Early LifeBoris Leonidovich Pasternak was born on February 10, 1890, in Moscow, the first child of Leonid Osipovich Pasternak, an artist renowned for his portraiture, and Rosa Isidorovna Pasternak (née Kaufman), a talented pianist. In their youth, Boris, his brother Alexander, and his two sisters, Josephine and Lydia, were exposed to a richly cultured environment of art, music, and literature. The famous author, Leo Tolstoy, was an admirer of LeonidÃÂs work and sat for one of his most prominent portraits. The Pasternaks were, as a result, visitors on several occasions to TolstoyÃÂs Moscow residence and to his estate near Tula. The effect of this contact was to be felt in PasternakÃÂs later religious and philosophical views. The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who twice visited the Pasternaks, influenced young Boris to appreciate the role of the poet in societyÃÂa role he later assumed. It was the eccentric composer Aleksandr Scriabin who most determined PasternakÃÂs youthful endeavors.
Tumba de Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak during the First Congress of Sovie...
Nikolai Fyodorov by Leonid PasternakUnder his influence, Pasternak studied music composition while attending MoscowÃÂs German Classical Grammar School. At school, Pasternak enjoyed foreign languages, especially German, and philosophy. He took an interest in the poetry of the Russian Symbolists Innokenty Annensky and Aleksandr Blok. Through his father he met the founder of the Soviet literary doctrine of Socialist Realism, Maxim Gorky, both in Moscow and in Berlin, to which the Pasternaks traveled in 1905 after the failed Russian revolution attempt of that year. In 1907, the family returned to Moscow, and in 1908 Pasternak was graduated from school with a gold medal for excellence.
In 1909, Pasternak entered Moscow State University as a law student, but he soon transferred to philosophy. He began to participate in a literary circle called ÃÂSerdarda,ÃÂ which was devoted to poetic innovation. Other members of this group, notably Sergei Makovsky and Sergei...