Detgiz’s Policy in the Publication of the Translated GDR Books in the late 1940s–mid-1950s

Abstract

Ol’ga Simonova’s article,“Detgiz’s Policy in the Publication of the Translated GDR Books in the Late 1940s — Mid 1950s”, focuses on the ways Detgiz has selected the books published in the German Democratic Republic for their translation into Russian in the late 1940s-mid-1950s. At the beginning of this period, Detgiz dealt only with the list of German authors approved for the translated “literature for adults” in the USSR. Besides those names, there were also selections of German classics and publication of German fairy tales. By the mid-1950s, Detgiz began to produce in translation the works of contemporary German children’s authors. The important conditions for the selection were the political platform of an author, the content of her / his literary work in accordance with the ideology, and the artistic value of the book. The minimal circulation of German children’s books written by contemporary authors and the lack of reprints defined their modest popularity in the USSR in the 1950s.

Keywords: Detgiz, the policy of the publishing house, the editorial board of contemporary foreign literature, translation, ideology, German Democratic Republic, German literature