In Russia Called
Gavrilov translation (
perevod Gavrilova ) or
single-voice translation (), the technique takes its name from , one of the most prominent artists in the area. The term is used to refer to single-voice dubs in general, but not necessarily only those performed by Gavrilov himself. Such dubbing used to be ubiquitous in Russian-speaking countries on films shown on
cable television and sold on
video, especially
illegal copies, and are sometimes included as additional
audio tracks on
DVDs sold in the region, along with dubbing performed by multiple
actors. During the early years of the
Brezhnev era, when availability of foreign films was severely restricted,
Goskino, the
USSR State Committee for Cinematography, held closed-door screenings of many Western films, open mainly to workers in the
film industry, politicians, and other members of the
elite. Those screenings were
interpreted simultaneously by interpreters who specialised in films where an effective conveyance of humour, idioms, and other subtleties of speech were required. Some of the most prolific "Gavrilov translators" began their careers at such screenings, including Andrey Gavrilov himself, as well as
Aleksey Mikhalyov and
Leonid Volodarskiy. Their services were also used at
film festivals, where Western films were accessible to a larger public, and allowed the interpreters to gain further recognition. With the introduction of
VCRs in the 1970s, and the subsequent boom in illegal unlicensed videocassette sales, which were the only means of seeing Western films available to the general public, the same interpreters began to lend their voices to these tapes. Many of their voices had a distinct
nasal quality, most pronounced in Volodarskiy, which led to the rise of an
urban legend that the interpreters wore a
noseclip so that the authorities would not be able to identify them by their voice and arrest them. Interviews with many of the interpreters revealed that this was not true, and that authorities generally turned a blind eye to them, focusing their efforts on the distributors of the tapes instead. This was also due to the lack of a specific law forbidding the work of these interpreters and they could only be prosecuted under the relatively minor offence of
illicit work. The three aforementioned interpreters, Gavrilov, Mikhalyov, and Volodarskiy, were the leading names in film dubbing in the last decades of the 20th century, with dubs done by each of them numbering in the thousands. While each of the interpreters dubbed a wide range of films, with many films being available in multiple versions done by different interpreters, the big names usually had specific
film genres that they were known to excel at. Gavrilov, for instance, was usually heard in
action films, including
Total Recall and
Die Hard; Mikhalyov specialised in
comedy and
drama, most notably
A Streetcar Named Desire and
The Silence of the Lambs; while Volodarskiy, who is most readily associated not with a particular genre, but with the nasal intonation of his voice, is best remembered for his dubbing of
Star Wars. It is unclear why the term "Gavrilov translation" came to bear Gavrilov's name, despite Mikhalyov being the most celebrated of the interpreters,
Dmitry Puchkov has been very outspoken about simultaneous interpretation, stating that it should be abandoned in favour of a more precise translation, with thorough efforts to research and find Russian equivalents in cases of
lexical gaps, and maintains numerous lists of gaffes made by interpreters, including highly experienced ones such as Mikhalyov. However, others have commented that the creativity of good interpreters can make the film more enjoyable, though deviating from the filmmaker's original intentions. The most notable readers are Stanisław Olejniczak, Janusz Szydłowski, Piotr Borowiec and Maciej Gudowski.
Tomasz Knapik, who died in 2021, was also named notable. ==Sample==