I think it wasn't censored because it was so critical of imperialism, so soviet censors viewed it as 'progressive' and aiding their cause. I think it never occ

I think it wasn't censored because it was so critical of imperialism, so soviet censors viewed it as 'progressive' and aiding their cause. I think it never occurred to censors that the satire of the book would transcend the Austro-Hungarian Empire and would work as a satire of a soviet bureaucracy just as well. This, it was widely available both in USSR and in other Eastern Block countries, and even had luxury editions, I still have one such edition.