Abstract: The object of the research is the pragmatic potential in translating a literary text (based on the translation from Russian into Spanish). The concept of pragmatic equivalence of translation is considered and translation transformations are analyzed. Special attention is paid to cases of translation rationalization and simplification. The author commented on the reasons for using these translation strategies and their correlation with the category of pragmatic equivalence. Theoretical positions of the author are illustrated with contexts from the Spanish translation of Sasha Sokolov’s novel School for Fools, performed by Margarita Estapa in 1994. In the study of the features of the Spanish translation of the novel, the author of the study operates with the methods of linguistic and pragmatic analysis of translations and comparative stylistics. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author proposes to consider cases of simplification as a result of the specifics of the translational understanding associated with the genre-style identity of the work and with special ideas about Russian culture and literature of the second half of the 20th century. Previously, Spanish translations of the literature of Russian postmodernism did not become the object of a separate study in Russian philology.