The article presents systematized information on the Russian translators’ reception of Robert Burns’ works during the period from 1880s to 1910s. Despite the fact that the leading Russian poets of that time showed no interest in Burns’ heritage, the period under consideration was a significant milestone in the Russian Burnsiana: the efforts of O.N. Chyumina, A.M. Fedorov, N. Novich (N.N. Bakhtin), L.I. Andruson and some other poets, who translated the works of the Scottish author for Russian readers, made it possible to prepare and publish the first collections of Burns in Russian that were composed by I.A. Belousov. Based on the surviving epistolary and documentary materials, for the first time the role of A.P. Chekhov in popularizing the poetry of Burns in Russia is highlighted. Chekhov was an active mediator between I.A. Belousov and the publisher A.S. Suvorin. The author of the article provides information about some rare, almost forgotten translations of Burns made in the 1880s -1910s by M.N. Shelgunov, M.A. Rossiysky, A.P. Dobrokhotov and some other translators and notes L.N. Andreev’s interest in the Scottish poet’s works. Some attention is also given to quasi-translations of Burns’ poems and some works inspired by his poetry.
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