Doctor Zhivago book is put to rights

The love between the two characters of ‘Doctor Zhivago’ was based on real life, but the truth was repressed both by biographers and by Boris Pasternak’s family. That has now changed, writes Sue Leonard.

The book and movie, Doctor Zhivago, show the passionate love between Yuri Zhivago and Lara, the nurse for whom he betrays his wife. Set between the Russian revolution and the Second World War, it depicts the horrendous difficulties the starcrossed lovers endured. The book sold in its millions, but few knew that the love story was based on truth.

The character of the enigmatically beautiful Lara — portrayed by Julie Christie in the famous movie — was based on Olga Vsevoldovna Ivinskaya, a literary editor who became the love of Boris Pasternak’s life. Their long affair was just as complex and tormented as the one portrayed in fiction, but Olga’s importance has never been fully explored.