The Last Soviet Border

Abstract

During the Cold War, translation practices became a tool of geopolitical influence for disseminating socialist ideology. The Eastern bloc in general, particularly the Soviet Union, devoted an extraordinary amount of resources, both economic and human, to developing and bolstering a translation system that allowed for the production, circulation, and consumption of literary works otherwise left out of the World Literature order dominated by Western texts. More specifically, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 allowed for the expansion of the Soviet ideological borders, and the island became the Soviet doorway to Latin America. This essay will explore the scope, intensity, and consequences of the practices of literary Soviet translations in Cuba.