The soil mass behind a retaining wall gradually yields and separates from the stationary soil mass with the complex shape of the slip surface depending on the mode of wall movement and roughness of the wall surface. In this study, the problem of a rigid retaining wall with a uniform surcharge acting along the horizontal backfill under active translation mode is investigated in a two-dimensional system of equilibrium. Exact stress solutions based on Janssen's approach are generalized in rectangular coordinates and are validated with boundary conditions on the retaining wall and at the Coulomb slip line behind the wall. Because the yield condition is not used in Janssen's approach, the proposed solution is a merely static stress solution, not statically admissible solution. New equations are developed to estimate the magnitude and distribution of vertical, horizontal and shear stresses in the failure zone behind a retaining wall. The proposed analysis indicates the arching effect behind the retaining wall because the maximum stresses do not appeared at the toe; but at some distance away from the toe of the retaining wall. The results of the proposed formulations are compared with both full-scale and laboratory-scale experimental data as well as the existing formulations. The proposed analysis provides comparable approximations for horizontal active stress distribution, the magnitude and the application height of the horizontal active force at the wall. (C) 2016 The Japanese Geotechnical Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.