I propose a case study where statistical estimation of the effect of political pressure on the literary translations seems possible. Translations of children’s books into Russian in the USSR during the period of the Cold War will serve as diagnostic data. The political alliances were well defined at the period, the iron curtain being a popular metaphor for the heavy state control of all cross-border communications, including those in the literary field. Quantitative analysis is enabled by the availability of a comprehensive bibliography. The key idea of the suggested measurement is that engagement with a foreign literary field is reflected in the publication of works by contemporary writers. Higher political pressure would mean less publications of contemporary works. Historical research on the Soviet translation highlights various reasons for a Western writer to be prohibited from publication in the USSR. Overall, authors who were still active throughout the period carried higher risks of being rejected for any reason compared to the authors of the past. Hence vitality coefficient—a proportion of contemporary works in all published translations—is indicative of the strength of the political censorship. Results show that vitality coefficient responded to the political alliances and hostility dynamics during the period in the predicted way: higher levels of confrontation led to lower share of the contemporary works in the translation flow. This fact helps realize a side effect of the political censorship barriers that is not much talked about: by impeding publication of current authors, censorship contributes to the consolidation of the position of the already well-established and familiar authors in the book market. If we assume that reprints contribute to the canonical status of a writer, censorship is then an indirect but real factor for canon consolidation.