Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Russian term or phrase:
Этим определялась и ответственность моей работы.
English translation:
This is what defined the significance of my job.
Russian term
Этим определялась и ответственность моей работы.
Here is the full context but I only need help with the top phrase:
Это время было наиболее сложным во взаимоотношениях между двумя странами, периодом пересмотра отношений Советского Союза и Запада. Этим определялась и ответственность моей работы.
Oct 8, 2010 06:31: David Knowles changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
Oct 12, 2010 00:25: Judith Hehir Created KOG entry
PRO (3): Mikhail Kropotov, Susan Welsh, David Knowles
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Proposed translations
United States
This is what defined the significance of my job.
| agree |
Ulbosyn
10 hrs
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Thank you.
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| agree |
DTSM
13 hrs
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Thank you, Dimak.
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| agree |
Alexandra Taggart
13 hrs
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Thank you, Alexandra.
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| agree |
LanaUK
20 hrs
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Thank you, Lana.
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Russian Federation
Professional interpreting/translation
Native in: Russian 
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, Ukrainian to English, and 1 more.
Criticality of my work was determined by that.
| neutral |
Susan Welsh
: Your explanation is better than your translation. "Criticality" is not really a word; if you want to use it, you need "the" in front of it.
26 mins
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"Responsibility" was the first word that came to my mind. :)
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That is where I came in.
Armenia
A word is a world. /H. T./
Native in: Armenian 
Works in: English to Armenian, Russian to Armenian, Armenian to English, and 1 more.
There lay the essence of my responsibility
Germany
US-educated, precise & thorough
Native in: Russian
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, Russian
That was why my job/work came with so much responsibility.
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Note added at 13 hrs (2010-10-08 12:47:38 GMT)
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If you are tempted to preserve the Russian sentence structure here, I would advise against it.
| agree |
Susan Welsh
: I agree it's a little awkward, but can't think of anything better. I think you need to have "responsibility" in there somehow. "Significance" is not really the same.
30 mins
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"And with that came a lot of responsibility." Maybe.
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This also determined how critical my work was.
Some variations: replacing "this" by "it", and "work" by "job" - but the latter would depend on the context - if "работа" means "position" rather than what the person was doing, then it's "job".
Discussion
(Sorry if you knew this already!)