What Pasternak encrypted in the ‘Zhivago’ last name
The main character in the cult novel ‘Doctor Zhivago’, which brought the writer the Nobel Prize in Literature, had several versions of his last name. But, they all revolved around one concept – life.
‘Zhivago’ is a real Russian last name, known since the 19th century. Pasternak's muse Olga Ivinskaya recounted that the writer was once walking around Moscow and came across a cast-iron tile bearing the name of a manufacturer – ‘Zhivago’ – and immediately decided to name his hero that.
But, in a symbolist novel, there can be no accidental names; everything invariably carries a hidden meaning. The root in the word ‘Zhivago’ is ‘zhivoy’ (which literally means ‘alive’ or ‘living’) and the word itself is an archaic, Church Slavonic form of this adjective.
Pasternak also said that, as a child, during church services, he was fascinated by the phrase “Christ is the son of the living God” (“Христос – сын Бога живаго”, “Khristos – syn Boga zhivago”). So, life itself is, in essence, the hero of the novel.
By the way, one of the other variants for the novel's title was a more direct one: ‘There Will Be No Death’.
