ABSTRACT
A vigorous and attractive woman may leave a trail of havoc in any society, and Stalin’s Russia was no exception. Ivinskaya’s memoirs allude to her ‘many amorous attachments and disappointments’. Ivinskaya had worshipped Pasternak’s poetry since adolescence, even though ‘the author couldn’t understand half of it’. The poet and his pupil made no attempt to set up house together during their first years as lovers, but opportunities for assignations frequently occurred at his flat in Lavrushensky Street and at her flat in Potapov Street. Pasternak may have retained more affection for Zinaida Nikolayevna than would appear from Olga Vsevolodovna’s memoirs. There is also a measure of inelegant emotional self-indulgence. Ivinskaya’s memoirs form a valuable comment on Pasternak’s later poems, particularly those of Doctor Zhivago , since they often enable the reader to relate an otherwise unexplained detail to its real-life context.
