About

Read Russia covers Russian-language literary publishing and its passage into English. Since 2022 much of that publishing has happened outside Russia: Freedom Letters, Vidim Books and Babel Books in Tel Aviv print in Russian for readers who buy in Riga, Tbilisi, Berlin and by post. Inside Russia, the foreign-agent labelling rules and the extremism designation of November 2023 determine what a shop may stock.

The site is organised in five sections, and every piece names real houses, translators, editions and years. Designations are reported as dated legal facts, taken from the register or the ruling itself. Comparisons between translations are made by what each version does with the text.

How the site is arranged

Five sections

The presses that work nowPublishing in exile and under label — Freedom Letters, Vidim, Babel Books, and the market that remained.
Writers and the recordNamed writers, their current publishing situations, and what the formal designations mean for their work.
What the translator doesThe craft and commerce of literary translation from Russian — the major figures, their methods, and the argument that will not end.
The books that crossed overThe specific translated editions that built English-language Russian literature — and the choices that shaped each one.
How censorship was builtSamizdat, Glavlit, the Union of Soviet Writers, the Nobel awards, and the apparatus that shaped what could be printed.

Long-run offset is what the exile houses do not have; most of their titles are printed by the copy.Photo: Antoni Shkraba / Pexels

The complete list of pieces sits on one page, and each section page carries its own. Corrections and catalogue details are welcome by email.