The Ordeal

The Ordeal is one of the representative novels by the Soviet writer Boris Gorbatov, translated into Chinese by Bai Han and first published by Shidai Publishing House in January 1945, with a second edition in April 1950. Shidai Publishing House was one of the important publishing institutions in Shanghai during the 1940s and 1950s that translated and introduced Russian and Soviet literature, which helped this book circulate around the founding of the People's Republic of China. Another Chinese edition titled The Test (translated by Wang Hao, published by the Foreign Languages Publishing Bureau in 1945) also exists, and a popularized adaptation titled The Test (adapted by Qian Jiabiao, published by Kaiming Bookstore in 1951) is likewise related to this work, indicating that the novel had a certain influence among readers of the time. It should be noted that, due to limited source materials on the original edition, the specific plot, character composition, and chapter arrangement of this book cannot currently be confirmed, and no fictional description is offered here. What can be confirmed is that this book is a Soviet novel translated into Chinese in the 1940s. Such works often take factories, construction sites, collective farms, or wartime social life as their background and portray characters tempered in arduous circumstances; the title The Ordeal itself also suggests the theme of "a person growing through trials." For readers studying the history of modern Chinese translation and publishing, the history of the dissemination of Russian and Soviet literature in China, and the reception of foreign literature around the "Seventeen Years" period, this book is a concrete sample for examination; ordinary readers who wish to understand works of this kind may also read it alongside Soviet novels translated and introduced in the same period.