Dovlatov has a recollection of the remarkable Soviet translator Rita Rait-Kovaleva, who was the first to translate into Russian many classics of American, German and other literatures

I was once Vera Panova's secretary. One day Vera Fyodorovna asked:
"Whose Russian, in your opinion, is the best?"
I suppose I ought to have answered: yours. But I said:
"Rita Kovaleva's."
"Which Kovaleva?"
"Rait."
"The Faulkner translator, you mean?"
"Faulkner, Salinger, Vonnegut."
"So Vonnegut sounds better in Russian than Fedin?"
"Without the slightest doubt."
Panova thought it over and said:
"How frightening!.."

Incidentally, if I am not mistaken, something of the same sort happened to Gore Vidal. He was in Moscow. Muscovites began questioning their guest about Vonnegut. They were full of admiration for his novels. Gore Vidal remarked:

"Kurt's novels lose terribly in the original..."

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Konstantin Ivanov's Cosmonautics Day poster, published in Moscow in 1977

Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century

Professor Mie Oba proposes Japan as ASEAN's third partner alongside the US and China