 The organization was banned under the German occupation, along with the Communist Party, on August 16, 1940.An organization following the international model was set up in Romania by the Romanian Communist Party activist Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi in the spring of 1934, at a time of relative "détente" between the Soviet and Romanian governments ("see Greater Romania").Centered in Chişinău and later in Bucharest, it reunited a sizable panel of communist and non-committed intellectuals, and favored Soviet-Romanian cultural ventures, raising controversy after a delegation led by Alexandru Sahia illegally crossed into Soviet territory to attend the anniversary of the October Revolution.