6 Nobel Prize Winners Who Declined The Prize

3. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak

1890-1960

The third place on the list of 6 Nobel Prize Winners who Declined the Prize occupies Pasternak, who was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature “for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition” in 1958.

The book which brought Pasternak the award was the novel Doctor Zhivago, which was later turned into a movie that won five Oscars. The book couldn’t be published in the Soviet Union because of its liberal views on socialism, so it was smuggled into Italy where it was published in 1957. A year later world read English translation that rapidly became a bestseller. The sudden popularity of the book, as well as Nobel Prize, were results of CIA comprehensive campaign whose aim was to expose the life under communism. Declassified CIA documents show that “The Zhivago project was one of many CIA-supported covert publishing programs that involved distributing banned books, periodicals, pamphlets, and other materials to intellectuals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.” Soviet’s authorities acted swiftly, publicly denouncing Pasternak and his work, and threatening him that he wouldn’t be allowed to re-enter Russia if he went to Stockholm to receive the award. Pasternak declined the award with the words: “Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must reject this undeserved prize which has been presented to me. Please do not receive my voluntary rejection with displeasure “. In the letter to Premier Khrushchev, Pasternak revealed his true reasons for rejecting the prize: “Leaving the motherland will equal death for me. I am tied to Russia by birth, by life and work.”

Pasternak’s legacy goes far beyond Doctor Zhivago. He was also a poet, translator, composer.

Olga Popova / Shutterstock.com