Realia of Russian Culture in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and their Translation

Abstract

This article explores the translation of Russian cultural realia in Leo Tolstoy’s "Anna Karenina"and their interpretation in English versions. The study focuses on four major categories of cultural realia: everyday life, social hierarchy, religious practices, and symbolic elements. The central problem lies in the fact that translating such realia goes beyond lexical substitution and becomes an act of intercultural communication, where the translator’s choices determine whether the national identity is preserved or lost. The aim of the research is to identify the specific strategies used by Constance Garnett (1901) and Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2004) in rendering cultural realia, and to assess how adaptation versus preservation influences the perception of the novel in the English-speaking world. The analysis reveals that Garnett employed domestication, replacing Russian realia with familiar analogues (tea-urn, count, christening), which facilitated comprehension but reduced authenticity. In contrast, Pevear and Volokhonsky retained original terms (samovar, graf, moleben, troika), creating a sense of foreignness while preserving cultural specificity. The findings confirm Vlakhov and Florin’s thesis that the translation of realia is a “test for the translator.” The choice between adaptation and preservation directly shapes the image of Russia in the minds of foreign readers. Thus, the translation of cultural realia in Anna Karenina functions not merely as a literary task but as a medium of intercultural dialogue, influencing the transmission of national identity across linguistic boundaries.