French Literature Reviews - 2026
Andreï Kozovoï, Les exilés. Pasternak et les miens
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
“Without my grandmother and mother, Doctor Zhivago—the novel that won Boris Pasternak the Nobel Prize in Literature—would never have been written. Olga, my grandmother, was the famous author's muse and the 'Lara' of the novel. An intellectual, mother, and twice a widow, she met Pasternak in 1946 in the corridors of a Moscow editorial office. Three years later, she paid with her first stint in the Gulag for her forbidden love affair with the writer, who became a surrogate father to my mother, Irina.
On my father's side, my grandparents, Ukrainian Jews, owed their social advancement to the Communist regime. In 1954, my father Vadim left his family for Moscow University, where he joined a group of dissident students. In 1958, he was convicted of 'counter-revolutionary crimes.' It was in the Gulag, in 1961, that he met my mother, who had been arrested along with my grandmother upon Pasternak's death.
As political prisoners sharing a passion for French poetry, Vadim and Irina exchanged letters containing fragments of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Valéry... Upon their release, they married. Vadim became a translator of French poets and a poet in his own right. He dreamed of living in France but repeatedly clashed with the KGB. After years of struggle, supported by prominent writers and intellectuals—René Char, Julien Green, Julien Gracq, Henri Michaux, Françoise Giroud, Georges Nivat—and even President Mitterrand, Vadim and Irina finally found a fresh start in France.” — A.K.
This compelling memoir explores the intersections of private lives and twentieth-century Soviet history, tracing a lineage shaped by both literary brilliance and political repression. The narrative highlights how Boris Pasternak served not only as a crucial literary figure but also as a surrogate father within a persecuted family network. Through the harrowing experiences of the Gulag and subsequent resistance, the book illustrates the enduring power of literature, tracing how shared devotion to French poets like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Valéry helped prisoners sustain their humanity under totalitarian rule.
Rooted in the traditions of historical testimony and biographical narrative, the work will resonate with readers interested in Soviet dissent, Russian literature, and the cultural cold war. It sheds light on the complex dynamics of intellectual resistance and the arduous path to exile, aided by prominent French writers and political figures. By blending intimate family archives with broader historical currents, Andreï Kozovoï offers a poignant reflection on heritage, displacement, and the ultimate refuge found in art and translation.