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Article published In: Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 14:3 (2019) ► pp.442–463

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Thematic Cluster

Interpreting for Soviet leaders

The memoirs of semi-visible men

 | UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Published online: 24 July 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.18023.rog
Abstract
Top interpreters are rarely able to discuss publicly negotiations between their bosses-cum-clients. Yet the downfall of Nazi Germany and the USSR allowed some interpreters to speak, in interviews and memoirs, without fear of retribution. In the end, only a few told their story, and some did not always tell it correctly, either because of memory lapses or because of a desire to appear more informed or to distance themselves from the people for whom they had worked. Still, these publications contain material to investigate to what degree, in the service of an all-powerful client, interpreters remained “invisible” or exercised a “special interactional power, […] as a result of his or her bilingual and bicultural expertise” (Mason, Ian and Ren, Wen. 2012. “Power in face-to-face interpreting events.” Translation and Interpreting Studies 7 (2): 233–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar: 238). This article presents a case study of Soviet interpreters for Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev and their associates, with memoirs by the interpreters for Hitler and British PMs consulted for cross-correlation.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Semi-visibility
  • Co-interlocution
  • Empowerment
  • Non-neutrality
  • Positioning
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Chekin, Leonid S.
2023. First Secretary Gierek, President Carter, and the president’s Polish interpreter. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción 69:6 ► pp. 725 ff. DOI logo
Wolf, Michaela
2023. The interpreter as “anti-hero”. In Towards an Atlas of the History of Interpreting [Benjamins Translation Library, 159], ► pp. 238 ff. DOI logo

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