The seeds of

go back almost to the earliest stages of Pasternak’s prose-writing career, resurfacing every so often in fictional fragments (accumulated under such titles as “Patrick’s Notes” and “Fragments of a Novel”). However the novel as we now know it was begun in earnest just after the Second World War, under the working title of “Boys and Girls”, and was completed as “Doctor Zhivago” by the end of 1955. [For further information on the novel’s genesis, please see the biographical profile of Pasternak.] From the Soviet viewpoint, Pasternak’s novel was far removed from the official cultural doctrine of “socialist realism”, which demanded positive heroes and unstinting praise for the Communist Party, criteria deliberately not satisified by the…

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Citation: Cornwell, Neil. "Doktor Zhivago". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 May 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12495, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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