The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée
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Dr. Zhivago’s CIA Connection and the Pope
‘The Zhivago Affair’ is a detailed reconstruction of one of the most fascinating of the Cold War’s cultural skirmishes
Whether Doctor Zhivago contributed in any measurable way to the decline of the USSR is, of course, impossible to say. But at the very least, the episode made clear what was at stake in the fight between democracy and Communism; the Soviet state’s response to the novel, ironically enough, confirmed all the critiques that Pasternak made of the paranoid Communist mindset. As for the book itself, its ultimate literary fate remains unclear. It is not a flawless masterpiece, and a surprising number of the friends Pasternak showed it to disapproved of it.
