Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book

Copyright © 2014 by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House companies.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for the permission to reprint previously published material:

Doubleday: “Autumn,” “The Earth,” and “Lieutenant Schmidt” from A Captive of Time by Olga Ivinskaya, translated by Max Hayward, copyright © 1978 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company: Excerpt from Feltrinelli: A Story of Riches, Revolution and Violent Death by Carlo Feltrinelli, translated by Alastair McEwan. Copyright © 1999 by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Translation copyright © 2001 by Alastair McEwen. Excerpt from Meetings with Pasternak: A Memoir by Alexander Gladkov, translated by Max Hayward. Copyright © 1977 by Alexander Gladkov. Translation copyright © 1978 by Max Hayward. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pantheon Books: “August” and “Winter Night” from Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, translation copyright © 2010 by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. “Hamlet” from Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, translated by Max Hayward and Manya Harari, translation copyright © 1958 by William Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., copyright © 1958 by Pantheon Books Inc. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. Underlying rights to Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, copyright © 1957 by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, Milano, Italy, copyright © The Heirs of Boris Pasternak, granted by Feltrinelli and the agents for the Estate of Pasternak. Reprinted by permission of the heirs of Boris Pasternak and Giangiacomo Feltrinellu Editore, Milan. All rights reserved.

Random House Group Limited: Excerpts from Boris Pasternak: The Tragic Years, 1930–1960 by Evgeny Pasternak, translated by M. Duncan. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

Simon & Schuster, Inc.: Excerpt from Hope Against Hope: A Memoir by Nadezha Mandelstam, translated from the Russian by Max Hayward. Copyright © 1970 by Atheneum Publishers. Reprinted by permission of Scribner Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Finn, Peter, [date]

The Zhivago affair : the Kremlin, the CIA, and the battle over a forbidden book / Peter Finn and Petra Couvée.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

HC ISBN 978-0-307-90800-1. EBK ISBN 978-0-307-90801-8.

1. Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich, 1890–1960. Doktor Zhivago. 2. Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich, 1890–1960—Censorship. 3. Authors, Russian—20th century—Biography. 4. Dissenters—Soviet Union—Biography. 5. Prohibited books—Soviet Union—History. 6. Politics and literature—Soviet Union—History. 7. United States. Central Intelligence Agency—History—20th century. 8. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—United States. 9. United States—Foreign relations—Soviet Union. 10. Soviet Union—Politics and government—1953–1985. I. Couvée, Petra. II. Title.

PG3476.P27D6837 2013 891.7342—dc23 2013033875

www.pantheonbooks.com

Jacket images: (Boris Pasternak) Bettmann/Corbis; (Kremlin, Moscow) Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Cover design by Mark Abrams

v3.1

For Nora FitzGerald, and our children, Rachel, Liam, David, and Ria

and

For Koos Couvée and Paula van Rossen

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

“This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world.”

Chapter 1

“The roof over the whole of Russia has been torn off.”

Chapter 2

“Pasternak, without realizing it, entered the personal life of Stalin.”

Chapter 3

“I have arranged to meet you in a novel.”

Chapter 4

“You are aware of the anti-Soviet nature of the novel?”

Chapter 5

“Until it is finished, I am a fantastically, manically unfree man.”

Chapter 6

“Not to publish a novel like this would constitute a crime against culture.”