Zhivago (Pasternak) is in love with Russia. He falls in love with the Russia he knows from childhood (Tonya) and thinks he would be happy with her, perhaps even in a Platonic mystical marriage. However, that safe, comfortable attachment is not enough for him, as he starts to notice the Revolution that is about to break (Lara). He feels an uncontrollable attraction to the Revolution and throws himself into it with reckless abandon, sacrificing his family, his home and nearly his life, before coming to the realization that he cannot stay in the moment of the Revolution and that he has lost everything (both Tonya and Lara). The dehumanizing experience of Soviet Russia (the partisans slowly coming to resemble animals in their winter quarters) breaks him, but he still loves his homeland, despite the fact that the grey, lacklustre Russia that remains is now almost his enemy, humiliating him and making him suffer all manner of indignities (Marina, his third woman).