Soviets reconsider banned novel

A leading cultural official said a new evaluation is needed of Nobel laureate Boris Pasternak's masterpiece ``Doctor Zhivago,'' suggesting that the banned book may be published for the first time in the Soviet Union. A commission has been formed to review Pasternak's works, the official Tass news agency said Tuesday.

``Doctor Zhivago,'' published in 1957, was banned for its sympathetic portrayal of Russian opponents of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.