On the history of the Russian translation of Chinese new literature in the 1920–1930s

Abstract

The issue of literary relationship between China and Russia in the first half of the twentieth century remains relevant to contemporary Russian and Chinese literary studies. The purpose of this work is to examine the history of the Russian translation of Chinese new literature in the 1920s-1930s and explore how Soviet critics evaluated them. The paper provides a cultural-historical analysis and indicates that, in the USSR, the introduction to Chinese new literature was inextricably linked to the activities of Academician V.M. Alekseev in the 1920s, when systematic publication of the works of Soviet Orientalists was launched, and in the late 1930s, due to the persecution against the translation group, the intensity of the translation and publication of modern literary works began to wane. In the 1920s–1930s, the first translations, reviews, and literary-critical reviews appeared, most of which belonged to those who had direct contact with Chinese intelligentsia. Chinese cultural figures such as translators of Russian literature including Cao Jinghua and Xiao Can also played an important role in promoting modern Chinese literature in the USSR. Chinese new narrative prose was praised by Soviet critics for revealing a real picture of the changes in China. Much attention was paid to the thematic-ideological and ethical aspects of the works of Lu Xin and Mao Dun, who were deemed as “leaders” of modern Chinese literature in the USSR.