TSU compile a bibliography of translated texts of the Russian Empire

TOMSK, May 7 – RIA Tomsk. The Russian Presidential Grants Foundation supported the project of TSU scientists devoted to the history of Russian translated literature: for the first time translations from newspapers of pre-revolutionary Russia will be collected, they will be included in a unique set of chrestomathies and bibliographies. Details – in the material of RIA Tomsk.

The author of the project "The History of Russian Translated Literature at the Turn of the XIX-XX Centuries on the Material of Periodicals of the Regions of the Russian Empire" – the head of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology of TSU, the doctor of science Natalya Nikonova. The presidential grant was the fourth one for her – the situation is unique for the Tomsk region, since before no humanist had received the support of the foundation for four projects.

The Presidential Grants Foundation for two years will finance works on a new project – 1 million rubles annually.

From archives to chrestomathies

Several graduate students and undergraduates of the university work in the team of Nikonova. The sources of information for them are newspapers and magazines that were published in Russia more than 100 years ago.

Young scientists have already compiled a bibliography of translated prose, poetry and journalism, published in that period in Tomsk periodicals (the newspapers "Sibirsky Vestnik", "Sibirsky Observer" and other publications that appeared after the formation of TSU).

"This is the first bibliography in Russia of such a plan. Newspapers actively published translations of texts from other countries. We compiled a bibliography that includes more than 1 thousand sources. It became the basis for studying the history of the translated literature of the Russian Empire regions as a whole", – says Nikonova.

A lot of work lies ahead of the scientists: to study and compare translations in the newspapers of the central regions of the Russian Empire with the Siberian translations. The result of the project will be a unique educational and methodical complex with reading books and bibliographies for students, journalists, historians and philologists.

Five anthologies and explanations for them have already been published on the website of the TSU Research Library. Everyone can get access to the textbooks via the Internet.

"They contain translations and texts in five languages – these are English, German, French, Polish, Italian. The educational and methodical complex will be useful for humanities who want to understand what they translated, how it developed and what was interesting in the literature of Siberia and Russia before revolution", – explains the author of the project.

The last element of the educational and methodical complex will be the publication of a scientific bibliography of literary translations in the periodicals of the Russian Empire.

"We will compile it following the results of our research in central libraries and archives. We think it will be important for Tomsk and Siberia – to compare the texts and the very process of developing periodicals, which became the mouthpiece of the region’s sub-ethnic cultural identity. For the first time in Russia, we will record all these important sources in one edition", – says Nikonova.

She notes that, for example, in Siberia, Little Russia and Central Russia turned to the best works and theatrical productions based on the plays of foreign classics with no less interest and enthusiasm than in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

"And the scandalous ideas of contemporaries such as Nietzsche, Zola, Baudelaire, Lombroso, were interpreted directly, without regard to the central part of Russia, and often ahead of their versions. Our scientific bibliography will tell about all of this", – the agency interlocutor summarized.