Zigmantovich Daria S.

In the twentieth century and due to the two World Wars, interpreting (consecutive and simultaneous alike) was recognized as an official profession. Its representatives play an important role in establishing contacts between people speaking different languages in various areas. These events led to the necessity of a more detailed study of the mechanisms of interpreting in order to optimize and improve the didactics of interpreting. This article describes the history of studying interpreting in the Western Europe from the middle of the 20th century with a description of principal researchers and their ideas, which is of the utmost interest and of great value for the Russian school of interpreting.

The paper deals with the study of Lomonosov Moscow State University’s contribution to conducting research and facilitating various discoveries that influenced and facilitated simultaneous interpreting research and the development of its praxis in the USSR and Russia alike. Represented by its graduates, postgraduates, teachers, associate professors and professors, Lomonosov Moscow State University made a significant contribution to the development of the theory, praxis, methodology and didactics of simultaneous interpreting. The paper reveals how the scientific research of Soviet psychologists, linguists and psycholinguists working at different times at Lomonosov Moscow State University, as well as the practical and scientific activities and educational initiatives of Russian translators and lecturers, contributed and continue to contribute to the scientific progress. The author consistently ex amines the key works and studies of scientists and specialists directly related to Lomonosov Moscow State University, that were used by Soviet and Russian scientists in studying this complex type of cognitive and communicative activity. As a result, the author identifies three groups of researchers who, in one way or another, were connected with the life of Lomonosov Moscow State University in the Soviet times and who entered the history of both their scientific field and translation theory.