Under the explanatory indicators of the meanings of unknown words, we mean such a way of revealing the meanings of words that are incomprehensible or obscure to readers, when the author accompanies these words with an explanatory comment. The purpose of this work is to analyze various ways of using explanatory indicators in the translation of F. Abramov’s novel “Two Winters and Three Summers” into English. In the course of the work, the following was established. Firstly, explanatory indicators are the most effective indicators of the meanings of unknown words, however, as a rule, they are used only in such literary texts that do not create the illusion of reflecting the events described by any of the characters and are clearly addressed to uninformed readers. Secondly, an effective way to translate Russian unknown words into English is practical transcription, it can preserve the phonetic features of the Russian language. Practical transcription is not used independently; explanatory indicators of meanings are often accompanied in translations by practical transcription. Thirdly, explanatory indicators can be used in the translated text in one of three ways: (1) replacing the Russian unknown words with a description of the meaning of the word in the translation (i.e., semantic translation); (2) replacement of the Russian unknown words in the translation with an approximate English equivalent, after which the meaning of the word is specified by means of a semantic translation; (3) replacement of the Russian unknown words with a practical transcription in the translation, followed by an explanatory commentary on the word.