A Grand Passion

Against the backdrop of Stalinist Russia, as persecution grew for writers and dissenters, BORIS PASTERNAK met the woman who would inspire his epic postwar romance Doctor Zhivago.

- Anna Pasternak

Novy Mir, meaning “New World,” the leading Soviet literary monthly where Olga Ivinskaya worked, was set up in 1925. Literary journals enjoyed huge influence in the Stalinist period as vehicles for political ideas in a country where debate was harshly censored. The offices in Pushkin Square were situated in a grand former ballroom, painted a rich dark red with gilded cornices, where Pushkin once danced. The magazine’s editor, the poet and author Konstantin Simonov, was a flamboyant figure with a silvery mane of hair who sported chunky signet rings and the latest American loose-fitting suits. He was keen to attract “living classics” to the journal, and counted Boris Pasternak among its contributors. Olga was in charge of the section for new authors.

On an icy October day in 1946, just as a fine snow was beginning to swirl outside the windows, Olga was about to go out for lunch. As she pulled on her squirrel-fur coat, her colleague Zinaida Piddubnaya interrupted: “Boris Leonidovich, let me introduce one of your most ardent admirers.”

Olga was astounded and ecstatic when “this God” appeared before her and “stood there on the carpet and smiled at me.” Boldly, she held out her hand for him to kiss. Boris bent forward and asked what books of his she had. Olga replied that she only had one. He looked surprised. “Oh, I’ll get you some others,” he said, “though I’ve given almost all my copies away. . . .” He explained that he was hardly writing any poems at all due to the repressive strictures of the day, and spending most of his time on translations of Shakespeare.