In November 1957, at the height of the Cold War, Russian author Boris Pasternak published one of the most important novels of the 20th Century, Doctor Zhivago. While the novel was banned in the Soviet Union, the CIA believed that it was so important to get the novel behind the Iron Curtain that it published copies itself.
According to The Washington Post, the idea was suggested by British authorities and Washington agreed. In a memo to branch chiefs in the USSR, the CIA said Pasternak’s epic romance had “great propaganda value, not only for its intrinsic message and thought-provoking nature, but also for the circumstances of its publication.”
They believed that the history of Pasternak’s journey to get it published in the first place would help Russians realize how their government was stifling one of their own literary geniuses. Pasternak had the book published first in Italian in Italy before it became a worldwide phenomenon.
As USA Today points out, the CIA then decided to publish t the book in Russian, first in the Netherlands. From there, they transported copies of the book throughout Western Europe.
Pasternak ended up winning the Nobel Prize in Literature and the story also lives on in David Lean’s 1965 film, which starred Julie Christie and Omar Sharif.
The CIA papers were declassified and made available for the authors of The Zhivago Affair, which traces the book’s journey. It will be published on June 17.