Russian writer and translator (1890-1960) whose novel Doctor Zhivago takes a place among the central works of twentieth-century literature. ALS in Cyrillic, one page, 5.75 x 8.25, February 6, 1936. Letter to politician Aleksandr Sergeyevich Shcherbakov, a founding member of the Soviet Writers' Union, written during Stalin's purges. Pasternak expresses concern about another writer who has probably been put into prison, imploring Shcherbakov (translated) "to please do something to change the decision of the revision commission. It appears unfair and wrong not only in the case of E. N. Chebotarevsky—where it is scandalously obvious—but regarding others who were fired. Why destroy what was created under such hardship?" In fine condition, with strips of light toning. Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope, accomplished in Pasternak's hand.
Pasternak, in the face of pressure against the arts by Stalin’s regime, stopped writing poetry altogether for nine years, beginning in 1934. However, his willingness to speak up on behalf of his fellow writers did not abate—this letter is a remarkable display of courage in a time when one could be sentenced to internal exile to the Gulag, or even death, for the slightest deviation from the party line. Among the writers who lost their lives in Stalin’s purges were Osip Mandelstam and Isaak Babel, two of the greatest Russian writers of the 20th century. This superb example, an intervention on behalf of a persecuted writer, is one of the earliest known Pasternak letters.
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