The paper deals with translation under constraint in the period of the Polish People’s Republic, a satellite state of the Soviet Union. The aim of the paper is to present the history of translations of the works of three French writers and to show on their example the forms of censorship of the literary field applied by the state and the techniques used by agents of this field in order to circumvent censorship. The selected authors are Sade, Camus and Gide, controversial writers, who theoretically should not have been allowed into the field because of their immorality, individualism, a sense of the absurd, or rebellion. Though initially blocked, translations of their works were eventually published in the Polish People’s Republic (sometimes in truncated versions) thanks to the engagement and enthusiasm of translators, publishers, journal editors or other actors of the field, as well as thanks to favourable historical circumstances.