Zhivago's Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia

by Vladislav M. Zubok

Among the least-chronicled aspects of post-World War II European intellectual and cultural history is the story of the Russian intelligentsia after Stalin. Young Soviet veterans had returned from the heroic struggle to defeat Hitler only to confront the repression of Stalinist society. The world of the intelligentsia exerted an attraction for them, as it did for many recent university graduates. In its moral fervor and its rejection of authoritarianism, this new generation of intellectuals resembled the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia that had been crushed by revolutionary terror and Stalinist purges. The last representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, heartened by Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism in 1956, took their inspiration from the visionary aims of their nineteenth-century predecessors and from the revolutionary aspirations of 1917. In pursuing the dream of a civil, democratic socialist society, such idealists contributed to the political disintegration of the communist regime.

Vladislav Zubok turns a compelling subject into a portrait as intimate as it is provocative. The highly educated elite--those who became artists, poets, writers, historians, scientists, and teachers--played a unique role in galvanizing their country to strive toward a greater freedom. Like their contemporaries in the United States, France, and Germany, members of the Russian intelligentsia had a profound effect during the 1960s, in sounding a call for reform, equality, and human rights that echoed beyond their time and place.

Zhivago's children, the spiritual heirs of Boris Pasternak's noble doctor, were the last of their kind--an intellectual and artistic community committed to a civic, cultural, and moral mission.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Russian Literature, Russian History

464 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2009

About the author

Vladislav M. Zubok (see also: Владислав Зубок) is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of A Failed Empire, Zhivago’s Children, and The Idea of Russia.

Reviews

[Moira Downey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty thorough look at Russia's post-Stalinist cultural and intellectual elite, its consolidation, fracturing, state co-optation and eventual decline. He highlights the important point that Soviet dissidents were rarely anti-communist, believing instead in the perfectibility of the Soviet project and laying blame for things like the existence of the GULAG squarely at the feet of Stalin and his cult of personality. Zubok leans rather heavily on Liudmila Alexeyva's memoir, The Thaw Generation, which, by virtue of being rooted in personal experience, I found to be a more engaging (if less scholarly) read. The end of the book, however, posits an answer to a question I've been dogging for some time now; namely, wherefore the perceived decline in quality of the literary output of a post-Soviet Russia:

In the world of the late 20th century, art was a commodity, literature and cinema were a form of entertainment, and mass culture triumphed everywhere. The notion of high culture for connoisseurs and highbrow intellectuals survived only as an elitist phenomenon, unrelated to primary social, economic, and political issues. This change was as destructive to the ethos of the intelligentsia as the structural and spiritual collapse was. The networks that had formed the cultural underground of the Soviet era, an essential part of the intelligentsia's "imagined community," disappeared. A brief boom in Soviet nonconformist art in the West began to wane after 1991. It became clear that the underground culture owed its existence to the unique centrality of high culture in Soviet society, in combination with the state support and pressure to channel this culture within prescribed boundaries. With the advent of democratization and marketization, the artists and intellectuals of the semidissident milieu, who used to thrive on their elitism, had to search for new niches and identities in the emerging post-Soviet order. Many of them--for instance, rock musicians--began to condemn the new order with the same vehemence with which they had denounced the old. The majority, however, emigrated to the West or joined the rapidly expanding mass culture.

In short, post-Soviet Russia provides an interesting possible case study for the corroding effect of market forces on the arts.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 3 out of 5]

ولادیسلاو زوبوک در بچه های ژیواگو به حوادث مربوط به روشنفکران روسی
هم نسل خویش می پردازد، گروهی که آنان را « وارثان روحی دکتر ژیواگو» می خواند.

[Marko Beljac · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book. Our image of the critical intelligentsia in the former Soviet Union - especially the specifically Russian - is of dissidents animated by a liberal ideology. While it was the case that things we often associate with liberalism, such as democracy, free and creative expression, and human rights, were of importance Zubok shows the liberal picture we have painted is misleading. The critical intelligentsia retained a commitment to socialism - only there's was a socialism with a human face. It was with the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 that doubts amongst the intelligentsia about "the socialist choice" - even the conservative historian Stephen Kotkin in his biography of Stalin concedes that Russia did make that choice in 1917 - began to set in. Yet, socialist values were still important. How did the Russian critical intellectual classes move from socialism, to a rampant neoliberalism and thence to a nationalism? If you're interested in this question - of great importance given contemporary developments - then you need to read this book. I've read Vladislav Zubok a few times now, and I can't help but feel he has a sensitive finger on the Russian pulse.

[Bobbzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب خیلی دقیق و باجزئیات بعضا خسته‌کننده به رابطه روشنفکران یا اینتلیجنسیای روسی بعد از جنگ جهانی دوم با دولت اتحاد جماهیر شوروی و همچنین رابطه این قشر با مردم پرداخته. مسیری که با مرگ استالین و فضای نسبتا بازتر فرهنگی دوران خروشچف آغاز و با فروپاشی امپراتوری شر به پایان رسید.
رابطه دوجانبه حزب و طبقه روشنفکران از تامل‌برانگیزترین و البته آشناترین بخش‌های کتاب بود. رابطه‌ای که در دایره خوشبینی محتاطانه، معامله دوسر برد و سرخوردگی مکرر اسیر بود و هیچوقت نتونست طبقه مستقل به وجود بیاره که در دوران حساس بتونه اتحاد شوروی رو از فروپاشی نجات بده.
ترجمه کتاب روان نیست و با به ویراستاری ساده می‌شد این کتاب درخشان رو برای مخاطب خوش‌خوان‌تر کرد.

[Samira Elytess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a mandatory read for one of my university classes. I had zero knowledge about the historical social culture of Soviet Union and the role the intellectuals played in the country.
The author did such a great job in writing to the point that I didn't yawn once out of boredom reading this historical book. In fact, it was very engaging and the events that took place was an emotional roller coaster ride for me.
After reading the book I understood the reason the Russians migrated to other countries... forcing to leave a land blanketed with mysticism and great literature and art. I also learned what communism is beyond Marxist's definition, and how this oppressive totalitarian regime strips humans from their humanity, free will, and Spirit.
This demonic system must NEVER exist on Earth.

[Zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب داستان تلخی از روشنفکرانی رو ارائه داد که در تاریخ اتحاد شورویِ دوران بعد از استالین، به دنبال یوتوپیایی متفاوت بودند. آرمان ها و دغدغه های غیر کاپیتالیستی اما در پیوند با آزادی فردی و رسیدن به جامعه‌ سوسیالیستی. حتی اگر بچه های ژیواگو نامی ناشناخته نه فقط در هنر و فرهنگ روشنفکران روسیه بلکه در جهان باشد، همچنان مستحق همدلی و ستایش هستند و نه نکوهش، هرچند که آرمان کمونیسم در زیر خروارها خاکِ سرد شوروی مدفون ماند...
داستان بچه های ژیواگو بیشتر شبیه تراژدی غم انگیزی از آرزوهای برباد رفته ای بود که شاید تنها عده کمی توان درک آن را داشتند و در نهایت به فراموشی سپرده شدند. عزیزم، هرآنچه سخت و استوار است دود می‌شود و به هوا می‌رود و افسوس که جاده را راه گریزی نیست...

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative book. I haven't read Dr. Zhivago so I feel need to now.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding work of social-cultural history, looking at Russian intellectuals from the years after the Second World War up to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I was familiar with the biographies and careers of some of the people mentioned in "Zhivago's Children," but Zubok pulls all the details together and weaves it into a coherent whole, showing how authors' careers were shaped by the big events (the XX Party Congress, Sputnik, the crushing of the Prague Spring) and how people's goals changed over time.

In some ways, this is a sad book. The intellectuals begin with hope, hope that the excesses of Stalinism can be rolled back, hope that the socialist system can be corrected. However, the movement becomes divided over goals and historical memories. What is the great crime that needs to be remembered? Stalin's anti-Semitism or his treatment of the peasantry? The question divides the intellectuals as the Brezhnev era gets underway. Some people become nationalists; others seek to emigrate. Zubok does an excellent job of revealing how demoralizing Brezhnev's "Age of Stagnation" was and explains the reasons for it.

This is a terrific book, one of the best I've read about Russian (and Soviet) culture. Strongly recommended.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comprehensive text covers the resurgence of the Russian intellegentsia, the generation who came of age during the purges and WW2 and into their creative own during the late 50's and into the 60's, and discusses their successes and failures to impact the politburo and the people during the years of the Thaw and subsequent swing back to conservatism marked by the trial of Daniel and Siniavsky in 65. Accessable and interesting, Zubok argues that these intellectuals are the "spiritual legacy" of Pasternak's Zhivago: the artists, scientists (his discussion of the physicists vs. lyricists debates is particularily great), and those who bridge the gap, those struggling to make intellectual sense of stalin's legacy and what that means for Soviet identity. Really good stuff. In short, I might "borrow" this one from the hampshire library in a less temporary fashion...

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly brilliant study of the generation of Russian intellectuals that came of age in the Soviet Union after World War II. While they longed for greater freedom, they sought that freedom within the socialist system, rather than rejecting it in favor of Western models. Despite their yearnings, they, with a few exceptions, ultimately lacked the moral courage to challenge the system as a whole, and fell into public conformity, masking private dissent. Zubok is particular strong in explaining the gradual split of Russian intellectuals into liberal and nationalist factions, which is quite useful in understanding Russian attitudes and actions today.

[Meihan Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logic (or should I say agenda) clear. Writing neat. Very informative book.

But honestly speaking I don't like the author very much after meeting him in person. On the one hand too pedantic, on the other too liberal to my taste. He sounds almost like New York Times by saying "Russia is a country that needs others to tell her the truth."

Seriously???