The paper discusses translations of Poe’s poetry and prose in Russia since 1847 till the beginning of the present century. It analyzes the evolution of the techniques employed and the dependence of the translation on ideological climate. Particular emphasis is made on the impact Poe’s critique has made on translators’ practice. It also assesses ways of “improving” the target text (neutralyzation of obvious absurdities, numerous omissions) in translating Poe’s Gothic tales. The paper contains a comparison of several translations of Eureka.