Сampaigning against the «nationalistic wrecking» in translations in Ukraine in 1933-35
Abstract
The study deals with the Soviet translation policy into Ukrainian in 1933-35, when a gradual shift in official judgments on translation took place and a new function of translations, the one connected with nationalities policy, emerged, as translations became considered an instrument of consolidation of the Soviet Union republics around Russia. Stalinist regime has been shown to have attempted to openly regulate literary expression in translated books, including not only the textual choices and source language, but even the translation methods. The study describes a unique for the XX century Europe campaign in press against “the nationalistic wrecking” in translation incriminating the translators a nationalistic distortion and counterrevolutionary actions toward separating the Ukrainian language from Russian (and not at all inaccuracy of translation!).which triggered plentiful relay translations as well as retranslations and revisions to near the texts to Russian. Five condemning publications against “wreckers” in translation of both political literature (“distortions” of Lenin’s works in the translations edited by Scrypnyk) and fiction (“distortions of Maхim Gorky works and of Sholokhov’s Virgin Soil Upturned in Ukrainian translations), as a part of the campaigning accessible to the observer. The campaign has been displayed to have triggered plentiful retranslations and revisions to near the texts to Russian. Their vocabularies were purged of “archaisms,” or words harkening back to national history, and “alien” elements (e.g., the vocabulary of Polish or Czech origin), and the prohibited words and other elements were replaced by “internationalist” ones (Russian-derived modern vocabulary and grammar constructions borrowed from Russian).
Downloads
References
Azov, Andrei (2012) Poverzhennye bukvalisty: Iz istorii khudozhestvennogo perevoda v SSSR v 1920-1960-e gody [The defeated literalists: From the history of literary translation in the USSR 1920-1960s], Moscow: Vysshaia shkola ekonomiki.
Branderberger, David and Aleksandr Dubrovskiy (1998) “”The people need a tsar”: The emergence of national Bolshevism as Stalinist ideology, 1931–1941”, Europe-Asia Studies, No. 5: 873-892.
Editorial (1934). Movoznavstvo No 1. P. 3-6.
Kahanovych, Naum (1934): “Natsionalistychni perekruchennia v ukrayins’kykh perekladakh tvoriv Lenina” [Nationalistic Distortions in Ukrainian Translations of Lenin’s Works], Movoznavstvo No. 2. : 9-24.
Kalnychenko Oleksandr and Zinaida Zarubina (2014) “Kontseptsiia perekladu Andre Lefevra ta yii terminolohiia” [André Lefevere’s Conception of Translation and Its Terminology Explained]. Visnyk Kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V. N. Karazina. Ser.: Romano-hermanska filolohiia. Metodyka vykladannia inozemnykh mov. No 1102, Issue 77. С. 210-218.
Kalnychenko, Oleksandr and Zinaida Zarubina (2017) “Povtorni pereklady v Ukraini u 1920-i – 1930-i roky” [Retranslations in Ukraine in the 1920s–1930s]. Naukovi zapysky Kirovohradskoho depzhavnoho pedahohichnoho universytetu imeni Volodymyra Vynnychenka. Seriia “Filolohichni nauky” [Proceedings of the Kirovohrad Volodymyr Vynnychenko State Pedagogical University. Series “Philological Sciences”. Issue 154. :336–343.
Kalnychenko, Oleksandr and Lada Kolomiyets (in print) “Translation in Ukraine during the Stalinist Period.” Translation under Communism/ C. Rundle, A. Lange and D. Monticelli (eds.). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Kasianenko, Yevhen (1934) “Yak Pylypenko perekruchuvav Sholokhova” [How Pylypenko Distorted Sholokhov], Literaturna Hazeta [Literary Newspaper], August 20: 2.
Khm-kyi, A. (1933) “Zabuta dilianka literatury: Narada perekladachiv khudozhnioii literatury, Kharkiv, 17 lystopada” [The Neglected Field of Literature: Conference of Fiction Translators, Kharkiv, November 17], Literaturna Hazeta [Literary Newspaper], December 10: 4.
Kochur, Hryhoriy (1968) “Zdobutky i perspektyvy” [Achievements and Prospects]”, Vsesvit No.1: 92-97.
Kolomiyets, Lada (2015) Ukraiinskyi khudozhniy pereklad ta perekladachi 1920-30-kh rokiv: Materialy do kursu “Istoriia perekladu” [Ukrainian Literary Translation and Translators in the 1920s-30s: “History of translation” course materials]. Vinnytsia, Nova Knyha.
Mace, James E.(1996) “Socialist and Communist Models”,Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis, Kyiv: Political Thought: 3-38.
Masenko, Liudmyla (ed.) Ukrayins`ka mova u XX storichchi: istoriya lingvocydu. Dokumenty i materialy. [The Ukrainian Language in the 1900s: the History of Linguocide]. Kyiv: Vyd. dim Ky`yevo-Mohylyans`ka akademiya, 2005.
Paniv, Andriy (1934) “Tvory O.M. Gorkoho ukraiins’koiu movoiu: Pro potrebu novykh perekladiv, vi’nykh vid “natsionalistychnykh” perekruchen’” [O.M. Gorky’s works in Ukrainian: On the exigency of retranslations free from “nationalistic” distortions], Literaturna Hazeta [Literary Newspaper], August 12: 1.
Plokhy, Serhii (2017) Lost Kingdom: The Quest for the Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation. New York: Basic Books.
Rundle, Christopher (2011) “History through a Translation Perspective” in Between Cultures and Texts / Entre les cultures et les textes : Itineraries in Translation History / Itineraires en histoire de la traduction. With an Introduction by Theo Hermans / Avec une introduction de Theo Hermans. Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, Daniele Monticelli (eds). Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang: 33-43.
Shevchenko A. (1935) “Pro vydannia tvoriv Lenina ukraiins’koiu movoiu” [On the publishing of Lenin's works in Ukrainian], Pid Markso-Lenina praporom [Under the Banner of Marx-Lenin], No. 5: 137-139.
Shevelov, George Y. (1989) The Ukrainian Language in the First Half of the Twentieth Century(1900–1941): Its State and Status. Cambridge: Harvard UP.
Stalin J.V. (1949)“Zvitna dopovid` XVII z'yizdovi partiyi pro robotu CzK VKP(b): (26 sichnya 1934 roku) ” [Report to the Seventeenth Party Congress on the Work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): January 26, 1934] Tvory`: V 13 t. [Works: in 13 volumes] - Ky`yiv: Ukrpolitvydav. - vol. 13 : 283-374.
Strikha, Maksym (2006) Ukraïnskyi khudozhnii pereklad: Mizh literaturoiu i natsiietvorenniam. [Ukrainian Literary Translation: Between Literature and Nation-Making] Kyiv: Fakt. /Nash chas.
Witt, Susanna. “Arts of Accommodation: The First All-Union Conference of Translators, Moscow, 1936, and the Ideologization of Norms”. The Art of Accommodation: Literary Translation in Russia/. Leon Burnett and Emily Lygo (eds.). Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013. : 141-184.
