Boris Pasternak: Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow and was the son of talented artists. His mother, Rosa Kaufaman, was a popular concert pianist and his father was a prominent Jewish painter, Leonid Pasternak. He began his education in Moscow and was at the University of Moscow and took the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1912. He also studied philosophy at University of Marburg, Germany. He was a controversial poet in post-revolutionary Soviet Russia. Pasternak was inspired by his neighbor Alexandar Scriabin, which by his influences Pasternak, became a composer and entered the Moscow Conservatory. He was aware of the changes in Russia, but knew that the changes would be difficult. Pasternak was seen as disloyal as he discussed the ideas of love, faith and destiny and their importance in life. In his eyes, man and his actions played little role in the life of people. The works of Pasternak were not allowed to be published for ten years because of his inability to embrace the Revolution. At the end of WWII he began to write his most famous piece Doctor Zhivago. It took him eleven years to appear in print in Italy and was banned in the Soviet Union. In 1958 he was forced to refuse the Nobel Prize for literature. He was in fear that he would be stripped of his Soviet citizenship and not allowed to return to his homeland if were to travel to Stockholm to accept it. He died on May 30, 1960 and was buried in Peredelkino in front of several devoted admirers.