Myaskovsky's appointment to the deputy directorship of MUZO was not a particularly surprising development: by this point, he had a considerable reputation as a composer and had acquired extensive administrative experience. He had no interest in becoming a career bureaucrat, however, and regarded the post as a stopgap until he found more suitable employment, preferably in Petrograd. Belyayev and his other acquaintances in the city repeatedly urged him to return, holding out alluring prospects of better working conditions. In the event, Myaskovsky remained in Moscow – a decision almost certainly influenced by developments over the summer of 1921. Although the Civil War had effectively concluded by the spring of the previous year, the population's sufferings were far from over. Food supplies remained critically low, and by July the government was forced to acknowledge what had long been evident – that the country was in the grip of a catastrophic famine. Faced with growing unrest, Lenin abandoned the practice of confiscating agricultural produce from the peasantry and allowed private enterprise to resume to some extent in the hope of reviving the economy. Since the benefits of this so-called ‘New Economic Policy’ would not be felt immediately, the government continued to print money to cover budgetary deficits in the interim. The inevitable result was a new phase of hyperinflation which caused prices of food and fuel to soar further. As usual, the crisis was particularly acute in Petrograd: by the late autumn, Belyayev was sending Myaskovsky grim accounts of his experiences of hunger and cold: his ‘academic rations’ had been cut by two-thirds and he was no longer able to heat his apartment. Asafiev was reduced to such a weakened state by malnutrition that his memory and general psychological functioning were severely affected: he was saved only by the arrival of food parcels provided as humanitarian aid to Soviet Russia by the American Relief Administration. Given these circumstances, it would clearly have been highly inadvisable for Myaskovsky to move back. Conscious of the plight of friends and family members in Petrograd, he did what he could to help by sending money and provisions spared from his own rations.