The Doctor Zhivago novel written by Boris Pasternak was first published in Italy in 1957 since it was refused for the publication in the Soviet Union. To the surprise of the Soviet government Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year.

The novel is a beautiful epic romance. On the one side, it goes about the story of Russian people set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution in the first half of the twentieth century. On the another side it tells of the emotional trials of love triangle.

The book inspired David Lean to make a film in 1965 that brought him five Oscars and five Golden Globe Awards.The film stars Omar Sharif in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a very good looking Russian doctor who has also brought a worldwide popularity to the Russian traditional shirt. An old classic shirt, earlier known as kosovorotka, became since then a Zhivago shirt.

Yury Zhivago is a classic tragic hero, a physician but also a poet, he highly appreciates the beauty around him. His principle of living is based on individualism, despite the bolshevik’s propaganda of collectivisim. His gentle character is against the war and revolution violence.

The two women in his life are both sympathetic characters. Yuri’s wife Tonya a gentle, loving and devoted wife and mother. Lara, Yuri’s lover, is a gorgeous and mysterious woman with an inner strength. Their passionate feelings are not to doubt. Lara was Yuri’s muse, she spoke to his heart and became the inspiration for his poetry. “They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the "blaze of passion" often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.”

It was the era of the devastating events - World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War. There were battles everywhere, mass desertion and escape. But there war also a constant battle within Yuri's own heart, as he was torn between two important feelings: fidelity and passion. “I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”

Doctor Zhivago is impressive in its scale: “No single man makes history. History cannot be seen, just as one cannot see grass growing. Wars and revolutions, kings and Robespierres, are history's organic agents, its yeast. But revolutions are made by fanatical men of action with one-track mind, geniuses in their ability to confine themselves to a limited field. They overturn the old order in a few hours or days, the whole upheaval takes a few weeks or at most years, but the fanatical spirit that inspired the upheavals is worshiped for decades thereafter, for centuries.”

If you are interested to look like Omar Halif in 1965, you can find the Zhivago shirt in our assortment.