Writers Support Museum, Publication of ‘Dr. Zhivago’ : Soviets May Honor Shunned Pasternak

The Soviet Writers’ Union, which expelled Boris Pasternak after his novel “Doctor Zhivago” was published in the West, has voted to establish a museum to honor the famed author, poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko said today.

The union may also try to get “Doctor Zhivago”--banned for its sympathetic portrayal of Russians who opposed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution--published in the Soviet Union, he said.

Soviet officials barred Pasternak from accepting the Nobel Prize for literature in 1958, and he died in disgrace in 1960.

The union held a five-day congress last week attended by about 600 delegates. Its decision to honor Pasternak was seen as another indication of impending change in state-sanctioned Soviet literature.

At a news conference today, Yevtushenko made it clear he would favor publication of Pasternak’s novel. He hailed Pasternak as “one of the best poets in the whole history of Russian poetry.”

Vitaly Korotich, editor of the weekly magazine Ogonyek, also suggested the time has come for “Doctor Zhivago” to be published in Pasternak’s homeland. But he said that its publication would depend on approval from Glavlit, the organization that censors Soviet literature.

Yevtushenko told reporters he had given the Writers’ Union congress a letter signed by 40 writers seeking establishment of a Pasternak museum. The congress approved the letter, he said, and the proposal now will be acted on by the leadership of the Writer’s Union.

Although there was no announcement that the museum would be located at Pasternak’s dacha, or country home, it appeared to be the likely site. The two-story dacha, in the village of Peredelkino outside Moscow, was maintained for a time by Pasternak’s family as an unofficial museum after his death.