Translation and totalitarianism: the case of Soviet Estonia

The approach developed and applied in the current study on the communicative meaning of translation during the Soviet period in Estonia is based on an exploration of different layers of the historicity of translation: starting from an analysis of systemic continuities such as censorship and state control of book production, and diachronic discontinuities such as changes in statistical figures on translation during the Soviet period, the authors arrive at a contextualised explanation of particular aspects of translation processes and their products. Taking into account the constraints of the totalitarian system and the loopholes it left, a study of both the censor's interventions and the microstylistic decisions of translators reveals the dialogical and distinct potential of translations, as well as the highly individual character of totalitarian systems, which can vary in their degrees of monologism in both space and time. Exposing the inadequacy of dichotomous oppositions such as 'official culture' vs 'counter-culture' for an explanation of the dissonances that translations can introduce into the totalitarian monologue, the multilayered approach of the current case study offers an effective means to refine our historical thinking about the totalitarian phenomenon.