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Amicii URSS (Romanian for "[The] Friends of the Soviet Union"; [aˈmit͡ʃij ˌureseˈse], occasionally known as Prietenii URSS ([priˈetenij ˌureseˈse]), which carries the same meaning) was a cultural association in interwar Romania, uniting left-wing and anti-fascist intellectuals who advocated a détente between their country and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union (at a time when Greater Romania, which included Bessarabia and all of Bukovina, was engaged in a diplomatic conflict with the Soviets).[1] Created in the spring of 1934 by Petre Constantinescu-Iași, an activist of the previously outlawed Romanian Communist Party (PCR or PCdR), the society took its inspiration from the French Amis de l'URSS and from the worldwide network (led by Henri Barbusse and Clara Zetkin).[2] Actively encouraged and financed by the Comintern (under the provisions of the Popular Front doctrine),[3] Amicii URSS was viewed with suspicion by authorities — never officially registered, it was eventually banned on the orders of Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu on November 25, 1934.[4] It ceased its activity after that point, but constituted a precedent for the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union (ARLUS).[5]
The grouping included several early or future PCR activists. Aside from Constantinescu-Iași and the co-founders Ion Niculi and Iorgu Iordan, these were: Scarlat Callimachi, N. D. Cocea, Alexandru Sahia, Stephan Roll, Mihai Beniuc, Petre Pandrea, Teodor Bugnariu, and Mihai Popilian.[6] Its other members were communist sympathizers, or people with no clear political views; among others, these were: Mac Constantinescu, Demostene Botez, Haig Acterian, Ioan Hudiță, Zaharia Stancu, Marcel Janco, Șerban Cioculescu, F. Brunea-Fox, Sergiu Dan, Radu Cernătescu, Octav Doicescu, Constantin Motaș, and Sandu Eliad.[7]