From the very beginning of the 20th century Indian poetry has been of major
interest among Russian poets of the so-called Silver Age. Some ancient Sanskrit
poems were translated by K. Balmont. After R. Tagore received the Nobel Prize in
literature, collections of his poems were also translated from English into Russian.
Interest in his work spiked after his visit to the USSR, but due to historical reasons
no major translations were produced until the 1950-s.
With the beginning of the Cold War era, Soviet authorities restarted their anti-
colonial agenda and included a cultural component to it. In 1958 the first Afro-
Asian Writers’ Congress was held in Tashkent, which was attended by African,
Asian and Latin American writers. This congress led to the formation of the Afro-
Asian Writers’ Association. These events aimed at promoting strong cultural
interconnections.
Soviet publishing houses started extensively to translate Asian and African
literature. Indian poetry was an integral part of this process. There were not just
translations of classical Sanskrit texts, but works in modern Indian languages as
well (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Panjabi, Telugu and others). It should be mentioned
that these were predominantly poems which reflected anti-colonial and anti-
capitalist agenda. Poems were published in single collections and in big
anthologies as well.
Translation of poetry has always been a complicated process, especially from
Asian languages. Literal translation is given to prominent poets who transform it
into works of art. For a long period of time translated literature and poetry
remained the main sources of cultural connections between Russia and India.
