A documentary about the fate and work of the writer and poet Boris Pasternak in the memories of friends and relatives. Pasternak appears not only as a great poet, but also as a great citizen of his homeland.
View of the building of the Orthodox church in Peredelkino.
Interior of the church, priests serving a memorial service for Boris Pasternak.
A woman's face.
Burning candles.
A woman holding a candle.
Panorama of the outskirts of Peredelkino, the Pasternak family home in Peredelkino.
An actress reads a text about Pasternak (synchronously).
Newsreel from 1953: locomotives blow a funeral whistle on the day of Stalin's funeral.
March 9, 1953. Removal of the coffin with Stalin's body from the Column Hall of the House of Unions, the coffin is carried by Beria L.P., Malenkov G.M., Molotov V.M., Bulganin N.A., Kaganovich L.M. The coffin with Stalin's body is on a gun carriage, a funeral procession moves behind the coffin, among those following the coffin are Malenkov G.M., Suslov M.A. The funeral procession moves along Red Square to the mausoleum (top).
Beria delivers a funeral speech from the mausoleum rostrum (synchronously), K.E. Voroshilov and N.S. Khrushchev are standing nearby.
Molotov delivers a speech from the mausoleum rostrum (synchronously), Malenkov is standing nearby.
Fragment of the play "Yuri Zhivago's Notebook" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theater.
Portrait of B.L. Pasternak on the stage.
Poet A. Voznesensky speaks at the evening in memory of B.L. Pasternak, reads his poems (synchronously and off-screen), faces of the evening's participants sitting in the hall.
Photograph of B.L. Pasternak.
Melting snow in a spring park.
Spring landscapes of Peredelkino, Pasternak's house.
Melting snow on an asphalt path.
View of part of a birch forest in spring, a stream of melt water flows.
Photograph of Pasternak on the wall of a house in Peredelkino, Galina Neygauz talks about Pasternak and his family (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Views from the window of Pasternak's dacha.
Fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theater.
Newsreel from 1958: the Nobel Prize award ceremony in the presence of the Swedish royal couple.
Pasternak's Nobel Medal. B.L. Pasternak's sister Josephine Pasternak straightens flowers in a vase.
Graphic portrait of Josephine Pasternak.
Josephines Pasternak looks at family photographs and talks about her brother and other family members (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Graphic portrait of the artist Leonid Pasternak - B.L. Pasternak's father.
Painted portrait of B.L. Pasternak's parents.
Painted portrait of B.L. Pasternak in his youth.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich - statesman and political figure
09.08.1953 1990
Moscow Moscow region Sweden England
Spring Summer
Josephine Pasternak talks about the social circle of B.L. Pasternak’s parents, about Pasternak in everyday life, about meetings with V.V. Mayakovsky and L. Brik (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Portrait of the composer Scriabin by L. Pasternak.
Interior of J. Pasternak’s apartment in Oxford, paintings and photographs on the walls (panorama).
Portrait of L.N. Tolstoy by L. Pasternak.
Portraits of L. Pasternak and B.L. Pasternak.
Portraits of B.L. and J.L. Pasternak.
Photograph of B.L. Pasternak.
Photograph of Pasternak with Mayakovsky and L. Brik.
Graphic portrait of B.L. Pasternak.
Interiors of J. Pasternak’s house in Oxford.
Photograph of B.L. Pasternak and V.V. Mayakovsky among writers.
Newsreel from August 1934: entrance to the building where the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers was held.
Gorky A.M. gets out of the car.
Congress delegates applaud.
Faces of the congress delegates, including Tolstoy A.N., Fadeyev A.A., Gladkov F.V. Pasternak B.L. in the presidium of the congress.
Gorky A.M. delivers a speech from the congress rostrum (synchronously).
Delegates applaud, Gorky thanks the delegates from the rostrum.
Gorky in the presidium of the congress, members of the presidium applaud.
Bukharin N.I. speaks from the rostrum, Pasternak's face.
Gorky puts a handkerchief to his face (freeze frame).
Interview with literary scholar M.I. Feinberg on the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers and B.L. Pasternak’s speech at the congress (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Photo portrait of Pasternak.
Reflection of a man in wet asphalt, photo portraits of B.L. Pasternak and O.E. Mandelstam.
Panorama of a wall with barred windows.
Newsreel: Stalin I.V., Molotov V.M., Yenukidze A.S., Ordzhonikidze G.K. walk along the wall of the mausoleum on the day of celebrating the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Stalin walks along the wall of the mausoleum to the stairs leading to the tribune.
Faces of demonstrators beating drums and playing musical instruments.
Stalin, Voroshilov, Bukharin on the tribune of the mausoleum.
Barred window, reflections of walking people in wet asphalt.
Panorama of the cast-iron fence.
A felled tree behind a fence.
Newsreel from 1935: Stalin I.V., Dimitrov G.M. on the mausoleum tribune.
Participants in a demonstration on Red Square carry portraits of Stalin and banners with slogans.
Stalin's face (freeze frame).
Darkness in an apartment.
A photograph of Pasternak talking on the phone.
A wall-mounted telephone.
A caricature of Mandelstam.
Destroyed and unkempt graves in one of the cemeteries, crooked crosses.
Old rusty locomotives on a destroyed narrow-gauge railway in the forest.
Fragments of paintings, faces of visitors to an art exhibition.
Photographs of repressed people on a stand under glass.
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich - statesman and political figure Dimitrov Georgiy Mikhailovich - Bulgarian statesman and political figure Bukharin Nikolay Ivanovich - statesman and political figure Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich - statesman and political figure
07.11.1932 08.1934 1935 1990
Moscow
Summer Autumn
Photographs of B.L. Pasternak among the delegates of the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, including the poets Titian Tabidze and Paolo Yashvili.
Actress Medea Dzhaparidze talks about P. Yashvili (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Portrait of P. Yashvili on the wall.
Photograph of T. Tabidze with his wife and daughter.
Interview of Titian Tabidze’s daughter about Pasternak (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Text of the power of attorney in the name of T. Tabidze, signed by Pasternak.
Photo portrait of Pasternak.
Newsreel: Stalin I.V. on the tribune of the mausoleum during the demonstration.
Dancing participants of the demonstration (top), a model of a carousel is spinning.
Faces of brass band musicians on one of the streets of Moscow.
Photo portrait of Pasternak.
Fragment of the text of Ariadna Efron’s letter to Pasternak from exile, alternating with photographs.
Photograph of Pasternak in his apartment.
Photographs by A. Efron and B. L. Pasternak.
Fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theatre.
Newsreel from the 1930s: poet M. Isakovsky reads his poems about Stalin from the rostrum (synchronously).
Orator delivering a speech at a collective farm rally organized in support of the trials of the 1930s (synchronously and off-screen).
View of part of the rally.
Faces of rally participants.
Newspaper headlines demanding the execution of "enemies of the people".
The accused in the dock during a court hearing on March 4, 1938. Vyshinsky A. Ya. delivers the indictment (synchronously).
Faces of the defendants.
Applauding participants in the hearing, one of them covers his face (freeze frame).
Headlines of newspaper articles.
Photographs of Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pilnyak, Titian Tabidze, Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Dzhaparidze Medea Valerianovna - theater and film actress Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich - statesman and political figure Isakovsky Mikhail Vasilyevich - poet and songwriter
04.08.1938 1990
Moscow Tbilisi
Spring
Continuation of the interview with literary scholar M.I. Feinberg about Pasternak's assistance to poets and writers convicted for political reasons and their relatives (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Photo portrait of Pasternak.
Newsreel from the 1930s: a rally in support of the trials of the 1930s, calling for the execution of "enemies of the people".
An article about the evils of the trial, published in the newspaper.
Signatures of Soviet writers under a letter published in the newspaper approving the death sentence.
View from the window of Pasternak's house in Peredelkino.
Interview with G. Neuhaus with a story about Pasternak's house and his life in Peredelkino (synchronously and behind the scenes).
A photograph of Pasternak standing by the window in his office.
Photographs of B.L. Pasternak and his cousin Olga Freidenberg, fragments of the text of the letter (combined shooting).
Photograph of Zinaida Reich and Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Prison photograph of Meyerhold against the background of court documents (combined photography).
Fragments of documents from Meyerhold's case with his testimony.
Prison photograph of Meyerhold.
Steps of the staircase leading upward.
Interiors of Pasternak's apartment on Lavrushinsky Lane, open musical score on the piano.
Views of Moscow (from above).
Fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theatre.
Covers of the novel "Doctor Zhivago", published in Italy.
Sales area of a bookstore.
Interview with publisher I. Feltrinelli about the history of the publication of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" in Italy (synchronously, in Italian).
Newsreel: publisher Feltrinelli talks about his impressions of the novel "Doctor Zhivago" (synchronously, in Italian).
Cover of one of the editions of the novel with a portrait of B.L. Pasternak.
1990
Moscow Italy Moscow region
Summer
Amateur filming: Pasternak talks to foreign journalists who came to Peredelkino to congratulate the poet on receiving the Nobel Prize.
Autumn landscapes of the Peredelkino area.
A pond in the Peredelkino area.
A bus passes over the bridge.
The path leading to Pasternak's house, covered in autumn leaves.
An interview with literary scholar M.I. Feinberg about B.L. Pasternak (synchronously and off-screen).
A photo portrait of Pasternak.
A photograph of Pasternak at his desk.
The poet A.A. Voznesensky speaks from the stage about Pasternak's work and reads his poems (synchronously).
Swedish literary scholar Bengt Jangfeldt speaks about Pasternak and his receipt of the Nobel Prize (synchronously).
Photographs of Pasternak being congratulated by his friends and family on receiving the Nobel Prize.
Fragment of an allegorical painting.
Panorama of the presidium table, papers and glasses on the table.
Portrait of the chairman of the Moscow writers' meeting Sergei Smirnov.
An illuminated chair in an empty hall.
Portraits of poets and writers Lev Oshanin, Alexander Bezymensky.
Photograph of Pasternak.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, sitting in the hall, talks about the meeting of Moscow writers, where Pasternak was criticized and vilified (synchronously).
Fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theatre.
Pasternak Boris Leonidovich - poet
1990
Moscow Moscow region
Autumn
Autumn landscapes of Peredelkino, a photograph of B.L. Pasternak sitting on a bench near his house.
Photographs of B.L. Pasternak.
Poet Andrei Voznesensky reads B.L. Pasternak's letter to the Soviet government at an evening in memory of the poet (synchronously and off-screen).
Newsreel: the Nobel Prize award ceremony.
The Swedish royal couple attends the ceremony.
Texts of newspaper publications of the address of the editors of the Novy Mir magazine to B.L. Pasternak and the resolution of the presidium of the board of the Union of Soviet Writers about B.L. Pasternak.
Newsreel: views of the hall and presidium of the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League on October 30, 1958. V.E. Semichastny delivers an accusatory speech from the rostrum against B.L. Pasternak (synchronously and off-screen). N.S. Khrushchev and Voroshilov K.E. in the presidium of the meeting.
The participants of the meeting listen to Semichastny's speech.
View of the presidium, Khrushchev, Voroshilov, Ignatov N.G. are sitting in the presidium.
Semichastny is finishing his speech.
Khrushchev, Voroshilov, Ignatov, Mikoyan applaud, sitting in the presidium.
Texts of newspaper publications castigating B.L. Pasternak.
Interview with E. Yevtushenko about the persecution of Pasternak (synchronously).
Portrait of the writer A. Sofronov.
Empty chairs in the spotlight in the hall.
Portraits of the writers B. Slutsky, G. Nikolaeva, V. Soloukhin, L. Martynov, who spoke out against B.L. Pasternak.
Interview with G. Neyzauz about the betrayal of B.L. Pasternak by his friends (synchronously and off-screen).
Photo portrait of B.L. Pasternak.
Text of the letter of B.L. Pasternak to N.S. Khrushchev, published in the newspaper "Pravda".
Photo portrait of B.L. Pasternak. B.Sh.
Okudzhava reads B.L. Pasternak's poems from the stage (synchronously).
Voznesensky Andrey Andreevich -- poet
10/30/1958 1990
Moscow Moscow region Sweden
Autumn
A woman walks along the streets of Tbilisi, views of the streets and courtyards of Tbilisi. M. Japaridze talks about B.L. Pasternak’s stay in Tbilisi in 1959 (synchronously and off-screen).
Photograph of B.L. Pasternak reading his poems.
Interview of Professor Teimuraz Natadze and M. Japaridze about B.L. Pasternak’s life in Tbilisi (alternating, synchronously). N. Tabidze tidies up her home. N. Tabidze sits at a round table in her home.
Photograph of Pasternak. M. Japaridze talks about Pasternak’s departure from Tbilisi (synchronously).
Panorama of one of the quarters of old Tbilisi (from above).
Newsreel: B.L. Pasternak reads his poems (synchronously), people in the hall listen to Pasternak.
Views of old streets and houses of Tbilisi.
Photograph of N.S. Khrushchev during a meeting with representatives of the creative intelligentsia.
Newsreel: participants in Khrushchev's meeting with the intelligentsia at the Reception House on Lenin Hills on December 17, 1962, applaud standing.
Brezhnev L.I., Ignatov N.G., Khrushchev N.S., Voronov G.I. applaud while standing in the presidium.
Faces of the applauding participants in the meeting.
Khrushchev N.S. speaks from the rostrum in the Kremlin (synchronously).
Fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theatre.
Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich - statesman and political figure Ignatov Nikolai Grigorievich - statesman and political figure Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich - statesman and political figure Voronov Gennady Ivanovich - statesman and political figure Pasternak Boris Leonidovich - poet
17.12.1962 1990
Tbilisi Moscow
Summer
Sinyavsky A.D. (Abram Tertz) talks about B.L. Pasternak and his own work, the influence of Pasternak's poems on him, and his time under investigation (synchronously).
Newsreel: Brezhnev L.I. in the Kremlin in April 1961 presents Khrushchev N.S. with the third "Hammer and Sickle" medal, pins the award to Khrushchev's jacket lapel.
Khrushchev accepts congratulations on the award from members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.
Brezhnev kisses Khrushchev three times.
Brezhnev, Suslov in the presidium of one of the CPSU congresses.
Podgorny N.V., Gromyko A.A., Kosygin A.N., Brezhnev L.I., Suslov M.A. applaud, standing in the presidium.
Brezhnev being awarded the Hammer and Sickle medal in the Kremlin in 1961. The conductor at the conductor's stand.
A symphony orchestra performing.
Newsreel from 1970: the Nobel Prize being awarded to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, the royal family during the Nobel Prize award ceremony, the faces of the ceremony participants (alternating shots).
The entrance of the Nobel laureates.
The Swedish royal family at the Nobel Prize award ceremony in 1987. I. Brodsky being awarded the Nobel Prize.
An interview with the Swedish literary scholar Bengt Jangfeld (synchronously). A. Sinyavsky speaks about reconsidering views on Pasternak's work, the need to make names public and forgive those who participated in the persecution of Pasternak (synchronously). E. Yevtushenko speaks about B. Slutsky's repentance for participating in the persecution of Pasternak (synchronously).
Amateur filming: the face of a foreign journalist congratulating Pasternak on the Nobel Prize.
Khrushchev Nikita Sergeevich - statesman and political figure Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich - statesman and political figure Pasternak Boris Leonidovich - poet
04.1961 1970 1987
Moscow Sweden
Alexander Galich performs a song from the cycle "Literary Bridges" dedicated to B.L. Pasternak (synchronously).
Flowers and burning candles on the grave of B.L. Pasternak.
People in the cemetery at Pasternak's grave.
A man stands at the grave.
Interview with Josephine Pasternak (synchronously).
Members of the film crew are recording the interview.
Pasternak's house in Peredelkino at night, the window is lit.
A coat hanging in the hallway.
A fragment of the play "The Notebook of Yuri Zhivago" by the Leningrad Drama and Comedy Theater.
Photographs of Pasternak and his sister.
A photograph of Pasternak lying in a coffin. A. Sinyavsky talks about the funeral of B.L. Pasternak (synchronously and behind the scenes).
Photographs of the funeral of B.L. Pasternak.
Amateur film footage of B.L. Pasternak.
Winter landscapes and Pasternak's house in Peredelkino, photograph by Pasternak.
Pasternak Boris Leonidovich - poet
1990
Moscow Moscow region England
Summer Winter