PROGRESSIVE CULTURAL MOVEMENT 117 banner of Friends of the Soviet Union. The youth who had recently come in contact with the Marxists were not bewildered by the political confusion created by the German-Soviet non-aggrcsion pact. With them began a new trend in Bengali literature—a trend of socially conscious literature. There was also a group called Youth Cultural Institute. They drew their inspiration from the Chinese anti-Japanese song movement led by Ni Eh-erh. Still, this progressive movement of writers and artists did not have a proper impact due to the lack of a proper organizational basis. Things took a completely different turn after the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. There was also the imminent danger of invasion by Japan. As Britain was the ally of the Soviet Union, the ideals and achievements of socialism, Marxism and communism began to enter our country through ^>ooks, booklets and periodicals. The youth of Bengal was very much attracted by the ideals of Marxism and communism. They came out like a flood at the inspiration of new ideals of establishing a new society free from exploitation. The agents of the fascists also were not sitting idle. They raised a chorus of slander. They alleged, for example, that the communists, who were agents of Russia, had become agents of British imperialism. When they discovered that their mudslinging was of no avail, they resorted to unabashed terror. Somen Chandra, a young and highly gifted writer of Dacca, who had devoted himself heart and soul to anti-fascist work, was brutally murdered. This incited all writers and artists irrespective of their political views to condemn this murder unequivocally. Ultimately it led to the formation of a committee to organize the Anti-Fascist Writers' and Artists' Union through a largely attended public meeting of writers and artists under the presidentship of Ramananda Chatterjee, the doyen of Indian journalism. This committee included many prominent names who later became bitter anti-communists. Among them can be mentioned Sajanikanta Das, editor of Shanibarer Chiti^ Tarashankar Banerjee, novelist, Budhadeb Bose, poet and novelist. The Union published a number of pamphlets. Among them were "Fascism and Women", "June Twenty Second", a pamphlet in vigorous verse, "Fascism and Nazism" and "Jana-juddher Gan" (Song of the People's War). By and by, it attracted almost all the leading writers, artists and singers, as well as new talents in these fields. It became really a glorious movement and spread throughout the country. Boys and girls from different parts of Bengal were coming in large numbers to learn the tunes of People's War under the direction of