Abstract
In the present paper, the author has carried out a comparative analysis of Boris Pasternak's rendering of Hamlet, which first appeared in 1940 and was republished time and again between 1941 and 1957, sometimes with major cuts and revisions. Recounting the disturbing history of the most famous Shakespearean translation in the Russian language and re-evaluating previous research on it, the author arrives at a conclusion that Pasternak's Hamlet, by and large, aims at holding a mirror up to the times of the Stalinist Russia.
The translation's extensive political engagement is documented by juxtaposing Shakespeare's original with Pasternak's striking allusions to the times of terror in which he had to live.