The article is dedicated to the history of the Russian-Yakut translation in Yakutia which is inextricably linked with the history of the country and the political life of Yakutia, the history of the Yakut literary language, the history of literature, etc. Through the genre classification of the translation texts, the main milestones of translation work in the republic are outlined in the chronological order. The article concludes that Russian-Yakut translation has always led to the development of other practical aspects of the Yakut language. Specifically, the first written translations of Orthodox literature raised such issues as the creation of the Yakut written language and the organization of book-printing and school education in the region. Terminological dictionaries were created to solve practical problems of translating school textbooks from Russian. The translation of official texts and socio-political literature led to the fact that the official style began to differentiate in the Yakut literary language. Numerous literary translations from the Russian language allowed young Yakut writers to develop skills as well as enriched Yakut literature with new genres and forms.