1. After a brief scan through several articles, I've not seen the answer to this, so: Are Strelnikov and the foresty chap based on real people?
With respect to Strel'nikov, the question is a very contentious one. Some people think he is just an anti-hero (Antipov, his real last name, is a clue to this), who fights Zhivago's "life" with executions (Strel'nikov is based on the word for shooting in Russian). Others for some bizarre reason associate him with Sokol'nikov, who was a minor Bolshevik - I don't know why, though - everything about Sokol'nikov is different from who Strel'nikov is. The last name just sounds similar. Others think he is Marshal Tukhachevsky, executed by Stalin. Given Pasternak's protection by Stalin, many see Yevgraf as Stalin. The forest partisans are based on a variety of groups of red partisans that Pasternak researched and read about when he was living in Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
I guess that's why I couldn't find an answer then.
2. What social class is Yuri in? Couldn't work that out either.
Yuri's family seems to be a blend of lower nobility and the merchant class (the "kuptsy" ). The merchant class arose in the 18th Century and by the 19th Century many of them were fabulously wealthy. Their code of honor was paramount to them, and if they shook hands on something they would abide by the terms of the agreement as scrupulously as if they had signed a written contract. As they became extremely wealthy, many of them married into impoverished noble families to increase their pedigree (a practice common all over Europe at the time). It seems that the Zhivagos on the father's side were kuptsy, and the mother's side were impoverished nobles. The Gromekos are the exact same way - the combination of the factories and country homes shows a mixture of enterprise and privilege.
OK. I wasn't sure because his family had owned property and didn't know if they were an equivalent of the landed gentry in England or similar. So that all makes sense now.
Greg is completely right that by today's standards (and indeed, by Soviet standards) they would be considered part of the intelligentsia.
~nods~
3. And why, when his family was essentially exiled, would he have had to get permission to leave Russia?
That question shows that you don't really know Russia well. Russia has always controlled the movement of its people. The peasants were tied to the land, and after the Revolution the Bolsheviks enslaved them once again by instituting a system of internal passports and not giving them to the peasants. Without an internal passport, it was impossible to board a train or take a commuter bus to a different town or stay in a hotel.
Even if a person had an internal passport, however, they still needed an external passport to travel. Getting an external passport was a very difficult process, and even now it can be complicated and frustrating. In the Soviet period, however, it raised questions about loyalty and people had to prove they were good Party members or that they were at least committed to Soviet ideals, to get a passport. Even with an external passport, it was not possible to leave the country without travel papers. It was almost impossible to get these travel papers - trips were viewed with extreme suspicion, even to places like East Germany, KGB minders were attached to groups to spy on them and keep them from fleeing and upon their return they were forced to detail every hour of their trip and explain any suspicious contacts they might have had. If the authorities were not happy about the responses, they might never give someone travel papers ever again.
The Soviet Union did not have a habit of exiling dissidents until the 1970s. Prior to that time, it was considered dangerous to let potential enemies out of the country, where they could publish the truth about what life in the Soviet Union was like. As a result, internal exile (or, in the 1930s, summary execution) was preferred to giving travel papers to people critical of the Soviet system.
You're right. I don't know much about Russia at all. Is it a translator's fault, then, that the version I read said Tonya etc had been exiled?
*MySmiley*
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
So, let's talk about Doctor Zhivago.
15/03/2010 12:51:09 PM
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I liked it a lot.
15/03/2010 03:24:34 PM
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I mostly agree with your points, but I'm not sure Zhivago was ever disillusioned with revolution.
15/03/2010 09:19:54 PM
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Re: I mostly agree with your points, but I'm not sure Zhivago was ever disillusioned with revolution
15/03/2010 09:57:29 PM
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Yes, it's the Soviet state, not the revolution, that he hates.
15/03/2010 11:16:29 PM
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There will be more later. Much more. So lets start at the beginning.
15/03/2010 04:22:15 PM
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... I'm clearly lacking in braincells.
15/03/2010 05:03:35 PM
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... yes, you moved to scotland? *NM*
15/03/2010 05:42:21 PM
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I didn't notice the Anna Karenina connection. That's a good point.
15/03/2010 09:26:41 PM
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Yes. Perhaps we should tell the non-Russian speakers/readers that the name of the protagonist,
15/03/2010 10:22:39 PM
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Zhivago is the Church Slavonic genitive singular of живой (zhivoi), "living"
15/03/2010 11:18:23 PM
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I thought this was a great read, and I'm sure I've missed a lot, which will make a reread good too.
15/03/2010 05:16:19 PM
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On balance, there IS a love story. Just not quite the one that most people think.
15/03/2010 09:34:20 PM
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I noticed that as well
15/03/2010 09:42:04 PM
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Yes. This is what I was going to say, just not as articulately. *NM*
15/03/2010 10:12:33 PM
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My initial thoughts
15/03/2010 06:02:21 PM
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Re: My initial thoughts
15/03/2010 08:54:15 PM
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There appears to be a lull, so some background - How many of you have read anything about
15/03/2010 08:19:07 PM
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I've read bits & pieces.
15/03/2010 08:33:41 PM
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Ok, since you're interested, here is some "light" reading for you. Approach with caution.
15/03/2010 08:47:42 PM
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Re: Ok, since you're interested, here is some "light" reading for you. Approach with caution.
15/03/2010 11:05:22 PM
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Thank you for calling it "light" reading. The quotation marks were comforting.
17/03/2010 09:56:26 AM
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I will read and respond to this when I remember to bring my glasses home from work! *NM*
17/03/2010 06:14:31 PM
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Fiction or non-fiction?
15/03/2010 09:21:04 PM
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Familiar with the history, though I've never exhaustively studied the time period.
16/03/2010 02:20:23 PM
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Why would you consider this a classic? What made it so good or profound for (plural) you?
16/03/2010 11:19:23 PM
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Put a question mark at the end of the first sentence and read my response. *NM*
17/03/2010 12:09:58 AM
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Some questions.
19/03/2010 08:27:38 AM
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As an addendum to what Greg wrote:
19/03/2010 05:56:56 PM
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Re: As an addendum to what Greg wrote:
20/03/2010 02:36:36 PM
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The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
21/03/2010 05:34:03 PM
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It looks a bit strained to me.
22/03/2010 03:28:34 AM
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So far the reviews are pretty glowing, as are the Amazon reviewers.
22/03/2010 01:44:19 PM
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In other news, I read about 100 pages of The Island at the Center of the World.
22/03/2010 03:48:47 PM
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I finished it last night - the last 100+ pages rather fast, considering how long the whole took.
21/04/2010 01:00:50 AM
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