The article deals with a significant episode in Estonian translation history concerning fragments from A. Tolstoy’s novel Peter I translated by F. Tuglas for the reader of contemporary Russian literature for year 11. The decision of the Ministry of Education to replace Tuglas’ translation with excerpts translated by Lii Ojamaa, particularly the transcription of Estonian place-names from Russian in Ojamaa’s translation, found strong opposition. In 1949 Tuglas’ translation, where the place-names were not transcribed but translated, was included in the reader. The conclusion is drawn that the stance of the Ministry of Education in representing the Estonian version of Tolstoy’s novel in the school reader can be regarded as an initial episode of repressions against Tuglas. The discussion on the peculiarities of translation of a school reader was a vivid example of Estonian writers’ and translators’ opposition to Soviet power structures and a successful attempt to protect the status of the Estonian language in translations of educational literature from Russian into Estonian.