Problems in translating political jokes from German into Russian

The aim of the research is to identify potential problems in translating political German jokes into Russian. The research is based on jokes about the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany extracted from a printed collection and relevant German thematic Internet sites. The scientific novelty of the research lies in substantiating a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to the problems of translation (understanding) of a political joke, in which attention should be focused not only on interlingual, but also on intercultural differences between the two societies. The research conducted allows us to confirm that the structure of a (political) joke in German and Russian societies is similar. Translation problems usually arise due to insufficient linguistic competence, as well as to the lack of cultural background in conveying historical, political, cultural realia, which contain implicit cultural subcontext. To understand the latter, one should possess cultural knowledge close to that of a native speaker. So, to perceive a comic effect of a joke, a foreign recipient should first study culturally relevant information or it should be explained to them.