Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for a single novel 'Zhivago'.
It was quite complicated and disjoint. The writing wasn't a marvel of plot and devices that would wow a literary critic. The award of the prize to him was deemed political as it shined a light on the brutality and horror of the Russian revolution.
There were many stories and novels of the revolution that were not awarded such a prize. It seemed to many that Pasternak, more a poet than a novelist, was elevated beyond what was deserved. If there had been a 'Grammy' for literature, perhaps that would have been a more suitable award for this 'mediocre' poet, or so some might have thought.
But as this one work sunk into the members of the arts societies, it was recognized as reflecting human nature in its most decrepit and most exalted states. Pasternak wrote Zhivago over more than four decades. His poems were quite good but it was the Zhivago work that won the Nobel Prize.
Of course, David Lean's 1965 film version of Zhivago wowed audiences with its music and melodrama but succeeded in losing the essence of what Pasternak had captured. To reflect what Pasternak had truly captured required a 2002 adaptation. I like this latter film version much better by several-fold in comparison to the 1965 version.
A 2002 trailer of the more Pasternak-faithful version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgJAf-NbY9w
The point is the work had to be put to film to illustrate its importance to literature. It was difficult reading and translations from the Russian were lacking in conveying the essence of the human character development. A film was needed to fll the gap.
Would I compare Pasternak with Dylan (Zimmerman)? Absolutely.
Whereas Pasternak's 'Zhivago' provided the backdrop from the viewpoint of an 'individual' to the social upheaval of the collective monstrosity of communism, Dylan's poem-songs provided the backdrop to the social upheaval associated with the turbulent Vietnam era. Dylan's influence on this social aspect was not by design but merely reflective of the times but its influence was so pervasive in the undercurrents of societies around the globe that there were Bob Dylans popping up all over the Soviet Union adding to its downfall. These symbols of resistance captured the spirit of the times. This was Dylan's contribution.
It's important to note that it was not Dylan's voice or talent with musical instruments that made his fame, it was the literary content of his poems turned into minstrel folk songs by deft arrangement that created a new genre of story-telling.