SUMMARY:

The article explores the history of the World Literature Publishing House (1918−1924), which was founded in Petrograd under Maxim Gorky’s initiative, and employed many leading writers, scholars, and intellectuals of the time. I analyze the development of the publishing house, its editorial principles, and its approaches to creating the canon of world literature. Special attention is devoted to its role in establishing some key tendencies for the field of literary translation in the Soviet Union. The history of this publishing house offers an example of how specific ideological and institutional frameworks can influence such broad concepts as “world literature.”