Voice-over translation

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.

Interviews with many of the interpreters revealed that this was not true,[4][5] and that authorities generally turned a blind eye to them, focusing their efforts on the distributors of the tapes instead.

[4][5] Many of these dubs were made using simultaneous interpretation, due to time constraints caused by competition among the distributors to be the first to release a new production, as well as the sheer volume of new films.

Gavrilov, for instance, was usually heard in action films, including Total Recall and Die Hard; Mikhalev 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.

Other notable names of the period include Vasiliy Gorchakov, Mikhail Ivanov, Grigoriy Libergal, and Yuriy Zhivov.

After perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union, when restrictions on Western films were lifted, movie theatres, the state television channels, and eventually DVD releases primarily employed multiple-voice dubbings done by professional actors.

[4] This was further exacerbated by the death of Mikhalev in 1994 and fewer recordings being produced by many of the other skilled veterans of the industry, who pursued alternative career paths.

Numerous well-regarded newcomers took their place, including Alexey Medvedev, Petr Glants, Peter Kartsev, Pavel Sanayev, Sergey Vizgunov, and most famously Dmitry "Goblin" Puchkov.

While many unlicensed recordings do not shy away from translating expletives literally, Gavrilov, Mikhalev, and Volodarskiy have all stated that they feel that Russian mat is more emotionally charged and less publicly acceptable than English obscenities, and would only use it in their dubs when they felt it was absolutely crucial to the film's plot.

At the end of the 1980s, as VCRs began spreading in Bulgaria, it was common to have an English language film in German, with a voice-over by a single person (usually male).