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Зарубежные письма читателей на русском языке Б. Л. Пастернаку после публикации романа «Доктор Живаго»
The article examines the foreign readers' correspondence to B.L. Pasternak, written in Russian in
1958–1960. The work is based on the materials of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art. The article
lists editions of the novel “Doctor Zhivago” available to western readers in the Russian original (including
pirated copies) and in foreign languages. These Russian-language letters are systematized according to the
content and purpose of the letter, the sender’s country of residence, the sender’s nationality and cultural
affiliation (be it a Russian emigrant or a foreigner who knows Russian). There are noted various opinions
of readers about the poetics of the novel “Doctor Zhivago”, their questions about the work, the discussion
on the Jewish question and the perception of Pasternak’s own personality among Russian emigration. The
author examines Pasternak’s attitude to readers’ letters expressed by him in lyrical and epistolary forms. In addition to readers’ responses, Pasternak's letter to the amateur translator S. Weinberg (1959) is published
for the first time.