ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the economic pressures and structural constraints shaping the contemporary publishing market. It examines the need for external funding, and the gatekeeping role of funding bodies such as English PEN, PEN/Heim, and Arts Council England, alongside Russian organisations – most notably the Institut Perevoda (Institute of Translation) – as instruments of cultural diplomacy and soft power. Focusing on Institut Perevoda's activities between 2011 and 2022, the chapter argues that the organisation's decisions over funding are closely aligned with the Russian state. It demonstrates how translation funding operates as a mechanism of soft power, politicising Russian literature from the moment it is commissioned for translation into English.
