Amicii URSS

Amicii URSS (Romanian for "[The] Friends of the Soviet Union") was a cultural association in interwar Romania, reuniting 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). Created in the spring of 1934 by Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi, 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 its worldwide network, led by Henri Barbusse and Clara Zetkin). Actively encouraged and financed by the Comintern (under the provisions of Stalin's Popular Front doctrine), Amicii URSS was viewed with suspicion by authorities — was never officially registered, and was eventually banned on the orders of Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu on November 25, 1934. It ceased its activity after that point, but it constituted a precedent for the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union (ARLUS).

The grouping included several early or future PCR activists. Aside from Constantinescu-Iaşi and the co-founders Ion Niculi and Iorgu Iordan, these were: Scarlat Callimachi, N. D. Cocea, Alexandru Sahia, Ion Niculi, Mihai Beniuc, Petre Pandrea, Teodor Bugnariu, and Mihai Popilian. Its other members were communist sympathizers, or people with no clear political views; among others, these were: Mac Constantinescu, Demostene Botez, Haig Acterian, Ioan Hudiţă, Stephan Roll, Zaharia Stancu, Marcel Janco, Şerban Cioculescu, F. Brunea-Fox, Sergiu Dan, Radu Cernătescu, Mihai Popilian, Radu Cernătescu, Octav Doicescu, Constantin Motaş, and Sandu Eliad).

Creation and goals

Although a PCR section was represented at international meetings of Friends of the Soviet Union as early as 1930, the initiative to create a Romanian branch was delayed until four years after — a period during which an appeal launched by the delegation won approval in several locations throughout the country. The first meeting took place in Chişinău, in the private residence of Constantinescu-Iaşi (1932). Local circles of supporters were also set up in cities such as Iaşi, Cluj, and the capital Bucharest. The capital was also the home of another nucleus, the home of sculptor Mac Constantinescu, near the present-day Sala Palatului (where correspondence and affiliations were being received).

After its creation, Amicii URSS issued a statement of purpose, publicized on July 28 as an appeal and known as Către toţi muncitorii, ţăranii, intelectualii de la oraşe şi sate ("To All Workers, Peasants, Intellectuals in Towns and Villages"). It called for an increased awareness of Soviet life, and planned to organize exhibitions, conferences, and sport events, as well as editing a magazine (which was to bear the same name as the association). Special points were made about publishing translations of Russian literature and about showcasing Soviet cinema and theater.

In 1932-1933, the PCR had ensured the creation of other outlets (focusing on rallying support in other areas of Romanian society); these were Comitetul Naţional Antirăzboinic (the National Anti-War Committee), Liga Muncii (the Labor League), and Comitetul Naţional Antifascist (the National Anti-Fascist Committee).

Repression

While tipped off about the PCR-Amicii connection from before the society's creation (probably as early as 1932) and familiar with Constantinescu-Iaşi's dissemination of agitprop material, Siguranţa (the country's secret police) failed to intervene immediately. According to historian Adrian Cioroianu, this was largely due to the tendency of tolerating the more discreet, if clandestine, manifestations of support for the Soviet cause, especially in Bessarabia (where Constantinescu-Iaşi was active). It was also at this time that the establishment itself sought a compromise with the Soviet state, largely due to the efforts of Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolae Titulescu (1934 was the year when diplomatic relations between the two countries were established).

In short time, however, the notoriety of the organization and its tight connections with an illegal movement enlisted a response from Romania's leadership. In September, National Liberal cabinet of Gheorghe Tătărescu, acting through Minister of the Interior Ion Inculeţ, refused to allow the Amicii URSS magazine to be published (either at the original location in Bucharest or in the more isolated one it found in Piteşti).

Constantinescu-Iaşi and Alexandru Sahia decided to visit Moscow on the occasion of the October Revolution 17th Anniversary, thus testing Romanian legislation that made crossing the border into Soviet territory illegal. The carefully organized action implied the creation of two distinct groups, headed by Constantinescu-Iaşi and Sahia respectively; the former, supposed to cross the Dniester, never actually left the country, while Sahia's, passing through Poland, took part in festivities at the Kremlin.

Pressures increased, with the Tribunal of Ilfov County refusing to allow the group's registration, and with several employees of universities, such as Mihai Beniuc and Teodor Bugnariu, receiving semi-official criticism for their Amicii membership. The Siguranţa began routine searches at the organization headquarters, and eventually arrested Constantinescu-Iaşi on November 25. King Carol II also reacted against clandestine PCR activities, and drafted a Decree banning 31 political associations suspected of sedition, including Amicii URSS, Comitetul Naţional Antirăzboinic, Comitetul Naţional Antifascist, and Liga Muncii.

Legacy

Without noticeable echo inside Romania, the crackdown became a cause for large protest rallies in France, organized by the Amis de l'URSS, with the noted participation of Fernand Grenier and André Malraux. Although the PCR did not resurrect Amicii URSS in its illegal structure, it attempted to prolong its influence by creating a succession of organizations, all of which replicated its goals (drawing support from the musician George Enescu and,allegedly, from linguist Alexandru Rosetti).

Sahia's visit to Moscow was the inspiration for a notorious reportage URSS azi ("The USSR of Today"), which praised at length Stalinist policies.

Soon after 1934, several of the grouping's former members came to reject communism. They include Haig Acterian, who adopted fascist ideas and joined the Iron Guard, and Mac Constantinescu, who was already active inside the Criterion group, and who later became official artist for the National Renaissance Front corporatist regime.

References

• Lucian Boia, ed., Miturile comunismului românesc ("The Myths of Romanian Communism"), Editura Nemira, Bucharest, 1998: Ovidiu Bozgan, "Traiectorii universitare: de la stânga interbelică la comunism" ("University Trajectories: from Interwar Left to Communism"; p.309-335)
• Adrian Cioroianu, Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc, Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005 (Template:Ro icon (Fragment on Amicii URSS and ARLUS, published by LiterNet, available online)
• Template:Ro icon Cristina Diac, "Români despre URSS" ("Romanians on the USSR"), in Jurnalul Naţional, January 19, 2005
• Template:Ro icon http://www.jurnalul.ro/print.php?id=26296 Paula Mihailov, "Prietenii din România ai Rusiei Sovietice" ("Soviet Russia's Friends in Romania"), in Jurnalul Naţional
• Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească ("The 1930s: The Romanian Far Right"), Ed. Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995