After the end of the war, the country's leadership, feeling, in the words of K. Simonov, that "not only some generals, but also some intellectuals" pulled up their tails, "proceeded to" twist "ideological nuts. This process began in 1943, when GF Alexandrov, head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (UPA), informed the secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Malenkov and Shcherbakov about "gross political mistakes" of a number of Soviet journals. The most rigorous “critical analysis” at that time was the work of M. Zoshchenko, A. Platonov, I. Selvinsky, as well as the works of director A. Dovzhenko. Zoshchenko's story "Before the Sunrise" was called "vulgar, anti-artistic and politically harmful." About Platonov's story "Defense of Semidvorye" it was reported that the work was written "in a bad, artsy language", and "the images of the heroes - the Soviet soldiers and commanders - were stupid." The poem of Sel-vinsky, “Who used to lull Russia,” in which there was the line “The country will burn and freak”, was subjected to pogrom criticism. This phrase, taken out of context, served as a pretext for attacks on the poet by Malenkov at a meeting of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee. Selvinsky, who was summoned to Moscow, was questioned by Malenkov: "Who is this freak? You don't knock the headstock over here. Tell me frankly and frankly: who is this freak? Who exactly did you mean? Name?" It was only at the meeting of the Orgburo that the poet understood that all those present in the literary image saw Stalin - "his face was pockmarked with smallpox, they say, the Russian people have warmed the monster."

The first storm for writers, cultural figures passed by. Moreover, the author of many well-known satirical works Zoshchenko and other writers in April 1946 were awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor during the Great Patriotic War". In the same year, a decision was taken to repeal the decision of the Secretariat of the Central Committee "On control over literary and art magazines." Many then thought that the ideological press was weakening. This, meanwhile, did not happen. At a meeting of the Politburo on April 13, 1946, held under the chairmanship of Stalin, it was decided that it was necessary to eliminate the shortcomings in ideological work. Zhdanov and Aleksandrov were instructed to submit proposals for the improvement of agitation and propaganda activities. After that, the majority of the leaders of the regional committees and regional party committees were accused of lack of professionalism and political illiteracy, and a number of republican Central Committees, primarily Ukraine, were connived to bourgeois nationalism.

Soon, documents appeared that dealt with both ideological and personnel issues. July 8, 1946 a resolution was adopted "On the growth of the party and on measures to strengthen the party-organizational and party-political work with the newly joined the VKP (b)". His appearance was due to the fact that 67.2% of the Communists, including workers in the regional committees and regional committees, did not even have a secondary education at the time of the end of the war. The decree at the same time envisaged a reduction in the admission to the party of employees, who as of January 1, 1946 made up 47.6% of the total number of the CPSU (b). In order to eliminate these shortcomings, the decision of August 2, 1946 "On the training and retraining of leading party and Soviet workers" introduced compulsory training for party functionaries. For this, the Higher Party School, the Academy of Social Sciences were created, the Military-Political Academy was restored. There was a kind of "table of ranks" of official promotion of party cadres - from high party schools in the capitals of the Union republics and regional centers to the Academy of Social Sciences. One of the main tasks of the leadership, therefore, was proclaiming the strengthening of party influence in various areas of ideology.

The beginning of the campaign, which was launched in 1946 against the autonomy of cultural life, is associated with the name of Zhdanov. Indeed, he was the mouthpiece of Stalin's ideas and one of the leader’s most trusted representatives, his right hand in leading the party. At the same time, Zhdanov remained a man who only voiced the ideas of the main organizer and mastermind of the persecution of the intelligentsia - Stalin. At the same time, the leadership’s desire to "put in place" the intelligentsia was closely intertwined with intrigues in the Kremlin, the power struggle between Zhdanov and Malenkov.

The preparation of the resolution directed against a number of Leningrad writers and journals in which they were published began in the summer of 1946. In early August, Stalin brought down a pile of accusations against A. A. Akhmatova and M. M. Zoshchenko. Describing the work of a famous poetess, the leader remarked that she only had "one or two or three poems and was given a hand, no more." On the works of Zoshchenko, Stalin replied even more harshly: “He writes some kind of nonsense, right mockery. The war is in full swing, but he has not a single word for or against, but he writes all kinds of nonsense, nonsense nor heart. " The necessary tone was set, and on August 14, 1946 a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) appeared, which subjected the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad to devastating criticism. In a published document, it was noted that "the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU (b) overlooked the largest errors of the journals, eliminated from their leadership."

Zhdanov was not the initiator of the resolution of August 14, since his political authority suffered primarily from this. But when the decree was nevertheless made, he quickly shifted to the position of gross defamation of writers, philosophers, composers, and theatrical workers. Echoing Stalin, Zhdanov responded about Zoshchenko as "an unprincipled and unscrupulous literary hooligan," and about Akhmatova as "a harlot and a nun who has fornication mixed with prayer." Despite the fact that Zoshchenko in 1939 for literary merit was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, in 1946 he was expelled from the Writers' Union. Akhmatova shared his fate.

Following the resolution of August 14, others followed: "On the repertoire of drama theaters and measures to improve it" (August 26), "On the film" Big Life "(September 4). The areas of culture that were most accessible to the masses in the post-war period were the targets of attacks. The second series of the painting of S. Eisenstein "Ivan the Terrible" was subjected to crushing criticism. The director was accused of having found ignorance in portraying the facts of history, presented the king as “something like Hamlet,” while Stalin considered him an outstanding person with a strong will and character.

Some time later, the representatives of musical culture were hit. On February 10, 1948, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) adopted the resolution "On the opera" The Great Friendship "by V. Muradeli." Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Muradeli and other composers were subjected to unwarranted criticism for the fact that in their musical works there was not a single melody that a simple worker could whistle. At the same time it was proclaimed that the Russian classical opera is the best in the world. In the music it was prescribed to draw inspiration exclusively from the most common folk melodies.

One of the directions of the all-embracing propaganda campaign was the fanning of nationalist sentiments. Zhdanov put into circulation the word, which soon began to be used as a plausible stigma - "cringing". They denoted the admiration and self-deprecation of Western culture. The theme of the superiority of all Soviet or Russian over everything foreign gets priority. Cosmopolitanism and formalism were declared by the two sides of the same indulgence in front of the West. The campaign to eradicate cosmopolitanism extended not only to the humanities and social sciences. Natural disciplines also came under the division into "socialist" and "bourgeois".

On the wave of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, the persecution of the Jews began. In May 1949, the Politburo of the Central Committee received a letter from Leningrad from the New First Secretary of the Regional Committee and the City Committee of the CPSU (b) V.M. It was emphasized that "trade, local industry, various kinds of institutions, science, health care, etc., are surely stealing up into the hands of Jews ... All the central health care positions are in the hands of Jews, who don't allow Russians to use the cannon shot for health management in Leningrad. " Soon the central authorities took decisive action to “rectify” this provision. During 1950, several resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B) and the Secretariat of the Central Committee were adopted, aimed at tightening staff cleansing, primarily in medical institutions, as well as in research institutions and educational institutions under the Ministry of Health of the RSFSR. Anti-Semitic sentiment especially intensified in 1952 and contributed to the fabrication of the "doctors' case".

Significant damage in the late 40s. was applied to biology. The prosecution of geneticists, begun before the war, continued with a new force. The "school" of academician T. Lysenko, destroying his opponents and having official support at the same time, nevertheless could not get any significant results. Using the atmosphere of intolerance and nationalism, Lysenko became one of the main persecutors of classical genetics, the culprit of the defeat of Soviet biology and the death of many domestic scientists. All this, however, did not prevent him from becoming a Hero of Socialist Labor, three times the winner of the Stalin Prize, awarded with 8 orders of Lenin, and to enlist the support of N. S. Khrushchev in subsequent years.

The goal of the “action of intimidation” of the intelligentsia carried out in the post-war period was the striving of the leaders of the country to show with the example of the most talented that the middle peasants simply do not want to “stick out”. Any deviation from the official installations will be immediately stopped.