Translation of Ancient Works During the First Two Years of the Full-scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The article attempts to systematize all Ukrainian-language translations from Latin and Ancient Greek that were published in Ukrainian publishing houses during the first two years of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (from February 24, 2022, to February 24, 2024). The proposed research allows for an understanding of the current state of the book market, the place of translations of ancient classics within it, and, in the long term, to clarify the impact of the existential war on publishing and cultural processes in Ukraine, to forecast potential problems and challenges that this sector will face, and to outline possible ways to overcome them.

The aim of the article is to systematize and record trends in the field of translation from classical languages during the first two years of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

The goal of the work determined the solution of a number of specific tasks, the essence and sequence of which are determined by the logic of the research: 1) to find out the state of the publishing market in the first and second year of the full-scale invasion; 2) to analyze the reading tendencies of Ukrainian citizens (number of books read per year, place of purchase of new books, language of reading, most popular genres; 3) to form an idea about the Ukrainian translator of this period (problems of relocation, income, the most popular languages for translation); 4) to systematize the translations from Latin and ancient Greek published in 2022-2024, the publishers who took care of them and the cohort of translators who worked with classical material.

The article identifies the most productive translators, collects information about publishing houses that dealt with ancient material during this time, and outlines the problems and trends in the literary and translation field in Ukraine in accordance with the most relevant studies and surveys.

In particular, it was found that between 2022 and 2024, publishing houses reissued more old translations (sometimes with changes and additions) than published translations of classical works for the first time. A trend towards a decrease in the number of active publishers of ancient classics (predominantly concentrated in western Ukraine) was also highlighted, along with the maintenance of the same list of active translators from Ancient Greek and Latin (among whom A.O. Sodomora holds a prominent place). The article harmonizes with previous research efforts in the fields of bibliography, translation history, and classical philology, continuing, supplementing, and to some extent clarifying them.