Doctor Zhivago

Doctor Zhivago

by

Boris Pasternak

Partisans are paramilitary resistance fighters who engage in guerilla warfare, often behind enemy lines. Partisans formed an essential part of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, preventing the White Army from effective controlling large areas of the country, especially in Siberia.

Partisan Quotes in Doctor Zhivago

The Doctor Zhivago quotes below are all either spoken by Partisan or refer to Partisan. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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).
Part 11: The Forest Army Quotes

“[…] I grant that you’re all bright lights and liberators of Russia, that without you she would perish, drowned in poverty and ignorance, and nevertheless I can’t be bothered with you, and I spit on you, I don’t like you, and you can all go to the devil.

“The rulers of your minds indulge in proverbs, but they’ve forgotten the main one, that love cannot be forced, and they have a deeply rooted habit of liberating people and making them happy, especially those who haven’t asked for it. You probably fancy that there’s no better place in the world for me than your camp and your company. I probably should even bless you and thank you for my captivity, for your having liberated me from my family, my son, my home, my work, from everything that’s dear to me and that I live by.”

Related Characters: Yuri Andreevich Zhivago (speaker), Liberius Mikulitsyn
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 12: The Frosted Rowan Quotes

Or, again, take your red banner. What do you think? You think it’s a flag? And yet, see, it’s not a flag at all, it’s the plaguey-girl’s fetching raspberry kerchief—fetching, I say, and why is it fetching? To wave and wink at the young lads, to fetch young lads for the slaughter, for death, to inflict the plague on them. And you believed it was a flag—come to me, prolety and poorlety of all lands.

Related Characters: Kubarikha (speaker), Yuri Andreevich Zhivago, Pamphil Palykh
Page Number: 434
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 13: Opposite the House with Figures Quotes

This time justified the saying: Man is a wolf to man. A wayfarer turned aside at the sight of another wayfarer; a man would kill the man he met, so as not to be killed himself. There were isolated cases of cannibalism. The human laws of civilization ended. Those of beasts were in force. Man dreamed the prehistoric dreams of the caveman.

Related Characters: Yuri Andreevich Zhivago
Page Number: 448
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Doctor Zhivago LitChart as a printable PDF.
Doctor Zhivago PDF

Partisan Term Timeline in Doctor Zhivago

The timeline below shows where the term Partisan appears in Doctor Zhivago. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 9: Varykino
Destiny Theme Icon
Love and Responsibility Theme Icon
...the air stops him in his tracks. Blocking his path ahead are three of Liberius’s partisans, who explain they are mobilizing him as a replacement medic and taking him to the... (full context)
Part 11: The Forest Army
History and Agency Theme Icon
Destiny Theme Icon
Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Yuri remains with the partisans for nearly two years. He is not kept prisoner within their camp, but they recapture... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
The partisans keep Yuri busy, as they are alternately sick or wounded all year round. Their army... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Russian Culture and Christianity Theme Icon
...kill one of the White officers who walks in front of it. Examining the dead partisan whose rifle he took, Yuri finds an amulet containing garbled excerpts from the 91st Psalm.... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Love and Responsibility Theme Icon
The partisans set up camp deep in the woods. Liberius chatters ceaselessly, making it impossible for Yuri... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Love and Responsibility Theme Icon
Fall arrives once again. The partisans discuss what to do with a handful of arrested moonshiners. The camp is uneasy, as... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
...soldiers and civilians. Yuri asks Pamphil to explain his melancholy as he understands it. The partisan narrates his experience of the war and the revolution and his discovery that the ruling... (full context)
Part 12: The Frosted Rowan
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Russian Culture and Christianity Theme Icon
The partisans are joined by their families and other refugees, among them a folk healer named Zlydarikha... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
The partisans are in dire circumstances, surrounded on all sides by the Whites, though the rugged terrain... (full context)
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Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon
Love and Responsibility Theme Icon
Russian Culture and Christianity Theme Icon
...elaborately paraphrasing ancient legends as she does so. During one firefight with the Whites, the partisans discover a mutilated comrade left behind as a warning. Before he dies, the comrade tells... (full context)
Destiny Theme Icon
Love and Responsibility Theme Icon
...excuse that he just wants to pick berries from the nearby rowan tree, as the partisans all consider Yuri to be a charming eccentric. Yuri stops by the tree, tells himself... (full context)