ePub The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin; the CIA; and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn; Petra Couvée in History

Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. When Books Were Weapons in the Cold WarBy Paul GelmanDuring the Cold War; the CIA was engaged in relentless global warfare with the Kremlin. The agency used a host of front organizations and phony foundations; spent many millions of dollars to fund concert tours; art exhibitions; magazines; academic research; student activities and book publishing. All theses were weapons in the covert action against the Soviet Union masterminded by George Kennan; who was the intellectual author behind this. One estimate says that some 10 million books and periodicals were distributed by the CIA in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. "Doctor Zhivago" was one of those books which was printed and distributed clandestinely in the main Russian cities.This book; which is just one episode in the colossal ideological battle between the two superpowers; is excellent and is very original. The authors have put in a tremendous effort in researching its topic; using many untapped archives and interviews. It reads like a fast best-selling political thriller. This is a fascinating account of the propaganda machines the USA used against the Eastern Bloc; showing Pasternak's and his friends' courage and it shows to what extent the battle for the minds of the readers in the East was conducted. It is also a detailed story about the cultural and intellectual background of the thirties to the fifties in the USSR.This battle over the publication of "Doctor Zhivago" was one of the first efforts by the CIA to leverage books as instruments of political warfare. It was Khrushchev himself who admitted in the end that the Russians "caused much harm to the Soviet Union "and added that he was "truly sorry for the way he behaved toward Pasternak".There were additional writers who followed Pasternak's way; among them Solzhenitsyn and Brodsky.This book is highly recommended.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Cold War intrigueBy Connie Nordhielm WooldridgeWhen the celebrated poet Boris Pasternak began the novel Doctor Zhivago in 1945; he and his fellow Russian writers were living under the terrifying; watchful eye of Joseph Stalin. Pasternak had lived through the exhilaration and the disillusionment of the 1917 October Revolution and he wanted to write a piece of fiction that would capture the events surrounding it; even if it meant revealing the historic flaws that continued to infect the repressive government under which he lived. When he finished Doctor Zhivago in 1955 it was (predictably) rejected by the Soviet press so Pasternak smuggled the manuscript into Italy to be translated and published. “It does not matter what might happen to me;” he told his friend; Isaiah Berlin. “My life is finished. The book is my last word to the civilized world.” Doctor Zhivago made its way around the globe at warp speed; coming full circle in 1958 when the CIA ’s Russian-language edition was smuggled back into the Soviet Union for Pasternak’s countrymen to read. Based on newly released documents; Finn and Couvée’s account reads like a spy thriller with a deeply flawed but heroic writer at its center. History; Cold War politics; romance; intrigue…this book-about-a-book packs a punch.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. almost reading like a spy novel at timesBy LynnB"Books are different from all other propaganda media;" wrote the CIA chief of covert action; "primarily because one single book can significantly change the reader's attitude and action to an extent unmatched by the impact of any other single medium...that is; of course; not true of all books at all times and with all readers -- but it is true significantly often enough to make books the most important weapon of strategic (long-range) propaganda."This is the true story of how the CIA used the novel Dr. Zhivago as a weapon in the cold-war fight for the hearts and minds of Russian citizens. In fact; the CIA had a "book program" which smuggled hundreds of titles into eastern bloc countries. So; beyond all the politics; beyond the biography of Boris Pasternak; this book is also a testament to the power of literature.The book is well written; almost reading like a spy novel at times. We see what life was like in Stalinist Russia and how important the Cold War was to the U.S. We see the life of Boris Pasternak; including the open affair he carried on and the pressure placed on him to renounce the Nobel Prize for Literature.