THE END OF THE EMPIRE: UKRAINIAN LITERARY TRANSLATIONS FROM RUSSIAN AS AN ARTIFACT
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine, Kolomiyets Lada , Kalnychenko Oleksandr ,   V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Published: December 2024

Background. The article discusses Ukrainian translations from Russian over the past hundred years (from the early 1920s to the early 2020s) from a postcolonial perspective.

Methods. The methodological basis of the article is the theory of postcolonial studies (through the prism of which Yuri Lotman's theory of the dialogue of cultures is critically revised) and the methods of descriptive translation studies.

Results. The stages and periods of Russian-Ukrainian translation from 1917 to the present are identified and described. From the formation of soviet translation school with the leading role of poetry translation in 1917–1926, to the increase in the number of translations of Russian prose, in particular multi-volume editions, in 1927–1932, and the establishment of a philologically accurate translation focused on the style of the source text, through the period of ideologization of translation norms, changes in the method of translation (reorientation to the reader) and retranslations in 1933–1945, to mass editions of Russian classics and the spread of "edited translations" (1945 – mid-1950s) and further to the condemnation of indirect translation and literalism in translations from or through Russian and resistance to Russification from the mid-1950s to 1972 to the period of translations of mainly contemporary Russian authors, in particular, "rural" and "lieutenant's prose" from 1972 to 1991, to the reduction of the number of translations of Russian literature and mass publications of translations into Russian in Ukraine in 1991–1999, to the distancing of the Ukrainian book market from the Russian one in 1999–2014, and finally, to the closure of the "common information space" with Russia in 2014–2022. The paper proposes a periodization and examines the features of different stages of Russian-Ukrainian translation. Demonstrating the dramatic conflicts of Russian-Ukrainian coexistence within the "common cultural space," the role and significance of Russian-Ukrainian translation as a factor of cultural interaction and conflict is analyzed and evaluated.

Conclusion. This study proves that Ukrainian literary translations from Russian during the Soviet era were largely modeled by the Kremlin's imperial ambitions, although, in addition to the dark sides, Ukrainian translations from Russian had a bright side, including translations of Russian poetry (especially the poetry of the "silver age") by neoclassical scholars, philologically accurate translations of the collected works of Gogol and Chekhov, and other achievements of the Ukrainian translation school that emerged in the late 1920s and early 1930s and was theoretically grounded accordingly. At the same time, the Soviet cultural space was being established through the Russian language and translations from Russian, which was deliberately isolated from the world cultural space and was supposed to replace it, contributing to the Russification of the Ukrainian language and the provincialization of Ukrainian literature.