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How Kremlin Strove to Block Dr. Zhivago

The lengths to which the Soviet authorities were ready to go in their efforts to block publication of Boris Pasternak's epic novel about 20th-century Russia, Doctor Zhivago, was revealed by a letter published yesterday. After the book was rejected by the authorities, Pasternak passed his manuscript to the leftwing Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who had it translated and printed in the west. In messages to those involved in what was to be the literary coup of the century, Pasternak called for publication to be suspended. Feltrinelli, who died in 1972, insisted it was his duty to ignore Pasternak's appeals for a postponement because they had been issued under duress.

Read entire article at Guardian