ABSTRACT
Immediately after the war, the intelligentsia lived with the illusion of liberalization, occasionally finding hopeful signs of its coming. The mobilization of intellectual forces in the postwar period was observed not only in scientific circles. The government did not come forth immediately after the war with a program that might have served to confirm the expectations of the people after their victory. Expectant anticipation became the dominant element in the atmosphere of the postwar years. As one of the reports presented in the Institute of Marxism-Leninism put it in February 1946, journals and research institutes continue to receive manuscripts on the postwar development of the Soviet economy. In 1946 a commission charged with preparing a draft of a new Soviet constitution finished its work. The well-known Soviet director I.P. Pyriev described their outlook at a meeting of the Central Committee in April 1946. The Central Committee received more than one letter of interesting, sometimes innovative thoughts on economic reform.
