eventually arrested Constantinescu-Iași 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 Național Antirăzboinic, Comitetul Național 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, as well as Victor Basch) and a formal protest of Czechoslovakian intellectuals (it was signed, among others, by Karel Čapek). In early 1935, a "Committee for the Defense of Romanian Anti-Fascists" was formed in Paris under the leadership of Henri Mineur, which monitored the situation of detained communists. Aside from this intervention, Romania became a target for the activities of the International Red Aid. Sahia's visit to Moscow was the inspiration for a reportage, URSS azi ("The USSR of Today"), in which he praised Stalinist policies at length. He died of tuberculosis in 1937. Soon after 1934, several of the grouping's former members came to reject communism. They included 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. 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; the first of these, known as Societatea pentru întreținerea raporturilor culturale dintre România și Uniunea Sovietică (the Society for Maintaining Cultural Links between Romania and the Soviet Union), was created on May 22, 1935, and notably drew support from the musician George Enescu and linguist Alexandru Rosetti. 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. The new organization was based in Bucharest, on Dr. Victor Poloni Street. Among its main purposes was popularizing Soviet