ON HISTORY OF TRUTHFUL BIOGRAPHY — THE FIRST ANTHOLOGY OF TRANSLATIONS OF MODERN CHINESE PROSE INTO RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The paper involves archival materials, scientific literature and the information system of the Beijing Lu Xun Museum to examine the history of the preparation and circumstances of the publication of the first collection of translations of modern Chinese prose into Russian — Truthful Biography. Novellas and Stories of Modern China published by the Molodaya gvardiya Publishing House in 1929. The author concludes that the publication of the collection Truthful Biography was a logical result of the attention of the Soviet Union to the China engulfed by the revolution. Shortcomings in the translation of literary texts reflect not only the insufficient level of Chinese language proficiency among some translators, but also the lack of traditions and norms of translation of modern Chinese literature in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. Nevertheless, the collection Truthful Biography. Novellas and Stories of Modern China can be considered a starting point in the translation of modern Chinese literature into Russian and the beginning of the involvement of specialists in modern China in the Soviet Union in the study of Chinese literature.