Russian History & Literature

1. Background Information for Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago Russian History & Literature

3. Geography • Three zones of vegetation: • Tundra- North of the Arctic Circle, cannot support life • Forest- South of the Arctic Circle, largest forest in the world, divided into three parts • Taiga: needle-leaved trees (spruce & pine) • Mixed Forest: partly needle-leaved, partly broad-leaved • Wooded Steppe: transitional region separating forest from grassland • Steppe- an immense plain stretching from Hungary to Mongolia; no trees grow unless planted and cultivated; of itself, nature yields only grass and brush

5. In part of the wooded steppe and through much of the steppe proper the prevailing soil is the fertile black earth. Its surface covers about a quarter of a billion acres, which are the center of Russian agriculture.

6. Black Earth Belt of Russia

7. Climate • Hot in summer, cold in winter (colder the further East you go) • Siberia is unsuited for farming because of the cold weather

8. Precipitation (Rainfall) • Rain falls heaviest on the unusable soil • It rains the most in the second half of the summer (July & August) • A small change in the timetable of rainfall can mean a drought in the spring and early summer followed by disastrous downpours during the harvest • Russia has historically averaged one bad harvest out of every three

9. Russia’s Disadvantages • Small area of farmable land • Unfortunate rainfall • Cold climate • Livestock confined 2 months longer than rest of Europe, affecting meat and dairy • Large population to support • Very short farming season (4 to 6 months) • Unfriendly neighbors • No improvement in crop yield ratios • No markets for trading

10. What does it all mean? • Russian society was unable to move forward as it did in the West (industry, commerce, transportation, etc…) because they had to devote all their time and resources to agriculture which barely sustained them • The problem was that they never had a surplus of crops to allow people to pursue anything other than farming

11. Societal Structure • Very similar to feudalism • The Tsar had absolute power, like an emperor • Landowners who made up the nobility • Peasants (free)/serfs, “muzhiks”, (slaves) • Serfs were property owned by the nobility, similar to slaves in the American South. They did not gain freedom until 1861 under the Tzar Alexander II. • By the mid-19th century, the peasants composed a majority of the population, and according to the census of 1857 the number of private serfs was 23.1 million out of 62.5 million Russians,37.7% of the population. • By 1900 around 85 per cent of the Russian people lived in the countryside and earned their living from agriculture. The nobility still owned the best land and the vast majority of peasants lived in extreme poverty.

12. Seeds of Revolution • With 85% of the population living as slaves or peasants and 15% of the population owning all the land and wealth, it’s easy to see why a revolution would happen… • But first came the rise of the intelligentsia, a social class of people engaged in mental labor aimed at communicating culture. This group included everyone from artists to school teachers. The term was first used in pre-revolutionary Russia to describe people possessing cultural and political initiative.

13. Rise of the Intelligentsia • Between 1860 and 1900, this class expanded greatly, both with members of the nobility and with peasants educating themselves • New political ideas and philosophies were being created, discussed, and published by this group which planted the seeds for the revolution

14. Timeline of the Russian Revolution • 1905 Jan: Bloody Sunday - Tsarist troops open fire on a peaceful demonstration of workers in St Petersburg. • 1905 October: General Strike sweeps Russia which ends when the Tsar promises a constitution. • 1906: The promised parliament, the Duma, is dissolved when it produces an anti-government majority 1911-1914 A new wave of workers unrest ends with the outbreak of the First World War • 1917 Feb: Revolution - After several days of demonstrations in Petrograd (formally St Petersburg) the government orders troops to open fire. The next day these troops mutiny. The Tsar abdicates when he hears that Moscow too has joined the Revolution.

15. Timeline of the Russian Revolution • 1917 Sept-Nov: October Revolution - Bolsheviks take over the govt. • 1918 Feb 18th: The Germans invade Russia which is all but defenseless as virtually the entire army has deserted. • 1919: White Armies attack the Bolsheviks from all directions but the Red Army is finally victorious. • 1920 25 Apr: Poland invades Russia. • 1921: Peasant unrest sweeps Russia. These risings are suppressed, but the New Economic Policy is proclaimed that gives the peasants the right to sell their grain surpluses • 1924: Lenin dies. Trotsky is defeated by a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. Though Stalin stays in the background it is he who is the real power.

16. Dr. ZhivagoBackground Info. • The novel takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Second World War. • Due to its independent-minded stance on the October Revolution, Doctor Zhivago was refused publication in the USSR. • The manuscript was smuggled to Milan, Italy and published in 1957. • Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year, an event which both humiliated and enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was pressured into refusing to accept the award by Russian authorities who threatened to take away his citizenship.

17. Russian Names: The Patronymic • Patronymic names (Russian middle names) are derived from the name of the child's father ("patron"). • If the child is a boy, the middle name will end in either -evich, or -ovich. • If the child is a girl, the ending will be -ovna, or -evna. • For example, if the child is a boy, and the father's name is 'Aleksandr', then the child's middle name is Aleksandrovich. • If the child is a girl, it would be Aleksandrovna. • In Russian society it is customary to address someone with their first name and patronymic. Only very close family or friends would address you by your first name only, or a nickname, such as “Misha” or “Pasha”