The article examines how Soviet censorship influenced the publication of the Estonian translation of M. Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita. In Russian, Bulgakov’s novel was first published in 1966-1967 in the magazine Moskva. The published text had been essentially cut by censorship (whole chapters had been omitted). The first translation into Estonian by M. Varik and J. Ojamaa came out in 1968. Although attempts were made to hide the preparation of the translation and its publication from Glavlit, the undertaking finished by three people being summoned to Moscow to report to the authorities. Still, it was forbidden to write and publish articles about Bulgakov. The full translation of the novel into Estonian appeared 27 years later and several reprints have been published. Despite the difficulties related to the publication of the first translation into Estonian, the translators and the editor-in-chief of the publishing house consider it a small victory over Soviet censorship. For many years, the Estonian translation was the only publication of Bulgakov’s novel in the whole Soviet Union.