(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 03 - Sergio D'Angelo, the man who made Boris Pasternak's masterpiece, Doctor Zhivago, died at the age of 100 on October 30, despite the its own author who, strongly pressed by the Soviet regime, tried to take a step back, with Feltrinelli who ignored his second thoughts.
D'Angelo died in his home in San Martino al Cimino.
There will be no religious ceremonies.
His daughter Francesca let ANSA know.
The novel was published in the Italian translation in 1957, but in November of the previous year D'Angelo himself had taken it out of the Soviet Union, secretly to allow the writer to overcome the censorship that had seen him refuse the book which did not hide the criticisms towards communism.
Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was disbarred from the PCI for this, Pasternak was expelled from the writers' union but the book began the road to extraordinary success consecrated then also by the five Oscars won by the film that was based on it in 1965.
Born in Rome, D'Angelo went to work as a journalist at Radio Moscow in the 1950s and there he brought his entire family, his wife Giulietta and two children.
A very brilliant, witty man, he considered the adventure of Pasternak and Feltrinelli "the adventure of his life and he had always talked about it all his life", explained his daughter Francesca on the occasion of the centenary.
After the events in Hungary he had distanced himself from the party, moving towards the centre.
A true friendship was born with Pasternak,
in whose name the writer decided to entrust him with the manuscript, recommending that he make it known to the world.
"This is Doctor Zhivago", said Pasternak to Sergio D'Angelo, "who goes around the world".
To then add, after handing him the typescript: "As of now, you are all invited to my firing squad".
It was May 20, 1956: that afternoon the spark was lit that flared up in an international literary case, destined to involve the CPSU and the Communist parties of half of Europe.
Censored in the Soviet Union because it went against the dictates of the regime, the book was published by Feltrinelli in 1957. (ANSA).