“Doctor Zhivago”: what new can be seen in Pasternak’s novel

Main characters

Pasternak wrote his novel “Doctor Zhivago”, summarized below, for more than one year. In fact, it took a whole decade to complete, from 1945 to 1955, so there are many characters presented here, each of whom has their own part of the story. Thanks to this, even chapter summaries are interesting and easy to read.

Main characters

The main characters of the novel are:

• Yuri Zhivago comes from a noble family. His relatives became poor, his father committed suicide after squandering his property, and his mother died of illness. He himself trained as a doctor and was sent to the front in the First World War;
• Tonya Gromeko – professor’s daughter, Zhivago’s wife;
• Lara Guichard (Antipova) is the daughter of a Frenchwoman and an engineer from Belgium, who settled in Russia before the revolution, the beloved of Yuri Zhivago;
• Viktor Komarovsky - lawyer, culprit in the death of Father Zhivago and his extravagance, seducer of Lara Guichard;
• Misha Gordon is a friend of Zhivago, who lived with him in the same apartment, and had previously seen his father die;
• Pavel Antipov (Strelnikov) is Lara’s husband, one of the ideological fighters for the revolution.

The fates of the main characters in the plot of the novel, told below in parts, are closely intertwined.

Minor characters

Even the summary of the novel features a wide range of minor characters, such as:

• Evgraf Zhivago is Yuri’s half-brother, who found him as an adult and was by his side until the very end;
• Nikolai Nikolaevich Vedenyapin - Yuri’s uncle, who took care of his nephew after the death of his mother;
• the Gromeko family - the family that sheltered Yuri and Misha;
• Nika Dudorov - friend of Misha Gordon;
• Marina – Yuri’s wife;
• Tatyana is the daughter of Lara and Yuri.

Reading the novel is interesting and exciting. The description of the main characters in the work is presented in detail, the reader gets to know each character as if with his own eyes.

History of creation

Pasternak began creating his novel almost immediately after the start of the war. The shock of the Great Patriotic War and the events he experienced forced him to begin rethinking the fate of Russia, the Russian people and the Russian intelligentsia, plunging into the years of the birth of the Soviet state. Very interesting facts are known about the writing of the novel “Doctor Zhivago”:

1. Literary scholars and biographers agree that the prototype of the main character, Doctor Zhivago, was the doctor Dmitry Avdeev, whom Pasternak met during the war and maintained a relationship after.
2. Pasternak himself said that Zhivago is an image in which he, Yesenin and Mayakovsky merged. His sister noted the similarity of Lara and her fate with the story of Pasternak’s own second wife.
3. Soviet magazines refused to publish Pasternak's novel, and as a result it was published in Italy, then in other European countries, and then the novel spread throughout the world. It even came to the attention of the CIA as a possible weapon of information warfare. That's why Doctor Zhivago was banned in the USSR.
4. Doctor Zhivago received recognition in the West, and Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
5. In the USSR, this caused a storm of indignation, and Pasternak was subjected to very severe persecution for several years, but he never refused the Nobel Prize, for which he was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR.

Summary in parts

Still from the film of the same name

Book 1

Part 1. Five-hour ambulance A funeral procession is walking through the winter streets. The people who meet her want to know who is being buried. They are told that they are burying Marya Nikolaevna Zhivago. The curious nod understandingly and walk away, they know this name well.

The boy emerges from the crowd and stands at the grave. It seems as if he was about to say his farewell words. But the baby starts crying, his mother has died. Little Yuri is taken by his uncle Nikolai Nikolaevich Vedenyapin. The father is carousing and squandering his property somewhere in St. Petersburg, he does not remember his son and did not even show up for the funeral. Yuri's new guardian was once a priest, but asked to be relieved of his priesthood. Using old connections, he temporarily lives in a monastery, where he takes his nephew. The morning after the funeral they set off. My mother's relatives were ruined, and there was no point in staying in Moscow.

In the summer of 1903, Yura and his uncle go to the village, to the estate of Ivan Ivanovich Voskoboynikov. Nikolai Vedenyapin will have to discuss the edits that the editor demands to be made to the landowner’s manuscript on the land issue. Yura, who is already eleven years old, hopes that a certain Nika Dudorov, a high school student two years older than Yura, will be on the estate. The boy reflects on how pleasant it is to live with his uncle, who has a character similar to his mother; he is happy about the trip, but suspects that Nika will not be happy with the guest. Nikolai Nikolaevich discusses with the unskilled worker and guard of the publishing house Pavel the current situation in the country, riots, and men’s dissatisfaction with life.

Nika Dudorov wants to seem like an adult, but everyone considers him a child, which angers the boy. And he is also angry at the absence of his mother, who, in her youth, became involved with his terrorist father, now serving lifelong hard labor. Mother actually abandoned Innocent to strangers and was now traveling around the country. Nika hates everyone, especially guests and a certain Nadya. The girl is only fifteen, and she makes fun of him. He even wants to kill Nadya, taking revenge on her, and then run away and start living an adult life. But after another quarrel, the guys fall into the pond together. After an unexpected swim, Nika forgets about his plans, he begins to like Nadya.

A man is thrown out of a train running at full speed. This happens in front of the eyes of eleven-year-old Misha Gordon and his father, who are going to see their sisters and mother. During the journey, the suicide was in the compartment more than once, gave the boy gifts and even managed to tell him that he had sons, one of them the same age, but from different mothers whom he abandoned. Along the way, the man complained about life and consulted with a new acquaintance regarding resolving financial issues. Soon he left, his drinking companions were waiting for him. Later it turned out that the deceased was Yura's father.

Part 2. A girl from another circle The revolution begins. Amalia Karlovna Guishar, a thirty-five-year-old widow, moves from the Urals to the capital. Her daughter Larisa enters the gymnasium, and her son Rodion enters the cadets. Amalia is not very smart, but she is beautiful. The woman enjoys the patronage of her husband’s friend, lawyer Komarovsky. He often comes to her at the Montenegro Hotel, advising her to buy the workshop of the seamstress Levitskaya.

Amalia Karlovna began to manage the new enterprise. But, since she was a nervous and cowardly woman, everything fell out of her hands. The woman was especially afraid of poverty. The situation was saved only by the honesty of the craftswomen and Amalia’s assistant, Faina Silantievna Fetisova. Amalia was respected, but the workers hated Komarovsky and his bulldog Jack. Lara became friends with Olga Demina, a simple but good girl.

It's a payday on the railroad. Tiverzin goes to collect his salary. On the way to the office, he tries to free the boy Yusupka from punishment, who is being beaten by master Pyotr Khudoleev. A fight breaks out and he runs away. A strike begins on the railway. Yusup's father thanks Tiverzin for saving his son from flogging. He also warns that it is better for the worker not to appear at home. But, fortunately, everything works out. The son of his arrested comrade Patul Antipov settles with Tiverzin.

The uprising is gaining momentum, shots are heard everywhere. The Guichard family moves from the workshop to a hotel. There Lara meets Pasha Antipov and Nika Dudorov (an acquaintance of her friend Nadya). Yura lives with Professor Gromeko. Misha Gordon, his classmate, and the owner’s daughter Tonya Gromeko also live here. Nikolai Nikolaevich settles with the Svetnitskys, who allocated an outbuilding for him.

One day, the professor is called to see a sick woman, who turns out to be Amalia Guichard. Misha and Yura go with the professor. There they find out that the lady tried to commit suicide by drinking iodine, and they meet Lara, who for some reason constantly exchanges glances with an older man. Going outside, Misha tells Yura that this man was once his father’s friend and his main drinking companion.

Part 3. Christmas tree at the Svetnitskys Yura, Tonya and Misha graduate from universities. Yura becomes a doctor, although he feels an inclination towards art and writes poetry, Misha becomes a philologist, having studied at the philosophy department, and Tonya goes to work as a lawyer. Tony's mother Alexandra Aleksandrovna Gromeko suffered a severe blow to her back, and since then she has constantly suffered from pulmonary diseases. During another coughing attack, Alexandra Alexandrovna, who has barely recovered from pneumonia, advises Tonya and Yura to get married. After this, the young people pay attention to each other. However, Yura is embarrassed by his lack of money. The father squandered his entire fortune, and Yura himself gave what was left to his younger brother and his mother.

Lara is burdened by her connection with Komarovsky. The spring of 1906 changes her life. The girl decides to leave her lover and family, getting a job as a teacher for the Kologrivovs. Three years pass, she lives well, plans to marry Pasha Antipov, helps his father and mother with money. One day her brother Rodion comes to her and asks, almost demands, money. He lost the funds collected by all the cadets for gifts to teachers, almost seven hundred rubles. Rodion advises Lara to talk to Komarovsky, who promised to give money if she agrees to return to him. However, the girl decides to borrow the required amount from the Kologrivovs. In exchange for money, Lara demands a pistol from her brother. She learns to shoot, wanting to kill Komarovsky and not finding the strength to forgive her lover for seducing her. The girl comes to the lawyer’s home, but does not find him: he has gone to the Svetlitskys’ Christmas tree. Lara returns to Pasha's apartment, tells him about her desire to marry him and leaves.

Tonya and Yura also go to the Svetnitskys. On the way, Yura sees light in the window of Pasha and Lara’s apartment, and the first lines of a poem are born in his head. Lara finds Komarovsky among those gathered, but shoots not at him, but at the prosecutor who convicted Pasha’s father and his comrades. Yura recognizes her, but then he is informed about Alexandra Alexandrovna’s illness. Tonya and Yura don’t have time to say goodbye. The woman is dying.

Part 4. Overdue inevitabilities After the shot, Lara has a nervous attack and begins to have feverish delirium. The Svetnitskys give her a room, but Komarovsky rents a separate apartment on Arbat, where they transport the unconscious girl. Kologrivov visited the patient; Komarovsky did not bother her with his company, allowing her to move again after recovery to a new rented home. Thanks to him, all charges against Lara were dropped. Pasha became jealous of the girl, and they soon got married. On the wedding day, Lara tells him everything about her life, without hiding. She sees him as her last hope. Both are leaving for the Urals.

Yura married Tonya and they had a son. Lara gave birth to Pasha's daughter Katya. Both of them worked at the gymnasium. However, Pasha soon began to feel burdened by his relationship with his wife, and after graduating from a military school in Omsk, he went to the front of the First World War. Lara trains to be a nurse, takes her daughter to her friends and rushes after her husband.

Yuri Zhivago, whom everyone calls Doctor Zhivago, and Misha Gordon meet at the front. Pasha Antipov is taken prisoner, and his documents end up with Galiullin, who informs Lara about her husband’s fate. The woman works in the hospital where the wounded Yuri is admitted. While Yuri is sick, Gordon and Dudorov release his work without asking the author's permission. However, everyone liked the book.

A revolution begins in St. Petersburg.

Part 5. Farewell to the old Yuri, who has recovered, goes home. His thoughts are anxious, he thinks about Tonya, his son and the revolution, but most of all about Lara Antipova. The wife suspects Yura of treason, advising him not to return to Moscow, but to go with Antipova to the Urals. But Yura was not ready for this, he convinces his wife of his love, writes her long letters.

Revolution is sweeping the country, fighting is taking place everywhere, people are fleeing big cities. A strange life begins for Zhivago.

Part 6. Moscow encampment Having arrived in Moscow, Yuri learns that not only his little son Sasha, whom he will see for the first time, is waiting for him at home (the boy was born when he was at the front), but also Nikolai Nikolaevich. Yuri is very happy about Uncle’s arrival.

Summer and autumn have passed, barricades are being built on the streets, and shooting is happening everywhere. To top off all the troubles, hunger and typhus begin, Antonina takes up baking bread to sell, but nothing comes of it, the family is in poverty. Zhivago is called to a sick woman, where he meets Yusup Galiullin’s mother and Olya Demina, who reminded him of Larisa and informed him that her brother had been shot, but she, Olya, managed to rescue Amalia.

Soon Zhivago becomes infected with typhus. His half-brother, Evgraf Zhivago, comes to the aid of the family. Everyone leaves for the Urals, away from the revolution, and settles near the city of Yuryatin, where Lara lives.

Part 7. On the road, Zhivago dissuades the family from going to Varykino, they are not expected there, but they do not listen to him. At the station it turns out that there are no seats on passenger trains, so we have to travel on freight trains. At one of the stations, the doctor is arrested by the Red Army, but their non-party commander named Strelnikov, better known as “Restrelnikov,” releases the man. They were looking for someone else. Strelnikov invites Zhivago to his place for tea. He is the son of a worker who managed to make his way into the ranks and graduate from university, but life disappointed him, and the revolution allowed him to take revenge on his offenders.

Strelnikov mocks Zhivago, trying to intimidate him, but lets him go with nothing, allowing him to return to his people.

Book 2

Part 8. Arrival Tonya, Yuri, Alexander Alexandrovich and Sasha get to the estate in a cart provided to them by a local old man. Averky Stepanovich Mikulitsyn, a distant relative, who lives there, is not happy with guests. He is afraid that they will come for them all and shoot them. But the family still settles in the room allocated to them.

At the table, hostess Elena Proklovna demonstrates her amazing knowledge of physics. The guests are amazed. The woman says that her knowledge is the merit of the local mathematics teacher Antipov. He went to the front and was allegedly killed. There are rumors in the area that Strelnikov, who arrived and has already managed to scare everyone in the area, is Antipov.

Part 9. Varykino Yuri begins working on the book again. He dreams of writing a solid scientific work. His wife is pregnant. In the library, Zhivago meets Lara. She invites him home for a conversation and tea. During the conversation, Larisa tells the news. Yusup Galiullin became a big shot, the Czechs valued him. He helped her save many wounded soldiers, and Strelnikov is really her husband Pashka, whom Larisa, despite everything, still loves.

Zhivago cheats on Tonya with Larisa, visits her more and more often and even stays overnight. On one of his visits along the way, he is detained by a patrol. Doctors are being drafted into the army again, the country needs medical personnel.

Part 10. On the high road Shopkeeper Galuzina returns from matins, she felt ill. On the way, the woman thinks about her unlucky son Tereshka and his father Vlasushka, Ksyusha’s pupil. Her thoughts are bitter. Everyone left her, scattering for the holidays in all directions.

Tereshka is walking with his comrades and comes under a raid, they catch the political ones. He is mistaken for one of them, and the guy barely manages to escape. Having overheard the conversation of one of those searching the house, Tereshka realizes that he has only one path - to join the partisans, to the Reds.

Part 11. Forest army The partisans helped the Red Army fight against Kolchak. Yuri Zhivago was in the detachment for the second year, trying to escape three times, but was returned. There was no punishment, since the detachment was commanded by the son of Averkin Stepanovich Mikulitsyn, Liveriy. In one of the villages he meets an old acquaintance from the train, Pelageya Tyagunova. The woman says that her son Vasya was taken into the army, she herself settled with her sister Olga Galuzina, who was ruined and is now a beggar.

The detachment was restless; a conspiracy was even organized, but it was discovered. Zhivago thinks more and more often about Tonya, wondering who was born to them.

Part 12. Rowan in sugar In winter, many in the partisan detachment fell ill with scurvy. The doctor is denied access to transport for transporting the wounded. There were no medicines, most people walked around half-naked, and they began to drink moonshine for warmth and for medicinal purposes. Tereshka Galuzin was shot.

Kolchak was defeated, but the war continues. Not seeing the point in it, since both sides are “good,” Zhivago leaves the partisan camp once again. He thinks about his family and Lara, promising to return to her.

Part 13. Against the house with figures The whites were expelled from the city. Yuri Zhivago survived and comes to Lara's house. But it is empty there, a note has been left. In it, the woman reports that she received news that he is alive and is going with her daughter to Varykino to await his arrival. Yuri fell ill and did not have the strength to hit the road again. He stays in Larisa's apartment and falls into unconsciousness. When he wakes up, he sees Larisa in front of him, who has been caring for him for several days.

Tonya gave birth to a daughter, Masha, and the family returned to Moscow. Strelnikov went on the run, Larisa confesses to Zhivago that she still loves her husband. And he tells her about the meanness of Komarovsky, who got his father drunk and embezzled a lot of money. Tonya says in a letter that the family is leaving abroad, presumably to Paris. She also reports about her acquaintance with Larisa, says that she is a good woman, although she is the complete opposite of her.

Part 14. Again in Varykino Komarovsky comes to the city, he insists on meeting with Yuri and Larisa, claiming that they are in danger from Strelnikov and Tiverzin. He invites Larisa and his daughter to go with him to the Far East, to the nascent Far Eastern Republic: from there, Yuri can travel by sea to his family. But Zhivago does not agree, because Larisa is pregnant. Together with Katya, they all return to the empty Varykino. Here Zhivago begins to write poetry again.

Komarovsky is not far behind, he reports that Strelnikov has been executed. Yuri sees that there is no way out and, having deceived Lara by saying that he will come to them later, convinces her to go with a lawyer. She is leaving. The only doctor left is gradually going crazy. One day, Strelnikov turns up alive on his doorstep. They have a heart-to-heart talk, Yuri tells Pavel that his wife still loves him. The next morning Pavel shot himself.

Part 15. The end Zhivago remains in Russia and gradually sinks to the bottom of society. For nine years he has not written anything, and almost does not practice medicine. His heart hurts. At the beginning of the NEP, the doctor comes to Moscow, here he almost becomes a beggar. He lives in an old house, and the daughter of a familiar janitor who previously served with them, Marina Shchapova, helps him with the housework. The girl becomes Zhivago’s partner and gives birth to his daughters, Kapka and Klashka.

Renewing his acquaintance with Gordon, Zhivago tells him that he received a letter from Paris from Tony. Soon he disappears, Marina receives a large sum of money. Zhivago was given it by his brother Evgraf. He also got the doctor a job. On the tram, Yuri becomes ill with his heart and dies. At the farewell, held in Antipov's former apartment, Larisa appears; from Evgraf she learns about Strelnikov's fate. She helps Yuri's stepbrother sort out the papers of the deceased and asks for help in finding the missing child, whom she gave into the wrong hands. A few days later, Larisa disappears; Evgraf knows nothing more about her fate; most likely, she is taken to a concentration camp.

Part 16. Epilogue In 1943, junior lieutenant Gordon arrives in the city of Orel, where he meets his friend Dudorov. They remember the bride Nika, who died a heroic death and was canonized. The girl entered a stable well fortified by the Germans, blew it up, but was caught and hanged.

Evgraf Zhivago becomes major general. In the part, Gordon meets an orphan girl Tanya, he believes that she is the daughter of Larisa and Yuri.

After the war, Misha and Nika Dudorov meet again and read Zhivago’s notes printed by Evgraf. They argue that the expected enlightenment and freedom have not come, but everything is moving towards this, and together they remember the past.

Main characters

The main idea of ​​the novel

The novel touches on an important historical period, it raises the problems of the revolution, the intelligentsia swept away by this revolution, and ordinary people forced to live in difficult times. The main idea is to use the example of the main character to show readers that life, whatever it is, continues and someday it will get better.

You always need to remain yourself, no matter what happens and no matter how difficult your fate may be.

The work presented in a brief retelling above is important to read in its full version. Despite the rather difficult scenes described in the novel, it is easy and interesting to read.

Composition and Conflict

One of the features of the composition of this work is the constant repetition of funeral scenes that follow the main character. This symbolizes the path of Zhivago himself, showing his gradual spiritual death.

The main conflict of the work is inherently tragic; it reveals to us both the opposition of one little man to the unstoppable wheel of history, and the fate of an entire generation of intellectuals who lived through both the era of the monarchy and Soviet power. The revolution and the intelligentsia are an unequal battle, which became the main conflict in the novel Doctor Zhivago. Educated and sophisticated people did not fit into the dictatorship of the proletariat and became rudiments of the era.