ABSTRACT
Political intimidation in a highly charged atmosphere always has a psychological limit. A society seized by panic, according to L.N. Voitolovskii, loses its sensitivity to the discord of public life, while the society itself begins to generate oppressive and alarming emotions that lead to a numbing feebleness, apathy, and defeatism. This kind of outcome was directly contrary to the principles of a functioning socialist society, which depended on the support of a highly developed public discourse. The Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences sponsored a theoretical conference on 'The Gradual Transition from Socialism to Communism'. It was agreed to concentrate on the elements of communism already present rather than to project the characteristics of the future communist society. The conference concluded that the Soviet Union possessed all the necessary and sufficient conditions for the building of communism in the nearest future. The economic decisions made after the war had driven the country into a blind alley of superprograms.
