[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.
[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] Although a PCR section was represented at international meetings of Friends of the Soviet Union as early as 1930,[8] 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.
[10] After its creation, Amicii URSS issued a statement of purpose, publicized on July 28 as an appeal and known as Către toți muncitorii, țăranii, intelectualii de la orașe și sate ("To All Workers, Peasants, Intellectuals in Towns and Villages").
[8] In September, National Liberal cabinet of Gheorghe Tătărescu, acting through Minister of the Interior Ion Inculeț, refused to allow the Amicii URSS magazine to be published[15] (either at the original location in Bucharest or in the more isolated one it found in Pitești).
They included Haig Acterian, who adopted fascist ideas and joined the Iron Guard,[24] and Mac Constantinescu, who was already active inside the Criterion group,[25] and who later became official artist for the National Renaissance Front corporatist regime.
[27] Alongside these and various former members of Amicii URSS, signers of its founding document included, among others, the lawyer Radu R. Rosetti, the academics Eugen Heroveanu and Traian Săvulescu, the visual artists Nicolae Tonitza and Jean Nițescu, the writers Victor Eftimiu and Radu Boureanu, the composers Matei Socor and Constantin Silvestri, the operatic artists Ionel Perlea and Jean Athanasiu, the architect Octav Doicescu, the theater director Soare Z. Soare, the actors Tony Bulandra, Gheorghe Timică and Ion Iancovescu, as well as the musical critics Emanoil Ciomac and Traian Șelmaru.