REALIAS OF THE SOVIET UNION PERIOD: PECULIARITIES OF THEIR REPRODUCTION IN THE GERMAN TRANSLATIONS OF THE ESSAYS OF YU. ANDRUKHOVYCH

The article deals with the problem of reproduction of totalitarian period’s realias viewing scientific investigations concerned. Their classification and ways of translation are given. The study is based on Yu. Andrukhovych’s essays translated in German. The conclusion highlights findings concerning the methods of translation used by the interpreters.


INTRODUCTION
"Translation is a complex and versatile kind of human activity.Different cultures, personalities, ways of thinking, different literatures, development levels, different traditions and sets coexist in translation" [6].
The process of translating of a text from one language into another has a diverse character, which is explained by a multitude of components it consists of: a message text -a message that should be transmitted; an author, who transmits the message; a recipient, who has to apprehend the message; a mediator, who renders the message from a source language into a target one.This is the reason a problem of correctness or adequacy of translation arises.Meanwhile such kind of translation is absolutely possible if a translator is aware of the methods and ways of translation and knows how to apply them.
Reproduction of such a layer of lexical units as realias is doubtlessly an extremely complex task even for the most professional translator.In order to translate such lexical units adequately it is not enough for a translator to be a speaker of a language, or to have translation techniques skills, the translator has to be an artist who is a master in the translation art.This also includes the translation of realias which appeared after the 1917 revolution, so-called sovietisms or realias of the Soviet Union epoch.
The aim of the research is the analysis of the Soviet Union epoch realias reproduction in the German translations of the essay collections "My Last Territory" and "The Devil Hides in Cheese" by Yu.Andrukhovych, translated by S. Shtior and A. Voldan.
Despite the existing of a great number of research papers the topic still remains understudied and it ensures the actuality of our study.In order to reach the named aim the following tasks should be accomplished: clarifying the notion "sovietisms translation" and defining the ways of their reproduction in the translations by S. Shtior and A. Voldan.
To define this realia group we use the definition proposed by G.V. Chernov.He considered it to be equivalent-lacking lexics (ELL) and explained it as "words and word combinations, which appeared in the soviet period, or words and word combinations which obtained a new meaning in this period" [3, p. 141].That's why to understand sovietisms correctly it is necessary to have elements of basic knowledge of the communist ideology, so in this way we can call it ideologically coloured units (ICU)" [5].
Working on the problem of sovietisms reproduction Bulgarian scientists S. Vlakhov and S. Florin suggest to classify this type of realia the following way: 1) sovietisms proper -realias which are common for the Soviet Union (совхоз, неотложка, ЖЭК, целинник, стахановець).While translating them, absence of their referents in the readers country should be taken into account.
2) regional sovietisms -in most socialistic countries they do not differ a lot from national realias, and they are translated by the means of transcribing, calquing or searching of equivalents recognizable in the socialistic country language: Russ.субботник, Bulg.съботник, Czech.subotnik.Translating these realias into languages of non-socialistic countries one has to pay attention to the low level of the reader's acquaintance with them.These realias undergo the usual ways of translation, and it often happens that transcription alone is not enough.
3) international sovietisms, such as Совет, спутник, большевик, are so well-known that there is no need to describe or explain them, a mere transcription might be enough here [3, p. 144-145].
Consodering sovietisms made-up from the proper names R.P. Zorivchak stresses that "in different languages they take up the sounding form corresponding the phonetic laws of a receiving language" [4, p. 61].
Among the realias of the Soviet Union Epoch there are lots of shortenings and abbreviations (e.g.СРСР, КПРС, НКВД, генсек etc.).Reproduction of sovietisms-abbreviations "should be done according to the general rules of the shortenings translations" as Ye.Vereschagin and V. Kostomarov put it [3, p. 146].
Postmodernist writers are the ones who depict "the real face" of the soviet reality in a specially ironic and satiric way.In their works they often use realias and quotations of the totalitarian period which play role of "a hidden in the text idea seme that often becomes an allusion on sincerity and fatality of the Soviet ideology" [9, p. 368].

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
One of the most famous Ukrainian postmodern writers Yu.Andrukhovych also uses such quotations (Ukr.: «…коли більшовики ліквідували вірменсько-католицький архієпископат» [2, p. 205] -Ger.: «…damals liquidierten die Bolschewiki das armenisch-katholische Erzbistum» [10, p. 32]).In this case the translator transcribes the sovietism «більшовики», though he could have rendered it using combined renomination, and thus explaining his foreign readers whom "bilshovyky" were with the help of historical reference for example.Transcription of the word "більшовик" is considered absolutely correct if it is done from the language of the origin i.e. from Russian.That is why the above-mention translation is adequate.
Studying the Soviet Union realias reproduction one have to remember different periods of this epoch, e.g."thaw" (Thaw or Khruschov's Thaw is unofficial name for the period in the history of the USSR which started after J. Stalin's death (the second half of 1950th -beginning of the 1960th).It is mentioned by Yu.Andrukhovych in his essay "O Umlaut" (compare: Ukr.: «Достатньо лише уявити собі цю дивну радянську школу наприкінці відлиги і 60-х…» [1, p. 181] -Ger.: «Es genügt doch, sich jene seltsame sowjetische Schule am Ende des Tauwetters und der sechziger Jahre vorzustellen….»[11, p. 98]).The translator once again uses the situational equivalent to translate this realia.It can as well be reproduced with transcribing, but the content of the sentence makes it clear that the word was used in a figurative, not in a direct meaning ("Thaw is a winter or spring warming that causes snow melting" [7]).The translation of this realia is adequate.
In Yu.Andrukhovych essays there are lots of sovietisms-abbreviations and complex shortenings that can be difficult to understand even for the source language speakers, if they are not well-grounded.E.g.GUS, DWS, NKWD etc.The author himself in his essay "Our Meeting Place Germaschka" in the essay collection "Devil Hides in Cheese" writes that: "An abbereviation habit, an incorrigible socioliguistic characteristic feature of a soviet person, is successfully preserved in a post-soviet person as well" [1, p. 263].

CONCLUSIONS
Having analysed the ways of the Soviet epoch realias reproduction in the Yu.Andrukhovych essays translated by S. Shtoer and A. Voldan, we come to the conclusion that the main methods used by the translators are transcription, transliteration, calquing and situational equivalents.Still, most of the sovietisms are international so their translation doesn't present much difficulty for translators.As far as sovietisms make up an integral part of our history and world history that is connected with the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the reproduction of the realias of this period is an important research field for modern translation studies.