Russian language study and interpreter activities of Sun Yatsen University students in Moscow during the Democratic Revolution

This paper aims (i) to demonstrate the role of Sun Yatsen University functioning in Moscow from 1925 to 1930 in forming the Chinese Interpreters School of the Revolution Epoch, (ii) to describe the major features of the 72 https://doi.org/10.22250/24107190202410372 School’s approach to teaching Russian and (iii) to outline the contribution of famous interpreters – Sun Yatsen University graduates – into spreading the MarxistLeninist theory and ideology in China. The material for the study was selected from Sun Yatsen University archives for the whole period of its functioning. The analysis of documents, teaching guides and materials, translations performed by the University graduates showed the following. Sun Yatsen University was the cradle for pioneer intellectuals and advanced workers having prepared a considerable number of cadres and interpreters for the Communist Party of China (CPC). The University taught the intensive program of Russian including three courses: Reading the newspaper “Pravda”, Reading Russian prose and Russian grammar. They applied the combination of the partsofspeech approach and discursive approach with the focus on the means to express cohesion. The use of five types of cohesion – reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion – was exemplified by extracts from Bogu’s translations. Finally, the paper outlines the achievements of three famous interpreters – Wu Xiuquan, Zhang Wentian and Bo Gu – who translated a considerable number of classical works by K. Marx and F. Engels, I. V. Stalin, G. V. Plekhanov making them available for the Chinese reader, and that made a significant contribution into the CPC’s dominance and its mission.