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Scientific Communication Across the Iron Curtain

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology ((BRIEFSHIST))

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Abstract

We turn in this chapter to linguistic matters, which we set in the context of the infamous ‘foreign-language barrier’. The specific issues considered here are the use of foreign languages, and the appearance of foreign authors, in Soviet journals, Russian-language ability amongst Western scientists, and the translation of scientific works.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There is of course a broader foreign-language barrier, beyond science, but I confine my attention to the scientific context. I also approach the problem largely from a native-English-speaking perspective. A major recent publication in this area is Gordin (2015).

  2. 2.

    See Bourne (1962), Barr (1967), and Tschirgi (1973). Indeed, some commentators have cited information overload as a more serious problem than the language barrier: Garfield (1983).

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Hanson (1962), Holmstrom (1962), Wood (1967), Hunter (1970), Hutchins et al. (1971a, b), Kertesz (1974), Chan (1976), and Large (1983). Indeed, the foreign-language barrier in scientific communication remains a matter of current concern: see, for example, Ammon (2006), Montgomery (2013), and Sloan and Alper (2014, Chap. 4).

  4. 4.

    See, respectively, UNESCO (1957) and Anon (1962).

  5. 5.

    See note 8 on p. 10.

  6. 6.

    See, for example, the comments in Gordin (2015, p. 217).

  7. 7.

    Often with the use of a statement that makes one pause and scratch one’s head, such as: “at least 50 % of scientific literature is in languages which more than half the world’s scientists cannot read” (UNESCO 1957, p. 13).

  8. 8.

    See Chan (1976, pp. 317, 319) or Large (1983, p. 35).

  9. 9.

    See Hutchins et al. (1971a, p. 6) or Herner (1958).

  10. 10.

    See, for example, Walsh (1960) or London (1957).

  11. 11.

    See, for example, Couturat et al. (1910); a recent discussion of this issue may be found in Gordin (2015, Chaps. 4 and 5).

  12. 12.

    See, for example, Castro (1975), Jaramillo (1975), and Ammon (1998); see also Large (1983, Chap. 8).

  13. 13.

    See, for example, the comments in Medvedev (1971, p. 132).

  14. 14.

    Although the push towards the exclusive use of Russian was mainly a product of Stalin’s era, we perhaps see it foreshadowed in the foundation of many Russian-language scientific periodicals in the nationalistic atmosphere of the First World War (Kojevnikov 2002, p. 240).

  15. 15.

    See Mackay (1954, pp. 102, 109) or Gordin (2015, p. 225). Other examples of Soviet journals produced in Western languages are noted in Kryuchkova (2001, pp. 410–411).

  16. 16.

    “ ” (Anon 1931b).

  17. 17.

    I record here only the numbers of papers in Russian and in languages other than Russian, but I hope elsewhere to analyse the distribution of the specific languages used. For the time being, suffice it to say that the foreign languages represented in Fig. 4.1 are, in various proportions, English, French, German, and Italian.

  18. 18.

    Indeed, although it was considerably rarer than the converse, some Western journals also carried Russian summaries of papers: the International Journal of Earth Sciences, for example, began to provide these shortly after the launch of Sputnik (Montgomery 2013, p. 92).

  19. 19.

    See, for example, Krementsov (2007, p. 61) or Gordin (2015, p. 225). English summaries were, however, reintroduced in certain contexts around a decade later: see Herner (1958).

  20. 20.

    See Marchevskii (1956), and also the comments on this journal in Hollings (2014, p. 340).

  21. 21.

    See also the comments in Demidov (1996, pp. 140, 142). Much as in Fig. 4.1 (see note 17 on p. 80), I record here only the numbers of papers by foreign authors, but I hope elsewhere to analyse the distribution of the specific nationalities of authors (where by ‘nationality’ I mean country of stated affiliation, rather than country of origin). For the time being, suffice it to say that the nationalities represented in Fig. 4.2 are, in various proportions, American, British, Bulgarian, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Swiss, Turkish, and Yugoslavian.

  22. 22.

    “ ” (Anon 1931a).

  23. 23.

    “ ” (Anon 1936, p. 4).

  24. 24.

    See also note 36 on p. 19.

  25. 25.

    See, for example, Atkinson (1951); see also Mingarelli (2005).

  26. 26.

    See, for example, Schweitzer (1989, p. 181) or Medvedev (1979, p. 154). Interestingly, the delays noted by Medvedev for Soviet biological journals in the mid-1970s (1 year from submission to publication) do in fact compare quite favourably with the delays often encountered in modern academic publishing.

  27. 27.

    See, for example, Bockris (1958) or Berger (1963).

  28. 28.

    See, for example, Chaitkin (1945), O’Dette (1957) or Gordin (2015, p. 222); see also the conclusions of the report Litchfield et al. (1958, Sect. 11).

  29. 29.

    See, for example, the comments on this matter in Benedict (1909).

  30. 30.

    See, for example, the comment in Lefschetz (1949); see also Large (1983, p. 45). On the broader impact of Sputnik on US education, see Douglass (2000).

  31. 31.

    See Hanson (1962, Chap. 2). In the American context, see Gordin (2015, p. 228), where it is emphasised that the ‘scientific Russian’ learnt by US scientists was “a more docile, friendlier beast” than literary Russian.

  32. 32.

    See Gouzévitch and Gouzévitch (2009, p. 364); see also UNESCO (1957, Sect. 7.5.13). On Russian chemical terminology, see Gordin (2015, Chap. 3).

  33. 33.

    See Terpigorev (1950) and Crisp (1989, pp. 34–35).

  34. 34.

    Medvedev (1979, p. 128); see also the comments in Medvedev (1971, p. 160). On Soviet language policy, see Kirkwood (1989) or Lipset (1967).

  35. 35.

    The number was probably ‘vast’ because such technical guides are very quickly out of date; see, for example, the comments in Large (1983, p. 66).

  36. 36.

    See, for example, Bray (1945), Perry (1950), Condoyannis (1959), Turkevich and Turkevich (1959), Ward (1960), Anon (1963a), Pertzoff (1964), Holt (1964), Warne (1964), and Alford and Alford (1970). For a manual for would-be translators of Russian scientific literature, see Zimmerman (1967).

  37. 37.

    See, for example, Anon (1957), Konarski (1962), Emin (1963), Lambert (1963), Gitcigrat et al. (1963), and Kotz (1964, 1966). The compilation of a list of Russian technical terms was one of the goals of an Anglo-Soviet Scientific Collaboration Committee (Anon 1942), but it is not clear whether this was ever completed.

  38. 38.

    See, for example, Melnechuk (1963), Anon (1963c) or UNESCO (1957, Sect. 2.8); see also the further references in note 41 below, which, although aimed at chemists, are useful for scientists more generally.

  39. 39.

    See, for example, Tolpin (1945, 1949, 1964) or Frank (1947).

  40. 40.

    See, for example, Anon (1950), Lohwater (1961), Nidditch (1962), Burlak and Brooke (1963), and Gould (1972). For a manual for would-be translators of Russian mathematical literature, see Gould (1966).

  41. 41.

    See, for example, Callaham (1947), Hoseh and Hoseh (1964), Reid (1970), Perry (1944), Wiggins (1972), and Kiefer (1970).

  42. 42.

    See, for example, Tolpin (1946), Soule (1955), Dostert (1955), and Wood (1966).

  43. 43.

    See, for example, Shaw (1949) and Anon (1953); see also Large (1983, p. 72).

  44. 44.

    See, for example, Rosenberg (1952) and Scheitz (1961).

  45. 45.

    Other examples are Klinkovstejn and Znamenskij (1963), Macintyre and Witte (1956), Czerni and Skrzyńska (1962), Gould and Obreanu (1967), and Nihon Sūgakkai (1968).

  46. 46.

    See, for example, Shtokalo (1960) and Tonian (1965); see also DuS (1956).

  47. 47.

    See, for example, Wiggins (1972), UNESCO (1957, Appendix 3), Marton (1964), and Holmstrom (1951).

  48. 48.

    See, for example, Casagrande (1954), Citroen (1959), Gingold (1964), Tybulewicz (1970), Scott (1971), Gould and Stern (1971), Anderson (1978), Finlay (1979), and Miner (1980).

  49. 49.

    See Shephard (1973), Chan (1977), or Large (1983, p. 3). Indeed, a similar, but more recent, example is provided by the lack of Western knowledge of important Chinese papers concerning bird flu: Montgomery (2013, p. 109).

  50. 50.

    Another matter that received a great deal of attention was the question of the cost and efficacy of machine translations; for an early survey of progress in this direction, see Locke (1956). See also Large (1983, Chap. 6) and Gordin (2015, Chap. 8).

  51. 51.

    See, for example, Anon (1956) and Adkinson (1967).

  52. 52.

    For some details of translation activities in other countries, see Frank (1961).

  53. 53.

    With regard to the early 1960s, for example, see Anon (1960a, 1963b) and Armstrong (1961). The January 1964 issue of Science East to West (no. 13, pp. 8–9), for instance, features advertisements of new cover-to-cover translations of Soviet journals on instrumentation for measurement, experimental techniques, and automatic control.

  54. 54.

    See, for example, Hanson (1962, Chap. 3) or Rangra (1968, pp. 11–21). See also the graph in Gorokhoff (1962, p. 15) showing the increase in the number of cover-to-cover translations of Soviet journals.

  55. 55.

    See, for example, Cantor (1983) (on the cover-to-cover translation of a Soviet materials science journal), Adams (1983) (geophysics), Colwell (1983) (remote sensing), Vickerman (1985) (adsorption), Mills (1985) (chemistry), Oliver (1987) (microbiology and biotechnology), and Robinson (1990) (oceanography).

  56. 56.

    Such as, for example, the articles listed in note 12 on p. 59.

  57. 57.

    Compare, for example, the (literal English translation of) the original Russian title of Hewitt (1986) with the title of its English translation, as given in the bibliography of this chapter. Note, incidentally, that this is an article by a Western author writing in Russian in a Soviet journal.

  58. 58.

    For the background to Pontryagin’s remarks, see Lehto (1998, Sect. 10.1).

  59. 59.

    For example, on the translation into Russian of Western texts on eugenics between 1900 and 1917, see Krementsov (2011, p. 65). On translation of genetics texts during the 1920s, see Todes and Krementsov (2010, p. 350).

  60. 60.

    For details of some translations of major Western mathematical texts into Russian, see Hollings (2014, Table 2.6).

  61. 61.

    In the case of mathematics, for example, see Vucinich (2002, p. 22).

  62. 62.

    Original text: Cambridge University Press, 1932.

  63. 63.

    See, for example, the list of translated journals maintained by the American Mathematical Society: http://www.ams.org/msnhtml/trnjor.pdf (last accessed 26th May 2015).

  64. 64.

    See Anon (1969), Groos (1970), and Garfield (1970); see also Hamblin (2000, p. 303).

  65. 65.

    See, for example, Thompson (1955), Gorokhoff (1962), Anon (1959a), and Himmelsbach and Boyd (1968).

  66. 66.

    See, for example, Wood (1974) and Chillag (1980).

  67. 67.

    See, for example, Birch (1979) and Glover (1979).

  68. 68.

    See, for example, Chan (1976, p. 325) and UNESCO (1957, Sect. 4.6).

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Hollings, C.D. (2016). Linguistic Access to Publications. In: Scientific Communication Across the Iron Curtain. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25346-6_4

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