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Snježana Veselica Majhut
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia https://orcid.org/0000‑0002‑1576‑6098 veselicamajhut@gmail.com
Translation at the Interplay of Politics and Literary Transfer
Translations of Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Croatia from 1945 to 1952
Izvorni znanstveni rad / original research paper
Primljeno / received 26. 6. 2025. Prihvaćeno / accepted 17. 12. 2025.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21066/carcl.libri.15.1.2
Within a short time span, between 1945 and 1948, two political events with farreaching consequences occurred in Croatia, at the time one of the constituent republics of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ). This makes the period from 1945 until the early 1950s particularly interesting for research into translation as a site, tool, and agent in the interplay between politics and literary transfer.
The first decades of the 21st century witnessed growing interest in investigating translation practices in former communist countries in Europe (Thomson‑Wohlgemuth 2009; Gielen 2011; Inngs 2011; Monticelli 2011; Witt 2011; Pokorn 2012, 2022; Monticelli and Lange 2014; Looby 2015; Popa 2018; Rundle, Lange and Monticelli 2022;
Rudnytska 2022; Baer 2022; Kalnychenko and Kolomiyets 2022; Ivleva 2022). Still,
as Iona Popa (2018: 426) points out, translation issues have long been marginalised in research on the phenomenon of communism in Eastern Europe, although focus on translation may be highly productive in providing more nuanced insights into historical, sociological, political, and translational facets of this phenomenon, as well as in enriching methodological approaches fostering multidisciplinarity. The historical context marked by the establishment of an undemocratic regime and Cold War rivalries in Europe enables us to foreground research of extra‑textual (and in particular, political) factors that shaped translation practices, thus promoting “the inscription of translation into general social processes, enabling research to go beyond mere textual approaches” (ibid.).
A considerable number of studies on translation practices in communist regimes focus specifically on translations of children’s and young adult literature (ThomsonWohlgemuth 2003, 2009; Chilewska 2009, Inngs 2011, 2015; Pokorn 2012; Sherry 2015; Majhut and Lovrić Kralj 2019; Lovrić Kralj and Majhut 2019; Goodwin 2020; Pavić and Narančić Kovač 2022; Monticelli and Ahi 2022; Rudnytska 2024), thus creating a substantial body of research on these issues. However, it seems that the specific features of translation practices in the area of children’s literature in Croatia and the roles assigned to it in the period of communism have not yet received due attention from translation scholars.1
This study aims to enhance our knowledge of the interaction between the particular features of the Croatian, and former Yugoslav, inner political and broader geopolitical context, and translations of children’s and young adult literature. In broader terms, it will also contribute to a better understanding of the practices of translating children’s literature in undemocratic regimes, taking communism as an example of such regimes.
Two sets of extra‑textual data are analysed to map the landscape of translations of children’s literature in Croatia in the relevant period and probe into the interplay of the dominant ideology, the particular geopolitical context, and literary transfers through translation in the field of children’s literature. One set of the data comprises bibliographic data, which are used to reconstruct translation flows in children’s literature in the set period. In other words, the bibliographic data are analysed to provide answers to the following research questions: Which texts were translated from non‑Yugoslav languages into Croatian from 1945 until 1952? Which authors of children’s and young adult literature were translated and published by Croatian publishing houses? And from what source languages were texts for children and young adults translated? Can any changes be seen in translation flows into Croatian which could point to changes in the translation policy during the period in focus?
The other set of data comprises the available archival material stored in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb (Hrvatski državni arhiv, further: HDA), which are analysed to shed light on the mechanisms of state and party control involved in shaping translation policy and practices in the relevant period. In addition, the archival data will help us elucidate the attitudes of the state–party nomenclature to the roles that children’s and young adult literature should play in a new revolutionary reality. What kind of literature for children and young adults was considered desirable after the Second World War? The words of Maxim Gorky, one of most frequently published Soviet authors in FPRY, may provide an answer. It seems no coincidence that in 1945 Belgrade‑based Novo pokolenje [New Generation] published a Serbian translation of a programmatic booklet titled Dajte deci literaturu! [Give Literature to Children!] by Maxim Gorky, Alexander Belyaev and Viktor Tauber (1945: 11), in which Gorky writes (1933/1945: 11):
[I]n our country to educate [children] means to revolutionise them, i.e. to liberate the mind of the child from technical modes of thinking established in the past, from misconceptions, founded on the layers of centuries‑old bourgeois mindset based on the class struggle and aspirations of individuals to protect themselves and reinforce individualism and nationalism as “eternal forms” and laws of life in society.2
Before we present the results of our research, we provide an extensive overview of the impact of the political circumstances on the publishing sector, and the role of the state bodies controlling publishing.
Although the key political events that affected translation practices occurred from 1945 (the end of the Second World War and the establishment of FNRJ) to 1948 (the Resolution of the Information Bureau Concerning the Communist Party of Yugoslavia),3 we will analyse translations of children’s literature in a rather more extended period, i.e. from 1945 to 1952 for a number of reasons. First, the dynamics of change in translation policy and practices cannot be expected to be fully synchronous with the events in the broad socio‑political context. Second, deprived of its ideological basis in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia was forced to search for “its own road to socialism”. This interim period lasted until 1952; in 1950, the Basic Law on the Management of State Economic Enterprises and Larger Economic Enterprises by Working Collectives4 was adopted, followed by the introduction of the “new economic system” in 1952 (cf. Bilandžić 1999; Calic 2019). New, more democratic winds were also evident in the famous speech of one of the greatest Croatian men of letters (if not the greatest), Miroslav Krleža (1839–1981), at the Congress of Writers in Ljubljana on 5 October 1952, which is considered “the final confrontation with the Social Realist critical‑theoretical concept in Stalinist–Zhdanov terms” (Govor na Kongresu… 2025).
The political and social framework 1945–1952
In 1945 the territory that until the outbreak of the Second World War constituted the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became FNRJ, a politically and economically highly centralised state, with all power held firmly by Tito’s Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Following the end of the war, on 11 November 1945, in the elections for the Constitutional Assembly of the new state, the communist‑dominated Narodna fronta (the People’s Front)5 achieved an overwhelming victory. Doubts about the regularity of the elections in the given circumstances are often expressed in historiographic literature (cf. Banac 1988; Bilandžić 1999; Radelić 2006; Vodušek Starič 2006; Calic 2019). For example, Radelić (2006: 31) concludes that the 1945 elections presented only the formal fulfilment of the British and American demands that multiparty elections be held. The newly established Assembly proclaimed FPRY on 29 November 1945. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Croatia (Narodna Republika Hrvatska, further: NRH), one of the republics within the newly formed federal state, was adopted on 18 January 1947, and thus the legal framework of Croatia within the Second Yugoslavia after the Second World War was completed, although it was somewhat modified in 1963 and 1974.
In more recent publications, both Croatian and international historians (Banac 1988; Knezović 1992; Bilandžić 1999; Spehnjak 2002; Radelić 2005, Gibianskii 2018, Goldstein 2008; Jakovina and Previšić 2020) agree that after the war the Yugoslav political‑economic system and social structure closely followed the Soviet model. According to Dušan Bilandžić (1999: 209):
After the Communist Party of Yugoslavia established a state in 1945, it immediately started the process of state, economic, political, and cultural integration with the USSR, even more extensively and intensely than the USSR itself demanded.
A similar description of Yugoslav‑Soviet relations prior to the split with the Soviet Union (1948) is provided by the Russian historian Leonid Gibianskii (2018: 291):
Both within the Communist movement and among the movement’s adversaries, Yugoslavia was considered the USSR’s number one ally, the country which was most advanced in creating a socialist order. In matters of foreign policy, Yugoslavia stood unwaveringly at the USSR’s side during increasing confrontations with the West.
The fact that the Constitution of the Soviet Union served as a model for the Constitution of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (Banac 1988: 18) clearly illustrates how closely the Yugoslav Communist Party adhered to the Soviet model of political and economic organisation. Ivo Banac describes the relations of the Yugoslav Communist Party and the Soviet Union under Stalin (1988: 3):
[…] Yugoslavia’s postwar recovery was nevertheless pursued on the Stalinist model: the “iron rule” of a proletarian dictatorship dominated by the party, whose historical mission was to overcome the class enemy and to organise the new socialist economy by a centralist system of state management.
In the field of culture, “the Bolshevisation of the entire life of society” (Knezović 1992: 101) was underway, and “love, loyalty and enthusiasm for all that comes from the first country of socialism” was nurtured, with the only relevant criteria being “partijnost6 [loyalty to the Party], idejnost,7 and ideološka obojenost [desirable ideological overtones]” (ibid.).
Without going more deeply into the genealogy of the subsequent rift in SovietYugoslav relations, we should note that the Cominform Resolution issued in June 1948 marked the beginning of the public phase of the Soviet‑Yugoslav split, as the Resolution was followed by a large‑scale propaganda campaign from the Soviet Union and its satellites. As Banac points out, the conclusion of the Resolution presented “a blanket condemnation of the KPJ’s8 antiparty policy and attitude” (1988: 125), which led to its exclusion from “the family of fraternal Communist parties, the united Communist front, and consequently […] outside the ranks of the Information Bureau” (ibid.).
Having provided an outline of the political framework in the period following the end of the Second World War, we will now provide a brief sketch of the organisation of the publishing sector and the state and party bodies that exerted control over the field of culture, in particular over publishing activities.
Culture and publishing policies
The publishing sector 1945–1952
As in all other spheres of Croatian society, the end of the Second World War brought about radical changes in the publishing sector. After the war, the first step in gaining control over publishing and over the dissemination of undesirable books was to eliminate publishers and publications that were close to the past regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). As Tatjana Šarić (2010: 411) points out, in 1945 the People’s District Court for the City of Zagreb brought a decision to ban certain journals and magazines, books and publishers, and forwarded it to the Ministry of Education. In the next step, in April 1947, all bookshops, some of which were still privately owned, were searched in an effort to stop the distribution and sale of undesirable books. Šarić describes that bookshops were searched for books that were considered to “falsify history, defame the Soviet Union, glorify mračnjaštvo [obscure medievalism], fascism, chauvinism, Greater Croatian chauvinism and Greater Serbian chauvinism, religious and racial hatred, pornography and books that inspire crime” (409).
Besides various mechanisms of state control over publishing that will be discussed below, we should also mention that a number of legislative acts was adopted from 1945 to 1948 to regulate publishing activities in the field of children’s and young adult literature: the Act on Publishing and Distribution of Young Adults and Children’s Literature and Periodicals (Zakon o izdavanju… 1947) and the Regulation on Publishing and Distribution of Young Adults and Children’s Literature and Periodicals (Pravilnik o izdavanju… 1948). The former clearly shows the extent of legally enforced preventive censorship of children’s and young adult literature. Article 2 of that act stipulates that all books and periodicals intended for children and young adults may be published “only with the prior approval of the Ministry of Education of a people’s republic” on whose territory it is to be published (Zakon o izdavanju… 1947: 328). Further, Article 4 lays down that a sanction for violating the provisions of Article 2 may be a financial penalty of up to 50,000 dinars or imprisonment for up to one year (ibid.).
In 1945 and 1946 a number of private publishers of children’s books was still active, although it seems that the overall volume of book production for children and young adults was modest. For example, according to the Report on Publishing for Children and Young Adults from 1945 to the End of 1949 (RPCYA 1950), submitted by the Agitprop Commission of CK KPH9 (Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia) and dated 25 March 1950, only ten books for children and young adults were published in 1945, while in 1946 this figure rose to 31. However, as we discuss below, our bibliographic data show that the actual number of published books was higher. In 1945, several private publishers were still active: Ante Velzek, Jeronimsko društvo [The Jerome Society],10 Ante Grünbaum, Narodna knjižara [People’s Bookshop], Vlatko Šarić, Vinko Esih, to name just the most prominent. At the same time, some publishing houses established during the period of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) were forced to stop their activity, such as HIBZ – Hrvatski izdavalački bibliografski zavod [Croatian Publishing and Bibliographic Institute] whose main task was to publish encyclopaedic, lexicographic, and bibliographic works. In the same year, Nakladni zavod Hrvatske [Publishing Institute of Croatia] was established. It partially continued the publishing programme of HIBZ, but also had a literary section. In the course of its reorganisation in 1950, it changed its name to Zora [Dawn]. The other publishers that continued their activity in the new circumstances were Matica hrvatska [Matrix Croatica] and Pedagoško‑književni zbor [Pedagogical‑Literary Association]. Article 1, paragraph 19 of the Act on the Nationalisation of Private Enterprises (Zakon o nacionalizaciji… 1946) prescribed that, in addition to enterprises in the other industrial sectors, those in the graphic and printing industry should be nationalised and exclusively state‑owned (1246).
Among publishers involved in publishing children’s and young adult literature that were established after the war, or which became more prominent then, we should mention Kultura Zagreb [Culture Zagreb], Novo pokoljenje [New Generation], Naša djeca [Our Children], Ujedinjeni savez antifašističke omladine Hrvatske – USAOH [United Alliance of the Antifascist Youth of Croatia], Prosvjeta [Education], Seljačka sloga [Peasants’ Concord], and Zora [Dawn]. Kultura Zagreb was established in 1946 and its primary aim was to publish publicist writing. It changed its name to Naprijed [Forward] in 1958, when it also extended its publishing repertoire to include classical literary works. As is evident from the Report on the Realisation of the Annual Plan for All Areas of Social and Political Issues (RRAP 1949: 2), Kultura Zagreb did not have an autonomous publishing plan but worked according to that of Kultura Beograd [Culture Belgrade]. Novo pokoljenje in Zagreb was established in 1947 while Novo pokolenje in Belgrade had been set up earlier, i.e., in 1945. The Zagreb Novo pokoljenje changed its name to Mladost [Youth] in 1951; from that time onwards, it developed its own autonomous publishing plans. Naša djeca, established in 1947, specialised in publishing books for pre‑school children. Seljačka sloga was established in 1925, but its activity was banned in 1941, and it was inactive during the period of NDH (1941–1945). In 1947 it resumed its activity and in 1958 was renamed Znanje [Knowledge].
In this period, the publishing sector was burdened with a number of practical problems, which are continuously referred to in Agitprop reports. First, paper needed to be severely rationed and quotas were introduced. The priority was given to newspapers, considered an essential tool in mobilising the masses, various political propaganda brochures, and “Marxist‑Leninist” literature. It is evident from a report submitted by Agitprop of the CK KPH (RPCYA 1950) that in the allocation of paper quotas book publishing was marginalised and children’s literature had an even lower position. Thus, it was decided that from 1949 Novo pokoljenje would be the only publisher of children’s and young adult books, and other publishers would stop publishing such books “because in most cases, this was not their primary task and, due to the shortage of paper, they often left out these titles” (RPCYA 1950: 2). Another problem was that printing plants, which had been nationalised by 1946, were overloaded with work.
In 1949, a federal decision was brought on the reorganisation of the publishing sector, now completely in the hands of the state. Officially, the main tenet of this reorganisation was to achieve better control of publishing plans and the allocation of paper quotas, both being important means of controlling publication. As is evident from the Report on the Realisation of the Annual Plan for All Areas of Social and Political Issues dated 28 June 1949 submitted to Agitprop of CK KPJ (RRAP 1949), all publishers in Croatia were given precise orders about what type of literature to publish. For example, “‘Nakladni zavod’ will publish textbooks and literature, ours and foreign, contemporary and classic. Its ‘Narodna knjižnica’ [People’s Library (a publishing series)] will not remain within it, but will be taken over by ‘Prosvjeta’, ‘Seljačka sloga’, ‘Glas rada’” (RRAP 1949: 8). As mentioned above, Novo pokoljenje became the only publisher of children’s literature, explained as follows: “In this way, it was possible to achieve better control and systematic planning of publishing activities for children and young adults” (ibid.) (our emphasis).
Mechanisms of state–party control over the publishing sector
In this section, we will provide a brief sketch of the state and party bodies that exerted control over the field of culture, in particular publishing activities.
Agitprop and the Office for Information
As mentioned above, in the immediate postwar period, real political power, in line with the Soviet model, was concentrated in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ)11 and its highest executive organ, the Politburo, as well as in the subordinate communist parties of each republic and their politburos. The Central Committee of the KPJ and of the Communist Party of Croatia (KPH) had a number of bodies whose task was to enable the Party to realise its programmatic and political aims. Agitprop deserves particular attention, as it was directly involved in the ideological mobilisation of the “masses”, which was seen as a high‑priority task to enable the Party to establish and reinforce its power over the whole of society. The directive sent in September 1945 by Milovan Đilas, the head of Agitprop of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CK KPJ), to the central committees of the Communist Party at republic and regional levels illustrates the importance of Agitprop commissions for the achievement of the ideological transformation of all segments of society: “[…] today [6 September 1945], agitation and propaganda are of the utmost importance for ensuring the realisation of the Party policy” as “the entire life of people, as well as political, cultural, educational, and scientific life, should be, indirectly or directly, concentrated in the hands of our Party and propaganda institutions” (as quoted in Knezović 1992: 106).12
In order to adjust its organisation to new, peace‑time circumstances and tasks, Agitprop was reorganised to include five sectors: the Sector for the Press and Agitation, Theoretical and Lecturing Sector, the Cultural Sector, the Organisational and Technical Sector, and the Pedagogical Sector (cf. Knezović 1992). Each sector had its own head, while the heads of all sectors were subordinate to a prominent member of the Party leadership, who was in charge of each Agitprop commission, but not of any particular sector. The prominent Party leader in charge of an Agitprop commission held consultations and meetings with the heads of sectors at least once a week or, if necessary, more often. The main tasks of each sector were outlined in Đilas’s directive from September 1945. For example, as Zlata Knezović notes, the task of the head of the sector most relevant to our object of study, the Cultural Sector, was to provide (1992: 106):
[…] the initiative for the development and organisation of entire cultural life – theatres, amateur groups, orchestra, choirs, exhibitions, cinema screenings, literary and cultural events, publishing of literary and other journals. At the same time, he is in charge of the selection of works that will be published and performed […]. (Emphasis added.)
In this rigid hierarchical organisation, the tasks and functions of some sectors overlapped, which made it possible to achieve even tighter control over the relevant activities. For example, according to Đilas’s directive, the head of the organisational and technical sector “is responsible not only for the funds for propaganda and their allocation, but has to control the produced materials – books, newspapers, cinema shows, etc.” (ibid.). Despite this, a document of the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPH titled Organisational Remarks Regarding Our Agitation and Propaganda, which can be dated to 1947,13 concludes (ORAP [1947]: 5):
[a]s we have not yet resolved the problem of the personnel in the Section for Culture and Arts, and particularly of the leading cadres, the whole area of this work is dead, lacking our initiative and help.
The Croatian Agitprop received directives from the Yugoslav Agitprop and forwarded them to lower‑level bodies, which then sent reports on their work to the Agitprop of the CK KPH, which again sent them to the superordinate body, the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPJ.
In addition to Agitprop commissions, an important role in the control of publishing activities was played by the Office for Information14 that operated within the Presidency of the Government of the People’s Republic of Croatia,14 but was subordinate to Agitprop of the CK KPH. Although the main task of the Office for Information was to control what was published in newspapers, publishing houses also needed to “require approval of the Office” before publishing any book. For example, the Report of the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPH to Agitprop of the CK KPJ titled “On the Work of the Office for Information at the Presidency of the Government of the People’s Republic of Croatia” (6 December 1951) (RAC 1951) gave instructions as follows (as quoted in Šarić 2010: 411):
[…] when a book is published, we require that you immediately send us a filled‑in form with the information on the book, its author, publisher, and printing plan, as well as a summary of the book’s content [...]. [...] [A]t the latest by 25 November each publishing house should send a detailed report on the realisation of the plan for 1949 and provide an analysis of the activities related to the realisation of the planned tasks […].
According to the Minutes of the Meeting of the Representatives of Publishing Houses in the Office for Information Related to the Realisation of Publishing Plans for the First Three Months of 1950 (MMRPH 1950), the representatives of publishers were dissatisfied with the attitude of the staff of the printing plants, who “print everything else before [they print] books, and a standstill in book publishing should not be allowed” (2).
The Report on the Activity of the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPH from 22 November 1945 to 1 January 1946] (RAA CKKPH 1946) provides a good illustration of how Agitprop commissions worked in their efforts to achieve complete control over publishing. First, personnel changes in the Agitprop Commission for Croatia were made in response to criticism from the CK KPJ that “the work of some comrades was not satisfactory” (RAA CKKPH 1946: 1). Further, in addition to regular weekly meetings, the Commission organised a number of “emergency meetings regarding special issues” and “launched a number of important campaigns” (2). Most of this report is devoted to control over the press (both daily newspapers and periodicals), but it is also pointed out (4):
[W]ith regard to publishing various books and brochures without our control, although the number of such books is reduced, there is still a large number of them. We have undertaken necessary measures through our people in printing plants and the Ministry of Commerce to place private publishing activities under our control. (Emphasis added.)
Publishing plans as a means of state control
Publishing plans were an important tool of control over what was published. All publishers in Croatia were obliged to submit their publishing plans to the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPH and to the Office for Information.
The above‑quoted Report on the Activity of the Agitprop Commission of the CK KPH provides a good illustration of how publishing plans as a means of control worked in practice. Thus, it is said (RAA CKKPH 1946: 4):
[“N]akladni zavod Hrvatske” is, following your suggestions, working on a detailed plan of its activity for 1946. When this plan is finalised, we will send it to you. It has been observed that “Nakladni zavod Hrvatske” publishes many things without our knowledge and that they use higher quality paper and other material in an economically unreasonable way. The conducted investigation showed that a large number of people who have a hostile attitude towards us and were taken over from NDH were employed there. Thus, 72 persons were cleansed from “Nakladni zavod Hrvatske”, and it will be necessary to make some further personnel changes. (Emphasis added.)
The conclusion is that “the task before us is to examine in detail each sector in the field of culture and arts and to see what can be done to improve the work in that sector” (RAA CKKPH 1946: 6, emphasis added).
The Directive of Agitprop of the CK KPJ (DA CKKPJ 1946), issued on 17 October 1946, places particular emphasis on publishing plans for children’s literature for 1947, which should be “positioned along the same lines as in 1946”. Publishing houses ([1]):
[…] will, of course, avoid children’s literature with religious and mystical fantasy elements, with absolute and vulgar “animalisation” of life and social relations (as in children’s literature published by Glas [The Voice], with sensationalism and criminality, etc.
It should also be noted that point 8 of the Directive clearly indicates the intention to include other literatures of the countries of “people’s democracy” ([2]):
[I]n the [publishing] plans in addition to national and Russian, i.e. Soviet literature, particular attention should be given to Polish, Albanian, Bulgarian, Czech and, to a certain extent, Romanian literature. This should correct the fact that the part of last year’s publishing plans related to these literatures was either not realised or was not realised to a satisfactory extent.
It is also emphasised that the plans for 1947 should include the best known classical and contemporary (progressive) works of German literature, as well as one work each from Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Mexican and Chinese progressive literatures (ibid.).
Another problem addressed in this Directive is related to the inefficiency of publishing plans as a guarantee of complete control over what is published. It lays down that (DA CKKPJ 1946: 3):
[…] planning should be understood, organised and realised in such a way that in 1947 it will prevent, as much as possible, the publishing of unplanned or retrospectively approved books – in state‑owned, party‑owned, and especially in private publishing houses, which tend to slip in books not included in the plans – often foreign and enemy literature […]. (Emphasis added.)
It seems that in practice publishing plans were not highly efficient for at least two reasons. First, some publishers were not prompt in submitting their plans, which means that the Commission did not have enough time to examine them in detail. Even when the plans were submitted on time, in most cases they were not realised. For example, the Directorate for Agitation and Propaganda of the CK KPJ issued the CK KPH with a directive dated 28 June 1949 (D CKKPJ 1949a) demanding the submission of the report on publishing activities in the first half of 1949. As stated, the required report should include information on (n.p.):
[…] [1.] The realisation of annual plans for 6 months, according to your anticipation /failures, causes/ 2. Unplanned publishing and possible changes in the plans, and 3. Work on the plans and preparation of the works for whose preparation a longer period is necessary.
The Report on the Realisation of the Annual Plan… (RRAP 1949), promptly submitted in response to the Directive of 28 June 1949 (D CKKPJ 1949a), proclaimed that the annual plan for the previous six months had not been achieved. Among the reasons given was the fact that Kultura Zagreb “does not have its autonomous plan but works according to the plan of Kultura Beograd, and is not able to say to what extent the plan has been realised” (RRAP 1949: 2). Another reason was the shortage of paper and of lead used in the printing industry. For example, the same report claimed that the literary section of Nakladni zavod Hrvatske planned to publish 120 books in 1949. However, by June 1949 only 13 books had been published and distributed to bookshops: “The editorial staff of the literary section realised 80% of their annual publishing plan, but only 12.28% of the books were printed” (RRAP 1949: 3). Strangely enough, the report concluded that, taking into account the objective circumstances (shortage of paper, overburdened printing plants), the plan had not only been realised but had even been surpassed (4). As for the changes of plans, it was said that almost all publishers had altered, or rather reduced, their plans because of the shortage of paper. It is particularly interesting to note that, in addition to the shortage of paper, some publishers “introduced, in agreement with Agitprop of the CK KPH, certain corrections in their plans with regard to the Resolution of the Cominform and a slanderous campaign of the Cominform countries against our state and people” (6). (Emphasis added.)
Further, it was suggested that the Department for Literature and Publishing be established within the Office for Information of the Presidency of the Government of the People’s Republic of Croatia. This Department (RRAP 1949: 8):
[…] will conduct control over the consumption of paper and book publishing, and over the course of the work on a particular book from the editorial staff to its appearance in bookshop windows, while the content and artistic aspect of publishing will be under the Ministry of Education, and its Department for Literature and Publishing.
To overcome failures in the realisation of publishing plans in 1949, all publishers were obliged to prepare their annual plans by July and “all these plans will be considered in detail at a joint meeting, in which all unnecessary books will be excluded and possible additions to the plans introduced. By 1 August all publishers must have their plans for 1950 completed and finished” (ibid.).
It can also be seen from the Report on the Realisation of the Annual Plan… (RRAP 1949: 10) that “in order to improve the technical and visual aspect of books, the quality of translations, language, and the selection of literary works and authors”, the newly established Department for Literature and Publishing in the Ministry of Education would organise, in agreement with Agitprop of the CK KPH and the Office for Information, occasional consultations of writers, publishers and other professionals, “in which all the issues relevant to the improvement of publishing” (ibid.) would be discussed. Already in June (1949) such consultations were organised to help the editorial staff of Novo pokoljenje “with the selection of works [for 1950] and the layout of their editions for children and young adults (ibid.). (Emphasis added.)
How important publishing plans were as a means of control over what was published can be inferred from the following directive issued by the CK KPJ to the CK KPH, dated 2 August 1949 (D CKKPJ 1949b) and signed by Vladimir Dedijer. Dedijer ordered that lists of all books published in 1949 be sent to Agitprop of the CK KPJ, supplemented with an analysis paying particular attention to “the selection of books, their content, the quality of translation, the layout, prices and print runs” (n.p.). It is also prescribed that a report on the specialisation of particular publishers for children’s literature, youth literature, and trade union literature should be submitted.
As previously noted, publishing plans were not set in stone. An official explanation for changes to these plans was the shortage of paper and the low capacity of printing plants. However, we may discern that the actual reasons included ideologically based preventive censorship, caused by changes in the relations with the Soviet Union, following the 1948 Tito‑Stalin split. An explicit example is found in the untitled lengthy report submitted by the CK KPH to the CK KPJ on 1 September 1949 (RA 1949), as a supplement to the Report on the Realisation of the Annual Plan… (RRAP 1949). The report notes that “the selection of books is done on the basis of the plan for 1949, which was made in 1948” (RA 1949: 1). Further (ibid.):
[…] the list does not include the books that were withdrawn from bookshops (Stanić – Politika Vatikana15 and Furlan – Razvitak poljoprivrede u SSSR16) (whose authors declared their support for the Cominform) and a collection published in Osijek, whose content was negative and hostile. […] Perhaps some books should not have been published (Kulundžić – O jeziku17, Adrzejewsky18 – Pepeo i alem‑kamen19 as well as some others). There are cases when second‑rate works by Soviet authors were translated (some of them are published and some are planned to be published). Our publishing activity has considerably exhausted modern Soviet literature so that Soviet books of lower quality are published. (Emphasis added).
The same report points out that more attention would be paid to publishing for young adults and children, in particular pre‑school children. The lack of picturebooks represented a problem, as was also raised in some other reports (cf. RRAP 1949; RPCYA 1950). The Report of Agitprop to CK KPH of 1 September 1949 (RA 1949) also refers to the unsatisfactory quality of language used in children’s books, with the remark that this is most often the case in translated books, “which is, to some measure, the result of a lack of a single official and updated rule book orthography, but mostly the result of the sloppiness of editors and editorial staff” (2). Particularly interesting for this study are the remarks on the quality of translations. It is noted that translations are (ibid.): […] often done in a hurry and superficially (particularly new Russian works) so that some of the books are not translated fluently […]. Control over translations and the selection of translators is not satisfactory. For example, Matica Hrvatska [Matrix Croatica] published the translation of Hercen by J. Horvat [Josip Horvat], who does not have the competence to translate such a work.
With regard to “unsatisfactory” control over translations and translators, we should note that a report titled “Organisation and Work‑Related Issues in the Literary Secretariat of the Publishing Bureau of Croatia” (OWLS n.d.) describes the entire process of the publishing of translations. As it is highly relevant to our topic, we quote it extensively (2):
Once the [publishing] plan has been approved, the head of the Literary Section informs editors, who then start to edit national authors and commission a translation of the planned book […]. In most cases, translations are first compared to the original, then language revision is done by a language editor, and finally the editor definitively polishes the manuscript. (Emphasis added.)
This description clearly illustrates the role that publishing plans and editors played in ensuring the ideological correctness of translations, which leads us to agree with Christopher Rundle, Anne Lange and Daniele Monticelli that “the regime could rely on authors and translators to align themselves with Party policy, under the supervision of editors and writers’ unions (where they existed), and they could rely on state‑owned publishers not to print or distribute unacceptable texts” (2022: 5).
1945–1949: translation as a means of asserting Soviet dominance
When examining the period from 1945 to 1949, we should bear in mind that, owing to the historical circumstances, private publishers that operated during the period of NDH (1941–1945) were still active until April 1945, and, from May until the end of 1945, the majority of publishing activities were placed under the control of the communist regime.
The research undertaken to establish what books were translated and from which languages they were translated between 1945 and 1949 consisted of a detailed examination of the available bibliographic resources. Thus, for the purpose of this study, an accessory bibliography of children’s and young adult books published from 1945 to 1952 was compiled in accordance with the principles defined in Građa za hrvatsku retrospektivnu bibliografiju knjiga 1835–1940 [Material for the Croatian Retrospective Bibliography of Books 1835–1940] (Rogulja et al. 1982–1999). For the books deposited in the National and University Library in Zagreb, the data were extracted from Hrvatska retrospektivna bibliografija knjiga 1940–1949 [Croatian Retrospective Bibliography of Books 1940–1949] (2016–2023a) and Hrvatska retrospektivna bibliografija knjiga 1950–1959 [Croatian Retrospective Bibliography of Books 1950–1959] (2016–2023b). Regarding the books that are not physically preserved, the data were reconstructed using the following sources: Nataša Dragojević and Fikret Cacan (1988), Živorad Jovanović (1947), and Berislav Majhut (2023). The bibliography developed within the project BIBRICH (2018) was also intensively consulted. In addition, on the basis of the lists of published books within the same series in the available books, the data on the publishing of around 30 children’s books were reconstructed.
Table 1 presents the quantitative data on published translations of books for children and young adults from 1945 to 1949.
As we can see in Table 1, in 1945 the largest number of translated books, 28 of 50, which amounts to 56%, were translated from Russian. The choice of authors translated from Russian is indicative: apart from Alexander Pushkin (17911–2037), the other authors whose works were selected to be translated and introduced to the target culture were prominent Soviet authors, whose works were realistic, optimistic, and depicted the lives and struggles of the working class, in accordance with the tenets of Social Realism. These authors could produce literature that fully complied with the Party line, as formulated in the Directive of Agitprop (DA CKKPJ 1946: n.p.): “[...] literature that develops healthy imagination, correct understanding of nature and society, and inspires people who are aware of their strength and are not afraid of any ordeals”. Thus, in the list of translated books from Russian we can find books by Alexander Terentyevich Kononov, who
Table 1. Translated books by year and source languages (1945–1949)
* SL = source language
** 22 of them were published by Vinko Vošicki, a private publisher.
became famous for his stories for children about Lenin; Nikolai Alekseyevich Ostrovsky, famous for his social realist novel Как закалялась сталь [How the Steel Was Tempered] (1934) – Kako se kalio čelik (1945); Anna Ilyinichna Yelizarova‑Ulyanova, Lenin’s older sister, who wrote Детские и школьные годы Ильича (1939) [The Childhood and School Years of Ilyich] – Lenjinovo djetinjstvo i školske godine (1945), as well as Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, and Maksim Gorky with a few titles each.20 However, as we can see in Table 1, in the turbulent year of 1945, 10 translations of books by German authors were published, which were not in line with the abovequoted description of the kind of literature that was needed, both in terms of content and of the profile of the authors. These were translations of three historical novels, i.e. Attila (1934), Karl V (1935), and Michelangelo (1942)21 by Gerhart Ellert (1900–1975)22 and the translation of a novel by the German historian Heinrich Hubert Houben (1875–1935) titled Christoph Columbus: Tragődie Eines Entdeckers (1932).23 In addition to historical novels, we find a translation of a tale by the Swiss author Gottfried Keller (18111–2090) titled Spiegel, das Kätzchen (1919),24 of Old Surehand25 (1894), a novel by Karl May (1842–1912), and a translation of Der Steppenreiter: Erzählung für die Jugend27 (1922), a novel by Alfred Bienengräber (1840–1915). The remaining books translated from German published in 1945 are a translation of Johann Strauss: Sein Leben, sein Werk, seine Zeit (1939)28 by Werner Jaspert (1912–1960), and Richelieu: Der Aufstieg zur Macht (1935) by Carl J. Burckhardt (1891–1974).26 Our compiled bibliography for 1945 also shows that a translation of Endymion27 (1889), a novel by Carl Gustav Verner von Heidenstam (1859–1940), the Swedish recipient of the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature, was published that year. Still, it should be noted that all these books were published in Croatia by private publishing houses. The same pattern applies to the books translated from English: the list of translations from English is shorter and comprises the following books: Yearling,28 a novel by the American author Marjorie Kinnan Rowlings (1896– 1953), Sailor on Horseback (1938) by Irving Stone (1903–1989),29 The Settlers in Canada, a children’s novel by Frederick Marryat (1792–1848),30 Tales from Shakespeare (1807)31 by Charles (1775–1834) and Mary Lamb (1764–1847), To the Last Man (1921)32 by Zane Grey (1872–1939), Beloved Friend: The Story of Tchaikowsky and Nadejda Von Meck (1937)33 by Caterine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973) and Barbara Von Meck (1889–1954).
As we can see, the general picture changed in 1946, when the number of translations
27. Published by Tiskara Jutriša i Sedmak and, according to the catalogue information, “it was freely adapted by Eduard and Branko Špoljar”.
28. Published in Croatian under the title Johann Strauss: njegov život, njegova djela, njegovo doba by Suvremena naklada and translated by Slavko Batušić.
from languages other than Russian declined, with the exception of books translated from German and published by the Koprivnica‑based print‑shop owner and publisher Vinko Vošicki. Vošicki, who launched a number of series of both popular literature and classics from 1919 to 1946, published 56 booklets in the series of children’s popular literature Tako vam je bilo nekoć [Once Upon a Time]. As we can see in the second note below Table 1, as many as 22 of these booklets, translations of the German series published by the German publishers Dresdner Jugendschriften Verlag and Verlagshaus Freya, were issued in 1946. According to Marko Gregur (2020), they were probably translated and prepared for publishing before the end of the Second World War.34
The share of Soviet authors continued to grow in this period: in 1947, 76.47% (39 out of 51) books by foreign authors were translated from Russian, and in 1948 the books by Soviet authors amounted to 79% (54 out of 61) of all the published books by foreign authors. Thus, we may conclude that this period was clearly marked by the dominance of translations of Soviet authors, as was the case in the Eastern European countries that belonged to the Soviet bloc (cf. Thomson‑Wohlgemuth 2003, 2009; Monticelli and Lange 2014). Although the split with the Soviet Union occurred in 1948, Yugoslavia’s distancing from it in the sector of culture became evident only later. For example, Zlata Knezović (1992: 111) points out that in 1949 the number of imported Soviet films was still dominant, and in 1950, out of 304 films released in Yugoslavia, 156 were of Soviet origin and 15 came from the other Eastern Bloc countries. Soviet films were withdrawn from cinemas in as late as 1951, i.e. close to the end of the period under study.
An issue discussed in the reports and directives of Agitprop at this time is the lack of books by authors from Yugoslavia. According to the Report on Publishing for Children (RPCYA 1950), in the entire period from 1945 until the end of 1949 translations of foreign works constituted a larger portion of published works than those written by authors from different countries of Federal Yugoslavia (only 16), which indicates that translation was a vital means of producing urgently needed reading material for children and young adults. It seems that translations of Soviet literature could provide, to paraphrase Maxim Gorky, literature capable of educating our children to become active leaders of the entire progressive world (Gorky 1945: 6).
However, it can be seen that the Party officials were not wholly satisfied with this. The obvious question is why not much literature for children written by authors from Yugoslavia was published in the period immediately after the end of the Second World War. As Majhut (2023: 331) points out, “part of the answer may lie in the fact that a significant number of children’s writers and professionals in the field of children’s literature (translators and editors) were expelled from public life” and deprived of the right to publish. At the same time, it was too early for a new generation of authors, who could comply with the tenets and aesthetics of Social Realism, to appear on the scene.
Table 2. Number of books for children and young adults by non‑Yugoslav authors and authors from Yugoslavia published in NRH from 1945 to 1949
Indeed, as we can see in Table 2, the bibliographic data clearly show a lack of books by authors from the Yugoslav republics. The trend would start to change in 1950, when books by authors from Yugoslavia outnumbered those by foreign authors for the first time.35
1950–1952: we need “national literature” and foreign classics
In the following remark from the Report on Publishing for Children and Young Adults from 1945 to the End of 1949 (RPCYA 1950), we may discern traces of change in the translation policy, which will become evident in the years that followed: “Orientation mainly on Soviet authors resulted in the fact that over this period [1945–1949] we did not publish a single book of the classics either of national or of foreign literature” (4). These deficiencies, it is pointed out, are to some extent corrected in the publishing plan of Novo pokoljenje for 1950 given that in the perspective plans more improvements would be introduced. It was planned that in 1950 “national” literature,36 as well as foreign classics, would be published to a considerably greater extent. Thus, we can see on the basis of this Report that the split with the Soviet Union had an impact on translation policy, though the practical effects of this development were not immediate.
Table 3 presents the data on the source languages of translations of children’s and young adult literature into Croatian from 1950 to 1952.
It is evident from Table 3 that from 1950 the number of children’s and young adult books translated from Russian into Croatian started to decrease, in line with the Party directives, which will be discussed below. With only eight translations from Russian published in 1950, this figure dropped to four in 1951 and to one in 1952.
Table 3. Translated books by year and source languages (1950–1952)
| Year | SL* | SL | SL | SL | SL | SL | SL | SL | SL | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | German | English | Italian | French | Polish | Scand. | Slovenian | Others | ||
| 1950 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 18 | ||||
| 1951 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 Spanish | 23 | |||
| 1952 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 1 Portuguese | 28 | ||
| Total | 13 | 4 | 26 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 68 |
The trend of publishing more translations from English is visible from 1951, when translations from English constituted almost 17% of all translated books published, rising to almost 50% in 1952. Which authors and books were selected for translation from English? In 1950, the only books for children and young adults translated from English were The Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World (1821)37 by James Cook (1728–1779), My Friend Mr. Leaky (1937)38 by J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964), and Fun with Science39 (1943) by Mae Blacker (1907–1985) and Ira Freeman (1905–1987), all published by Novo pokoljenje, which is in line with the above‑cited decision prescribing that from 1949 Novo pokoljenje would exclusively publish books for children and young adults (cf. RPCYA 1950: 2). In 1951, we may observe not only a larger number of translations from English, but also a more variable range of authors and genres, including: The Thundering Herd40 by Zane Grey (1872–1939), Tobacco Road (1932)41 by Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987), The Deerslayer, or The First War-Path (1841)42 by James Fenimore Cooper (17811–2051), Kazan, The Wolf-Dog43 by James Oliver Curwood (1878–1927), four works by Charles Dickens (1812–1870): Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People (1836),44 Hard Times (1854),45 Great Expectations (1861),46 and Bleak House47 (1854). Further, Croatian translations of Michael, Brother of Jerry (1917)51 and The Call of the Wild (1903)52 by Jack London (1876–1916) were published in 1951. In 1952, translations from English boomed, with 19 translations published. Thus, in addition to the reprint of the translation of The Thundering Herd from the previous year, in 1952 three translations of another two novels by Zane Grey were published in Croatia: The Mysterious Rider (1920),53 and The Lone Star Ranger (1915).54 Further publications were the translations of Nomads of the North (1919) by James Oliver Curwood (1878–1927)48 and the translations of The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts (1920) and Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office (1923) by Hugh Lofting (1886–1947)49. Translations of Jack London’s following works were also published in 1952:
The Devils of Fuatino (1911),50 The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1914),51 Before Adam (1907),52 John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs (1913),53 along with a reprint of the translation of Michael, Jerryjev brat, first published in 1951. As for other languages, a turn to classics is evident: for example, works by Victor Hugo (1802–1885), Jules Verne (1828–1905), and Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883), already known to the Croatian readership in translation, were published again after a longer period.54
51. Published under the title Michael, Jerryjev brat by Mladost, in a translation by Otilija Šnajder.
52. Published under the title Zov divljine by Mladost, in a translation by Josip Tabak.
53. Published under the title Tajanstveni jahač by Tehnička knjiga. No information on the translator is available.
54. In addition to the translation of The Mysterious Rider, in 1952 one translation of The Lone Star Ranger was published by Tehnička knjiga under the title Šerif usamljene zvijezde. No information on the translator is available. In the same year, another translation of The Lone Star Ranger, attributed to Vlatko Šarić, was published under the title Teksaški jahač by Poljoprivredni nakladni zavod. This is why we presume that three translations of two novels were published in 1952.
Therefore, to conclude, from 1951 onwards, most translations from foreign languages, including Russian, confirm the orientation to foreign classics as desirable reading material for children and young adults in socialist Croatia. This seems to be in line with Yugoslavia’s foreign policy orientation at this time, regarding which Bilandžić concludes that “the interests of Yugoslavia and the West were harmonised” (1999: 351).
This trend was also observed by Leonarda Pavić and Smiljana Narančić Kovač (2022), who analyse the trends in publishing translations of children’s classics into Croatian in the 20th century, concluding that in the 1950s translations of new adventure books, such as The Thundering Herd [Grmljavina stada] and Le Comte de Monte-Cristo [Grof Monte Christo], were published in Croatian, along with the tendency to publish translations of genre literature.
Table 4 shows the data on the ratio of books written by non‑Yugoslav and authors from Yugoslavia published from 1950 to 1952.
Table 4. Number of books for children and young adults by non‑Yugoslav authors and authors from Yugoslavia published from 1950 to 1952
| Year |
No. of books by non-Yugoslav authors published in NRH |
No. of books by authors from Yugoslavia published in NRH | Total number of books published |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 18 | 61 | 80 |
| 1951 | 23 | 57 | 81 |
| 1952 | 28 | 80 | 115 |
| Total | 69 | 198 | 276 |
It seems clear that in quantitative terms, books for children written by authors from Yugoslavia became dominant in 1950, 1951 and 1952 and significantly outnumbered translations of authors not coming from Yugoslavia. However, we should keep in mind that Yugoslavia was a multinational and multilingual state, which means that in many cases the publishing of authors from Yugoslavia entailed translation, at least from Slovenian and Macedonian into Croatian or Serbian, and vice versa. Here, again, translation was used by policy makers as a means of fostering the political integration of Yugoslav peoples, at the time one of the major political goals. Thus, we can read in the directive of Agitprop from 1946 (Direktiva Agitpropa CK KPJ 1946: 2):
[…] by translating Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin literature into the Slovenian and Macedonian language, as well as Slovenian and Macedonian literature into the languages of the other peoples in Yugoslavia, we should bring the cultural life of our peoples together and eliminate unnatural cultural barriers that are still present between our republics. (Emphasis added.)
In a multinational state, as former Yugoslavia was, burdened with tensions in the relations of its constituent peoples, translating works by authors from Yugoslavia to other languages spoken in Yugoslavia played an important integrating role. Though this issue will remain beyond the scope of this paper, it should be noted that in socialist Yugoslavia, as Smiljana Narančić Kovač and Sanja Lovrić Kralj (2019: 33) point out, the equal status of the four languages of Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Macedonian was proclaimed in the early constitutional documents of the former Yugoslavia,55 but not for long. As early as 1946, in the first Constitution of FPRY, these languages failed to be mentioned at all.56 Such a confusing situation continued, as speakers of the “Stokavian” languages (meaning Croatian and Serbian) were encouraged by ideological and political decisions of the communist leadership and by social practices to use them interchangeably. The aim was to achieve linguistic uniformity and introduce a hybrid language (Narančić Kovač and Lovrić Kralj 2019: 31–32).57 Therefore, in practice, translation was mostly used between, for example, Croatian and Slovenian and vice versa, but translations between Croatian and Serbian were considered objectionable in the given context.
Conclusion
This study has uncovered the complex mechanisms of state‑party control over the publishing and translation of children’s and young adult literature in Croatia from 1945 to 1952 and the consequences for translation policy and practice. Within this short time span, two political events with wide‑ranging consequences in all segments of life in former Yugoslavia occurred: in 1945, the establishment of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, whose political and social organisation closely followed the Soviet model, and in 1948, the break‑up of political and economic ties with the Soviet Union. To educate children and young adults in line with the dominant ideology, publishing houses, whose work was under the tight control of Agitprop commissions – the party bodies responsible for control over publishing activities – focused on translating works of Soviet authors. Therefore, in the post‑war period, translations of such from Russian were an essential tool in creating ideologically correct reading material on the one hand, and, on the other, for strengthening relations with the first socialist country in the world. Further, as this period was also marked by the low production of literature for children and young adults that complied with the Party line by authors from Yugoslavia, translations of Soviet authors filled the obvious gap in the target culture.
As the bibliographic data show, irrespective of the political and economic split with the Soviet Union in 1948, the dominance of Soviet authors in the field of children’s and young adult literature lasted until the early 1950s. The number of children’s and young adult books translated from Russian started to decline in 1950, in line with the examined Agitprop directives. Instead of translating Soviet literature, which in the eyes of the Party officials became “exhausted”, a new policy required the publishing of “foreign classics” and “national” literature. Again, translation played a vital role in achieving both of these goals. Opening the field of children’s and young adult literature to foreign classics in the early 1950s entailed an increasing number of translations from English. On the other hand, we should bear in mind that in a multinational state such as socialist Yugoslavia, the publishing of works by authors from Yugoslavia often required translation. Therefore, in addition to being a tool for providing ideologically correct material, translation played a vital role in achieving another important political goal – the reinforcement of the “brotherhood and unity” of Yugoslav peoples.
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Snježana Veselica Majhut
Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Prijevodi na sjecištu politike i književnoga transfera
Prijevodi dječje i omladinske književnosti u Hrvatskoj od 1945. do 1952.
U radu se istražuje utjecaj mehanizama državne kontrole nad objavljivanjem i prevođenjem dječje i omladinske književnosti u razdoblju od 1945. do 1952. Tijekom toga razdoblja u bivšoj Jugoslaviji dogodila su se dva politički važna događaja: uspostava komunističkoga režima nakon okončanja Drugoga svjetskoga rata 1945. te raskol između Tita i Staljina 1948. U radu se analiziraju dvije skupine izvantekstnih podataka kako bi se ponudio obrazac pojave prijevoda dječje književnosti u danom razdoblju i analizirali međuodnosi između dominantne ideologije, specifičnoga geopolitičkoga konteksta i književnih transfera posredovanih prijevodima dječje književnosti. Jedna se skupina podataka sastoji od bibliografskih podataka, a druga obuhvaća izvještaje i direktive Agitpropa pohranjene u Hrvatskom državnom arhivu u Zagrebu.
Ključne riječi: Agitprop, bibliografski podatci, bivša Jugoslavija, državna kontrola, prijevodi, sovjetska književnost