The reputation of the Soviet school of translation was well known in the world of translation. Its standards, which extended from a Russian core to a seeming infinity of permutations among the many languages of the Union, were remarkably uniform. When the Soviet state was established translation became a base of the nationalities policy that bound hundreds of nationalities into a union of republics. Translation, both practical and literary, became a policy instrument and translators were called upon to organize an officially authorized multinational, multilanguage school. The present article looks at how the Soviet translators pioneered modern translation theory and discusses a number of Soviet translation principles and methods.