The White Army Analysis in Doctor Zhivago

The White Army was the coalition of armed forces that fought against the Bolshevik-led Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Compromised of many different groups ranging from far-right monarchists to constitutional liberals to foreign interventionists, the White Army was eventually defeated on all fronts by the Red Army.

The White Army Quotes in Doctor Zhivago

The Doctor Zhivago quotes below are all either spoken by The White Army or refer to The White Army. 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:

And everything used to give joy by its richness and shapeliness—church services, dances, people, manners—even though the family was from simple folk, tradesmen, from peasants and workers. And Russia, too, was a young girl, and she had real suitors, real protectors, not like nowadays. Now everything’s lost its sheen, there’s nothing but the civilian trash of lawyers and Yids, chewing words tirelessly, day and night, choking on words. Vlasushka and his retinue hope to lure the old golden times back with champagne and good wishes. Is that any way to win back a lost love? You’ve got to overturn stones for that, move mountains, dig up the earth!

Related Characters: Galuzina (speaker), Vlas “Vlasushka” Galuzin

Page Number and Citation: 368-369

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 448

Explanation and Analysis:

The White Army Term Timeline in Doctor Zhivago

The timeline below shows where the term The White Army appears in Doctor Zhivago. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Social Differences and Social Change Theme Icon

...of the soviet. Speaking privately with Galliulin’s mother, he learns that Galliulin has joined the White Army. (full context)

...and that farther from the railways, the peasants are in open rebellion against both the Whites and the Reds. Voroniuk and the other conscripts discuss their nearby hometowns. Moving further east,... (full context)

...towns and villages along the railway become larger and busier, and rumors spread that the White Army, commanded in this region by none other than Galliulin, is about to conquer Yuriatin.... (full context)

...stops him—and the first sentry, who has been following Yuri. Convinced that Yuri is a White spy, they detain him. A nearby fisherman interjects and explains that the doctor has reached... (full context)

...enters, immediately impressing Yuri with his determined, deliberate bearing. Strelnikov informs the room that the White Army is in retreat, though he has mixed feelings about their victory—Strelnikov is childhood acquaintances... (full context)

...why he left Moscow for Varykino, and Strelnikov expresses his suspicions that the Zhivagos are White sympathizers. Yuri denies this but concedes that his letters of recommendation as a loyal Soviet... (full context)

...to Tsarist oppression but condemns its growing excesses. Lara contrasts the situation now to the White terror she and the other residents experienced before Strelnikov captured the city, a period of... (full context)

...too noble to try to use her and Katenka to reach his archenemy while the Whites controlled the city. Though Lara’s efforts to see Strelnikov/Antipov have been unsuccessful, she does not... (full context)

Russian Culture and Christianity Theme Icon

...along the highway, the town of Kuteiny Posad gives an Easter feast for newly conscripted White Army recruits. The local merchant Vlas Galuzin oversees the event, and he rises to give... (full context)

...wounded all year round. Their army continues to grow, however, bolstered by deserters from the Whites. The White Army ambush the partisans. After the solider next to him is killed by... (full context)

...shooting the enemy, Yuri deliberately shoots a nearby tree—only to accidentally kill one of the White officers who walks in front of it. Examining the dead partisan whose rifle he took,... (full context)

...is uneasy, as many of the partisans refuse to march forward until their families—fleeing the Whites behind them—catch up with them. Amidst this disorder, Vdovichenko is contesting Liberius’s leadership. Yuri is... (full context)

...the remainder of the season; located deep in the forest, they are secure from the Whites but also cut off from supplies. Yuri enjoys long walks in the woods and takes... (full context)

The partisans are in dire circumstances, surrounded on all sides by the Whites, though the rugged terrain prevents the Whites from laying a proper siege to the camp.... (full context)

...Pamphil’s cattle, 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... (full context)

...to cut his hair and tells him about the vicious repression carried out by the Whites during their second occupation of Yuriatin, once again tempered only by Lara’s petitions to Galliulin.... (full context)

...and Katenka’s safety. Komarovsky is headed to the Far East to join the last remaining White government, whose existence the Bolshevik authorities in Moscow tacitly tolerate, at least for now. He... (full context)

...for them. Tanya explains that her mother, Raissa Komarova, was the wife of an exiled White politician named Komarov, though Komarov was not her father. When the Red Army invaded the... (full context)

Doctor Zhivago

Boris Pasternak

The White Army Term Analysis

The White Army Quotes in Doctor Zhivago

The White Army Term Timeline in Doctor Zhivago