Needs checking.

'works' is a bit dubious. I don't know that the Russian means, but maybe 'papers' was closer?

If you do use "papers" then it should be "papers by" not "papers of".

Thank you.

Russian “труд” can be translated as either ‘work’ or ‘paper’ (as well as labour, effort, trouble, difficulty, problem...). I didn know what is better.

If it was 'work' then I might suggest

Brilliant work by comrade ...

But it's hard to tell what is best when I'm only following one language. There's quite a bit of difference between 'work' and 'works'.

Ah, it wasn't what I meant.

It was труд in plural. :)

Though I don’t know how many papers on linguistics Stalin wrote. I only know he did.

I would say "Brilliant efforts".

Also:

"Comrade" should probably be capitalized, because it's his title here. E.g.: "He is the president of our country. We call him President Obama." (stupid example, but you get the point)

Linguistics is generally not considered a "science" (most generally, it is a field), so I would change it to something like "to take the leading international position in the field".

Here we have труд like Latin “opus”, not like “labor”. I.e. the result of the work, not the process.

The sentence is about things like this:
http://www.philology.ru/linguistics1/stalin-50.htm
I.e., Stalin did write something, or at least had this written and published under his name.

Therefore “efforts” IMHO is not applicable here.

Taking the science out would change the meaning too much, wouldn’t it?

Please see definition 4: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/effort

Regardless if it's science or not, "in the world's science" doesn't quite sound right. "...in world science." would read better, but that makes it sound like it's on par with chemistry, biology, etc. I suppose наука is a bit broad... Are we saying that the papers contributed to the USSR's general academic position, or just to their position with respect to linguistics? As I understand it, it's the former (which makes "leading international position in the field" too specific.

The best I can think of for now would be "the leading position in world academics" or "the leading international position in academics"... It's a bit tricky, though.

IMHO definition 4 doesn’t seem a good translation. My dictionary says «exertion» is translated as «напряжение, усилие» — nowhere near to «труд».

Also, «trud» doesn’t mean “achievement”. It is synonymous to «произведение», not to «достижение».

I’ve deleted the science. Is it better now?

> Are we saying that the papers contributed to the USSR's
> general academic position, or just to their position with
> respect to linguistics? As I understand it, it's the
> former (which makes "leading international position
> in the field" too specific
It can be either the former or the latter. :) Actually, I've made this sentence up, so we are free to interpret it in any way we like. :)

Okay, I know what would be better now :)

"Brilliant works."

произведение can be translated as "a piece of work"

Oh, wait. That brings it to the original version.

But still, "brilliant works" is best IMO.

I like 'papers' and you haven't convinced me it's worse than 'works'. :)

If you don't like this one, add an alternative translation. :)

Well, the decision is simple. If all of his "works" were published/unpublished papers, then you can keep papers, as there's nothing wrong with that.

If his works included other things (i.e. paintings, plays), then we shouldn't use papers since papers is too specific, and we must use works.

So, it's just a question of historical accuracy.

They're scientific works (well... at least научные труды) on linguistics.

So, essays?

Because if he published at least one book (!), you must use "works" :)

(Too much debate over a small point...)

> So, essays?
Essays display author’s point of view, while Stalin’s works expressed the point of view of the whole Soviet science. ;)

> Because if he published at least one book (!),
> you must use "works" :)
Why?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paper meaning 4

Sorry, I meant "book" in the complete sense (not a book made from a collection of writings, which is also a fair case).

Okay, keep "papers". We've dissected this sentence enough.

Okay, last comment (promise). I actually think "in the world" sounded better than "in the field" :)