational", had been translated as Goethe had written them. Pasternak further declared that, despite the attacks on his translation, his contract for the [[Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy|second part]] had not been revoked.<ref name="Ivin78"/>

When Stalin died of a stroke on 5 March 1953, Ivinskaya was still imprisoned in the [[Gulag]], and Pasternak was in Moscow. Across the nation, there were waves of panic, confusion, and public displays of grief. Pasternak wrote, {{qi|Men who are not free... always idealize their bondage.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 144.</ref>

After her release, Pasternak's relationship with Ivinskaya picked up where it had left off. Soon after he confided in her, {{qi|For so long we were ruled over by a madman and a murderer, and now by a fool and a pig. The madman had his occasional flights of fancy, he had an intuitive feeling for certain things, despite his wild obscurantism. Now we are ruled over by mediocrities.}}<ref name="Ivin142">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 142.</ref> During this period, Pasternak delighted in reading a clandestine copy of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'' in English. In conversation with Ivinskaya, Pasternak explained that the pig dictator [[Napoleon (Animal Farm)|Napoleon]], in the novel, "vividly reminded" him of Soviet Premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]].<ref name="Ivin142"/>

Pasternak's fortunes were soon to change, however. In March 1956, the [[Italian Communist Party]] sent a journalist, [[Sergio D'Angelo]], to work in the Soviet Union, and his status as a journalist as well as his membership in the Italian Communist Party allowed him to have access to various aspects of the cultural life in Moscow at the time. A Milan publisher, the communist [[Giangiacomo Feltrinelli]], had also given him a commission to find new works of Soviet literature that would be appealing to Western audiences, and upon learning of ''Doctor Zhivago''{{'}}s existence, D'Angelo travelled immediately to Peredelkino and offered to submit Pasternak's novel to Feltrinelli's company for publication. At first Pasternak was stunned. Then he brought the manuscript from his study and told D'Angelo with a laugh, {{qi|You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad.}}<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], p. 275.</ref>

In 1957, Feltrinelli announced that the novel would be published by his company. Despite repeated demands from visiting Soviet emissaries, Feltrinelli refused to cancel or delay publication. According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|He did not believe that we would ever publish the manuscript here and felt he had no right to withhold a masterpiece from the world – this would be an even greater crime.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 203.</ref> The Soviet government forced Pasternak to cable the publisher to withdraw the manuscript, but he sent separate, secret letters advising Feltrinelli to ignore the telegrams.{{r|washingtonpost}}

Helped considerably by the Soviet campaign against the novel (as well as by the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s secret purchase of hundreds of copies of the book as it came off the presses around the world – see "[[#Nobel Prize|Nobel Prize]]" section below), ''Doctor Zhivago'' became an instant sensation throughout the non-Communist world upon its release in November 1957. In the [[State of Israel]], however, Pasternak's novel was sharply criticized for its [[Jewish assimilation|assimilationist]] views towards the [[Jewish people]]. When informed of this, Pasternak responded, {{qi|No matter. I am above race...}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 136.</ref> According to Lazar Fleishman, Pasternak had written the disputed passages prior to Israeli independence. At the time, Pasternak had also been regularly attending Russian Orthodox [[Divine Liturgy]]. Therefore, he believed that Soviet Jews converting to Christianity was preferable to assimilating into [[atheism]] and [[Stalinism]].<ref>[[#Fleishman|Fleishman]], pp. 264–266.</ref>

During the aftermath of the Second World War, Pasternak had composed a series of poems on [[Gospel]] themes. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak had regarded Stalin as a {{qi|giant of the pre-Christian era.}} Therefore, Pasternak's decision to write [[Christian poetry]] was {{qi|a form of protest}}.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 134.</ref>

On 9 September 1958, the ''Literary Gazette'' critic Viktor Pertsov retaliated by denouncing {{qi|the decadent religious poetry of Pasternak, which reeks of mothballs from the [[Russian Symbolism|Symbolist]] suitcase of 1908–10 manufacture.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 231.</ref> Furthermore, the author received much [[hate mail]] from Communists both at home and abroad. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak continued to receive such letters for the remainder of his life.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 230.</ref>

In a letter written to his sister Josephine, however, Pasternak recalled the words of his friend Ekaterina Krashennikova upon reading ''Doctor Zhivago''. She had said, {{qi|Don't forget yourself to the point of believing that it was you who wrote this work. It was the [[Russian people]] and their sufferings who created it. Thank God for having expressed it through your pen.}}<ref>[[#Slater|Slater]], p. 403.</ref>

According to Yevgeni Borisovich Pasternak, {{qi|Rumors that Pasternak was to receive the Nobel Prize started right after the end of [[World War II]].}} According to the former Nobel Committee head [[Lars Gyllensten]], his nomination was discussed every year from 1946 to 1950, then again in 1957 (it was finally awarded in 1958). Pasternak guessed at this from the growing waves of criticism in USSR. Sometimes he had to justify his European fame: 'According to the Union of Soviet Writers, some literature circles of the West see unusual importance in my work, not matching its modesty and low productivity...'<ref name="english.pravda.ru">{{cite web|url=http://english.pravda.ru/society/showbiz/18-12-2003/4383-pasternak-0/ |title=Boris Pasternak: Nobel Prize, Son's Memoirs |publisher=English.pravda.ru |date=18 December 2003 |access-date=24 January 2014}}</ref>

On 23 October 1958, Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize. The citation credited Pasternak's contribution to Russian lyric poetry and for his role in {{qi|continuing the great Russian epic tradition.}} On 25 October, Pasternak sent a [[telegram]] to the [[Swedish Academy]]: {{qi|Infinitely grateful, touched, proud, surprised, overwhelmed.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 221.</ref> That same day, the Literary Institute in Moscow demanded that all its students sign a petition denouncing Pasternak and his novel. They were further ordered to join a "spontaneous" demonstration demanding Pasternak's exile from the Soviet Union.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 223–224.</ref> Also on that day, the ''Literary Gazette'' published a letter which was sent to B. Pasternak in September 1956 by the editors of the Soviet literary journal [[Novy Mir]] to justify their rejection of [[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|Doctor Zhivago]]. In publishing this letter the Soviet authorities wished to justify the measures they had taken against the author and his work.<ref>"Doctor Zhivago": Letter to Boris Pasternak from the Editors of ''Novyi Mir''. Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 3, The Russian Intelligentsia (Summer, 1960), pp.{{spaces}}648–668.</ref> On 26 October, the ''Literary Gazette'' ran an article by David Zaslavski entitled, ''[[Reactionary]] Propaganda Uproar over a Literary Weed''.<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 224.</ref>

{{blockquote|The anti-Pasternak campaign was organized in the worst Stalin tradition: denunciations in ''Pravda'' and other newspapers; publications of angry letters from, "ordinary Soviet workers", who had not read the book; hastily convened meetings of Pasternak's friends and colleagues, at which fine poets like [[Vladimir Soloukin]], [[Leonid Martynov]], and [[Boris Slutsky]] were forced to censure an author they respected. Slutsky, who in his brutal prose-like poems had created an image for himself as a courageous soldier and truth-lover, was so tormented by his anti-Pasternak speech that he later went insane. On October 29, 1958, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Young Communist League, dedicated to the [[Komsomol]]'s fortieth anniversary, its head, [[Vladimir Semichastny]], attacked Pasternak before an audience of 14,000 people, including Khrushchev and other Party leaders. Semichastny first called Pasternak, "a mangy sheep", who pleased the enemies of the Soviet Union with, "his slanderous so-called work." Then Semichastny (who became head of the KGB in 1961) added that, "this man went and spat in the face of the people." And he concluded with, "If you compare Pasternak to a pig, a pig would not do what he did," because a pig, "never shits where it eats." Khrushchev applauded demonstratively. News of that speech drove Pasternak to the brink of suicide. It has recently come to light that the real author of Semichastny's insults was Khrushchev, who had called the Komsomol leader the night before and dictated his lines about the mangy sheep and the pig, which Semichastny described as a, "typically Khrushchevian, deliberately crude, unceremoniously scolding."<ref>Solomon Volkov (2008) ''The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn'', Alfred A. Knopf, pp. 195–196. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-4272-2}}.</ref>}}

Furthermore, Pasternak was informed that, if he traveled to Stockholm to collect his Nobel Medal, he would be refused re-entry to the Soviet Union. As a result, on 29 October Pasternak sent a second telegram to the Nobel Committee: {{qi|In view of the meaning given the award by the society in which I live, I must renounce this undeserved distinction which has been conferred on me. Please do not take my voluntary renunciation amiss.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 232.</ref> The Swedish Academy announced: {{qi|This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.}}<ref name=nobel_lectures>

According to Yevgenii Pasternak, {{qi|I couldn't recognize my father when I saw him that evening. Pale, lifeless face, tired painful eyes, and only speaking about the same thing: 'Now it all doesn't matter, I declined the Prize.'}}<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

According to Yevgenii Pasternak, {{qi|She accused herself bitterly for persuading Pasternak to decline the Prize. After all that had happened, open shadowing, friends turning away, Pasternak's suicidal condition at the time, one can... understand her: the memory of Stalin's camps was too fresh, [and] she tried to protect him.}}<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

On 31 October 1958, the [[Union of Soviet Writers]] held a trial behind closed doors. According to the meeting minutes, Pasternak was denounced as an [[Inner emigration|internal émigré]] and a Fascist [[fifth columnist]]. Afterwards, the attendees announced that Pasternak had been expelled from the Union. They further signed a petition to the [[Politburo]], demanding that Pasternak be stripped of his Soviet citizenship and exiled to {{qi|his Capitalist paradise.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 251–261.</ref> According to Yevgenii Pasternak, however, author [[Konstantin Paustovsky]] refused to attend the meeting. [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]] did attend, but walked out in disgust.<ref name="english.pravda.ru"/>

Meanwhile, [[Bill Mauldin]] produced [[:File:I won the Nobel Prize for Literature.jpg|a cartoon about Pasternak]] that won the 1959 [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning]]. The cartoon depicts Pasternak as a [[GULAG]] inmate splitting trees in the snow, saying to another inmate: {{qi|I won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What was your crime?}}<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/mauldin/mauldin-intro.html Bill Mauldin Beyond Willie and Joe] (Library of Congress).</ref>

Boris Pasternak died of lung cancer in his [[dacha]] in Peredelkino on the evening of 30 May 1960. He first summoned his sons, and in their presence said, {{qi|Who will suffer most because of my death? Who will suffer most? Only Oliusha will, and I haven't had time to do anything for her. The worst thing is that she will suffer.}}<ref name="Ivin323">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 323–326.</ref> Pasternak's last words were, {{qi|I can't hear very well. And there's a mist in front of my eyes. But it will go away, won't it? Don't forget to open the window tomorrow.}}<ref name="Ivin323"/>

[[File:Pasternaklaan Zoetermeer.jpg|thumb|left|Boris Pasternak Street [[Zoetermeer]], [[Netherlands]]]]

The Russian TV version of 2006, directed by [[Aleksandr Proshkin]] and starring [[Oleg Menshikov]] as Zhivago, is considered {{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} more faithful to Pasternak's novel than David Lean's 1965 film.

For this reason, Pasternak avoided literary cafes where young poets regularly invited them to read their verse. According to Ivinskaya, {{qi|It was this sort of thing that moved him to say: 'Who started the idea that I love poetry? I can't stand poetry.'}}<ref name="Ivinskaya 1978, p 145"/>

Also according to Ivinskaya, {{qi|'The way they could write!' he once exclaimed—by 'they' he meant the Russian classics. And immediately afterward, reading or, rather, glancing through some verse in the ''Literary Gazette'': 'Just look how tremendously well they've learned to rhyme! But there's actually nothing there—it would be better to say it in a news bulletin. What has poetry got to do with this?' By 'they' in this case, he meant the poets writing today.}}<ref>[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], p. 146.</ref>

Reluctant to conform to [[socialist realism]], Pasternak turned to translation in order to provide for his family. He soon produced acclaimed translations of [[Sándor Petőfi]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[Paul Verlaine]], [[Taras Shevchenko]], and [[Nikoloz Baratashvili]]. [[Osip Mandelstam]], however, privately warned him, {{qi|Your collected works will consist of twelve volumes of translations, and only one of your own work.}}<ref name="Ivin78">[[#Ivinskaya|Ivinskaya]], pp. 78–79.</ref>

In a 1942 letter, Pasternak declared, {{qi|I am completely opposed to contemporary ideas about translation. The work of Lozinski, Radlova, [[Samuil Marshak|Marshak]], and [[Kornei Chukovsky|Chukovski]] is alien to me, and seems artificial, soulless, and lacking in depth. I share the nineteenth-century view of translation as a literary exercise demanding insight of a higher kind than that provided by a merely philological approach.}}<ref name="Ivin78"/>

Pasternak's translations of [[William Shakespeare]] (''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'', ''[[Othello]]'', [[Henry IV, Part 1|''King Henry IV'' (Part I)]] and [[Henry IV, Part 2|(Part II)]], ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[King Lear]]'')<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 127.</ref> remain deeply popular with Russian audiences because of their colloquial, modernised dialogues. Pasternak's critics, however, accused him of "pasternakizing" Shakespeare. In a 1956 essay, Pasternak wrote: {{qi|Translating Shakespeare is a task which takes time and effort. Once it is undertaken, it is best to divide it into sections long enough for the work to not get stale and to complete one section each day. In thus daily progressing through the text, the translator finds himself reliving the circumstances of the author. Day by day, he reproduces his actions and he is drawn into some of his secrets, not in theory, but practically, by experience.}}<ref>[[#Pasternak59|Pasternak (1959)]], p. 142.</ref>

Boris Pasternak was also a composer, and had a promising musical career as a musician ahead of him, had he chosen to pursue it. He came from a musical family: his mother was a concert pianist and a student of [[Anton Rubinstein]] and [[Theodor Leschetizky]], and Pasternak's early impressions were of hearing piano trios in the home. The family had a [[dacha]] (country house) close to one occupied by [[Alexander Scriabin]]. [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] were all visitors to the family home. His father Leonid was a painter who produced one of the most important portraits of Scriabin, and Pasternak wrote many years later of witnessing with great excitement the creation of Scriabin's [[Symphony No. 3 (Scriabin)|Symphony No. 3]] (''The Divine Poem''), in 1903.