On May 30th, 1960, Acclaimed Russian poet, novelist, and essayist Boris Pasternak was passed away at 70 years old. The winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak was born in Moscow in 1890. The eldest of four children in a creative family, his parents both accomplished writers and his father a distinguished painter. Pasternak was introduced to music, painting, and literature from a young age, and this served to inspire his own writing. Following his college education in Switzerland, Pasternak returned to Moscow, where he found success writing a series of poems and his own translations of European authors such as William Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His lyrical and narrative works soon found immense popularity, with his novel Doctor Zhivago becoming one of the decade’s celebrated works, and inspiring a plethora of operas and films. In his later years, Pasternak faced increasing discrimination from the Russian government due to his refusal to suppress his anti-totalitarian views. His writing, as well as his Nobel Prize recognition, unfortunately earned him censure, and Pasternak’s later works had to be published abroad. Pasternak will be remembered for his contributions to modern Russian literature and his bravery in standing up for his values against authoritarianisms.