Boris Pasternak(1890 — 1960)

In 1912, the young Pasternak went to study philosophy in Marburg, Germany, under the famous professor Hermann Cohen. But after a marriage proposal was rejected, he abruptly abandoned philosophy to devote himself to poetry: he would later say that he had “dismissed” philosophy the way one leaves a house behind.

The son of a painter and a concert pianist, Pasternak was first destined for a career in music. Fascinated by the composer Scriabin, a friend of the family, he composed music himself for years before giving it up, believing he lacked the perfect pitch he considered indispensable.

In 1934, Pasternak received a phone call from Stalin himself, who wanted to know his opinion of the poet Osip Mandelstam, who had just been arrested. Caught off guard, Pasternak gave an evasive answer and long regretted his failure to defend his fellow poet more forcefully; Mandelstam ultimately died in deportation.

In 1958, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He first telegraphed his joy to Stockholm, but then, under pressure from the Soviet authorities who threatened to exile him, he had to send a telegram of refusal four days later. A violent press campaign branded him a “pig,” and he was expelled from the Union of Writers.

When he died in 1960 at his dacha in Peredelkino, no official newspaper announced the date of the funeral. Yet, alerted by word of mouth, a crowd of thousands of admirers came to accompany him, and young people recited his banned poems over his grave.