"The roof was blown off all over Russia, and we, along with the whole nation, found ourselves under the open sky."

Boris Pasternak was born in Moscow on February 10, 1890. He dreamed of becoming a composer, composing and improvising on the piano. In his youth, he aspired to be a philosopher, taking lessons from the German neo-Kantist Hermann Cohen. But fate took a different turn: he became one of the most renowned literary figures of the first Soviet decades and the greatest Russian poet of the 20th century.

He published his first poems in 1913. In the late 20s, he received official recognition for his work, but by the mid-30s, Pasternak had begun to be criticized for his "detachment from life." In the 40s, his main work became translation—it was how he earned his living.

Pasternak's life's work was the novel "Doctor Zhivago," which he wrote over the course of ten years. It was an honest chronicle of the intelligentsia in the fire of revolution, which the USSR refused to publish.

In 1957, the novel was published in Italy. In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A campaign began in the USSR under the slogan "I haven't read it, but I condemn it." He was expelled from the Writers' Union and threatened with deportation and criminal prosecution. Under enormous pressure and fearing for the safety of his loved ones, Pasternak was forced to decline the prize.

He spent his final years in Peredelkino, living in virtual isolation. In 1960, he died of lung cancer.

In its homeland, Doctor Zhivago was published only in 1988.

On Boris Pasternak's birthday, we recall just a few of his great lines, which remain relevant to this day.