New Political Concepts in Russian Translations of the Eighteenth Century

• In Event: New Approaches to Translation in Russia during the Age of Enlightenment

Abstract

In the age of Peter the Great, Russians encountered Western culture. The use of European institutions, techniques and methods led to the spread of new ideas and hitherto unfamiliar words. New concepts invaded the life of Russian society, changing the meaning of words and displacing old meanings. Translated political literature played an important role in this process.
Studying the translation of political texts from one language to another helps us to understand how ideas move from one culture to another, how translators interpret and adapt the thoughts of authors and how they bring them to their contemporaries. The translator is always a man of his time and the bearer of certain social attitudes and the political culture of his country.

Author

• Sergey Polskoy, NRU Higher School of Economics (Russia)