| Sumario: | The five articles included in the special section explore the translation of Russian fiction and nonfiction about Russia/the Soviet Union in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden and Iceland. The interest in this topic arises from the observation that there has been a tendency to turn to translations of Russian literature to find answers to questions about what it means to be Russian and about Russian society and way of thinking. The articles utilize translation paratexts, such as reviews and publishers' descriptions, to explore how the translations have been introduced to the readers in the target cultures, what kinds of images were presented to them and how the translations were received. The comparative cultural framework of the Nordic countries stems, first, from the idea that the Nordic nations form a group of culturally, socially and politically like-minded countries, and second, from their geographical proximity to Russia. Bringing together research on the reception of translations and the translation policies in these small linguistic areas enables us to compare case studies and thus helps to reveal blind spots in perceptions and images of Russian literature, as well as what has been translated from Russian, e.g., in Sweden, but not in Finland or Iceland.
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