Translating an untranslatable pun

[strannik01]

Last week, I came across this tweet, and I knew that I had to share it with non-Russian speakers.

*спор о памятнике Сталину*

Историк:
- Сталин единственный, кто смог в то время собрать всю страну в кулак.

Ученик:
- В гулаг.
- дарикс (@sinforamoment) September 9, 2017

So I translated it as:

*An argument about a monument to Stalin*

Historian: Stain was the only one who could bring the country together back then.

Student: In a GULAG

Now, the Russian speakers reading this may be thinking: "wait - but that's not quite right." And, to be fair, a more literal translation would be more like this:

*An argument about a monument to Stalin*

Historian: Stain was the only one who, back then, could gather the country in a fist.

Student: In a GULAG

The problem is that the original tweet relies on a pun. Russian word for "fist" - "Kulak" - sounds a lot like "Gulag." But there is no way to translate and still keep the pun. Like, at all.

So, instead, I decided to come up with something that would still reflect the original meaning as much as possible, while coming up with a play on words that would work in English. Something that would be close enough to the original to convey the overall intent, if not the actual, literal meaning.

Like I said before - translation is an art, not a science.