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The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book

In The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book, Peter Finn and Petra Couvée bring readers intimately close to the charming, passionate, and complex artist that was Boris Pasternak. First to obtain CIA files providing concrete proof of the agency’s involvement, the authors give us a literary thriller that takes us back to a fascinating period of the Cold War—to a time when literature had the power to stir the world.

Date & Time

Monday
Sep. 8, 2014
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

ROOM CHANGE: This event will now take place in the 5th Floor Conference Room

Washington History Seminar
Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs

The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book

Peter Finn
WASHINGTON POST

In The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book, Peter Finn and Petra Couvée bring readers intimately close to the charming, passionate, and complex artist that was Boris Pasternak. First to obtain CIA files providing concrete proof of the agency’s involvement, the authors give us a literary thriller that takes us back to a fascinating period of the Cold War—to a time when literature had the power to stir the world.

Peter Finn holds a B.A. in History and Politics and an M.A. in Political Science from University College Dublin, Ireland, as well as an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He is a National Security correspondent for The Washington Post, where he has worked for 17 years. He was twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist for international reporting for the Post’s coverage of the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan and won the Robert F. Kennedy journalism award and the German Marshall Fund’s Peter R. Weitz prize for his foreign reporting.  Between 1998 and 2008, he was the Post’s bureau chief in Warsaw, Berlin and Moscow.

Monday September 8, 2014
4:00 p.m. 
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Moynihan Board Room
Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Triangle Metro Stop

 

September 15: Lisa Leff (American University) on The Archive Thief

The seminar is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center. It meets weekly during the academic year. See www.nationalhistorycenter.org for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for its support.

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Speaker

Peter Finn

Peter Finn

Former Public Policy Scholar;
National Security correspondent for The Washington Post
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Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier U.S. center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program.  Read more

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