Russian literature in the publishing policy of the Hogarth Press (1920s-1930s)

The article focuses on the history of publication of translations from Russian by Leonard and Virginia Woolf as publishers. The history of these publications is looked upon as a particular plot in the Woolfs' publishing policy - a plot which corresponds to the major aesthetic and ideological demands of British modernists, as well as to the atmosphere of the epoch. Publishing translations from Russian in 1920-1936 by the Hogarth Press is shown to be consistent with Virginia Woolfs profound interest in works by the 'great Russians' (Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy), and with British intellectuals' general enthusiasm in the 1910s-1920s for the Russian writers. The fact that this enthusiasm was based on a particular interpretation of Russian novels, stories and plays,in which British modernists found both adequate means of expressing new feelings of their 'new age' and a modernist understanding of human psychology, is of utmost importance here. The publication of translations from Russian by the Hogarth Press deepened British readers' notion of Russian classical literature, expanded their horizon concerning Russian literature's past and present, and at the same time opened new prospects for the publishers. Beginning from its first Russian edition - a translation of M. Gorky's Reminiscences of L.N. Tolstoy - the Hogarth Press started publishing (alongside the texts of the Woolfs' circle) such texts of 'other' authors that concerned different significant phenomena of contemporary European culture. Thus, broadening their publishing outlook and changing their publishing politics, the Woolfs kept to the principle of novelty: all new publications of the Hogarth Press introduced British readers to a text in English for the first time. Finally, publishing the translation of M. Gorky's Reminiscences engendered a new phase of Virginia Woolfs relations with Russian literature. In the period between 1921 and 1922 she began reading in Russian, and learnt how many difficulties there are in the process of translation (from Russian into English). That, in its turn, brought her to the concept of impassable boundaries between different national cultures, the concept that played an important role in forming her idea of a person's incomprehensibility. The article determines the causes and periods of publishing translations from Russian by the Hogarth Press; the historical and cultural context of these publications; the peculiarity of the selection of the texts; the influence of the Woolfs' involvement in text translation on both the publishing policy of the Hogarth Press and Virginia Woolfs creative writing. The article traces different motives of disappearance of books by Russian authors from the list of the Hogarth Press publications in the late 1930s.

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