In 'Doctor Zhivago', what is the profession of Yuri Zhivago?

In “Doctor Zhivago,” Yuri Zhivago’s profession is physician. Boris Pasternak’s protagonist is a trained medical doctor who practices during one of Russia’s most violent periods.

Zhivago’s medical career places him directly inside the upheavals of World War I, the 1917 Revolutions, and the Russian Civil War. He serves as a doctor near the front and later treats patients amid shortages, political violence, and social collapse. His medical work gives him a practical role while his poetry reflects his spiritual and artistic life.

A common mix-up is to answer “poet,” because Zhivago writes poetry and the novel includes his poems. However, poetry is his creative vocation, not the profession asked for here. “Doctor” is also part of his name, but “physician” is the precise occupational answer. The novel was written by Boris Pasternak and first published in 1957.