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Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (born
Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as
Corneliu Codreanu;
September 13,
1899 –
November 30,
1938) was a
Romanian politician of the
far right, the founder and
charismatic leader of the
Iron Guard or
The Legion of the Archangel Michael (also known as the
Legionary Movement), an ultra-
nationalist and violently
antisemitic organization active throughout most of the
interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local
fascism, and noted for its
mystical and
Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, it grew into an important actor on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and the
democratic forces. The Legionaries traditionally referred to Codreanu as
Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death.
Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of
World War I as an
anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with
A. C. Cuza and
Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the
National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the
Iaşi Police prefect
Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of movements on the
far right, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's
intelligentsia and peasant population, and inciting
pogroms in various parts of
Greater Romania. Several times outlawed by successive Romanian cabinets, his Legion assumed different names and survived in the underground, during which time Codreanu formally delegated leadership to
Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul. Following Codreanu's instructions, the Legion carried out assassinations of politicians it viewed as corrupt, including
Premier Ion G. Duca and its former associate
Mihai Stelescu. In parallel, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu advocated Romania's adherence to a military and political alliance formed around
Nazi Germany.
He registered his main electoral success during the
1937 suffrage, but was blocked out of power by
King Carol II, who came to favor rival fascist alternatives around the
National Christian Party and the
National Renaissance Front. The rivalry between, on one side, Codreanu, and, on the other, Carol and moderate politician
Nicolae Iorga ended in the former's imprisonment at
Jilava and assassination at the hands of the
Gendarmerie. He was succeeded as leader by
Horia Sima. In 1940, under the
National Legionary State proclaimed by the Iron Guard, his killing served as the basis for violent retribution.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's views influenced the modern far right. Groups claiming him as a forerunner include
Noua Dreaptă and other Romanian successors of the Iron Guard, the
International Third Position, and various
neofascist organizations in
Italy and other parts of Europe.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Codreanu was born in
Huşi to
Ion Zelea Codreanu and Elizabeth née Brunner. A teacher by profession, Ion would later become a political figure within his son's Movement. A native of
Bukovina in
Austria-Hungary, Ion had originally been known as
Zelinski; his wife was
ethnically German. Statements according to which Ion Zelea Codreanu was originally a
Slav of
Ukrainian or
Polish origin Just prior to Codreanu's 1938 trial, his origins were the subject of an anti-Legionary
propagandistic campaign organized by the authorities, who distributed copies of a variant of his genealogy which alleged that he was of mixed ancestry, being the descendant of not just Ukrainians, Germans, and Romanians, but also
Czechs and
Russians, and that several of their ancestors were delinquents. Historian Ilarion Ţiu describes this as an attempt to offend and
libel Codreanu. ended in the same year as Romania's direct implication in the war. But 1919 was the year when, after moving to
Iaşi, Codreanu found
communism as his new enemy, after he'd witnessed the impact of
Bolshevik agitation in
Moldavia, and especially after the
October Revolution had made Romania lose her main ally in the war, forcing her to sign the humiliating 1918
Treaty of Bucharest; what added to this was that the newly-founded
Comintern had from the start been violently opposed to all the new borders of the Romanian state (
see Greater Romania).
While the Bolshevik presence decreased overall following the repression of
Socialist Party riots in
Bucharest (December 1918), it remained or was perceived as relatively strong in Iaşi and other Moldavian cities and towns. In this context, the easternmost region of
Bessarabia, which united with Romania in 1918, was believed by Codreanu and others to be especially prone to Bolshevik influence. Codreanu followed in his father's footsteps as an antisemite, but connected it with
anticommunism, in the belief that
Jews were, amongst other things, the primordial agents of the
Soviet Union (
see Jewish Bolshevism).
GCN and National-Christian Defense League
Codreanu studied
Law in Iaşi, where he began his political career. Like his father, he became close to A. C. Cuza. Codreanu's fear of
Bolshevik insurrection led to his efforts to address industrial workers himself. At the time, Cuza was preaching that the Jewish population was a manifest threat to Romanians, claimed that Jews were threatening the purity of Romanian young women, and began campaigning in favor of
racial segregation.
Historian
Adrian Cioroianu defined the early Codreanu as a "quasi-
demagogue agitator". According to Cioroianu, Codreanu loved Romania with "fanaticism", which implied that he saw the country as "idyllicized [and] different from the real one of his times".
British scholar
Christopher Catherwood also referred to Codreanu as "an obsessive anti-Semite and religious fanatic". Historian Zeev Barbu proposed that: "Cuza was Codreanu's mentor [...], but nothing that Codreanu learned from him was strikingly new. Cuza served mainly as a catalyst for his nationalism and antisemitism." As he himself later acknowledged, the young activist was also deeply influenced by the physiologist and antisemitic ideologue
Nicolae Paulescu, who was involved with Cuza's movement.
In late 1919, he joined the short-lived
Garda Conştiinţei Naţionale (GCN, "The National Awareness Guard"), a group formed by the
electrician Constantin Pancu. Pancu's movement, whose original membership didn't exceed 40, attempted to revive
loyalism within the
proletariat (while offering an alternative to communism by promising to advocate increased
labor rights). As much as other
reactionary groups, it won the tacit support of General
Alexandru Averescu and his increasingly popular
People's Party (of which Cuza became an affiliate); Averescu's ascension to power in 1920 engendered a new period of social troubles in the larger urban areas (
see Labor movement in Romania).
The GCN, in which Codreanu thought he could see the nucleus of nationalist
trade unions, became active in crushing
strike actions. Their activities didn't fail in attracting attention, especially after students who obeyed Codreanu, grouped in the Association of Christian Students, started demanding a
Jewish quota for
higher education - this gathered popularity for the GCN, and it led to a drastic increase in the frequency and intensity of assaults on all its opponents. In response, Codreanu was expelled from University. Although allowed to return when Cuza and others intervened for him (refusing to respect the decision of the University Senate), he was never presented with a
diploma after his graduation.
While studying in
Berlin and
Jena in 1922, Codreanu took a critical attitude towards the
Weimar Republic, and began praising the
March on Rome and
Italian fascism as major achievements; he decided to cut his stay short, after he learnt of the large student protests in December, prompted by the intention of the government to grant the complete
emancipation of Jews (
see History of the Jews in Romania).
When protests organized by Codreanu met with the new
National Liberal government's lack of interest, he and Cuza founded (
March 4,
1923) a Christian nationalist organization called the
National-Christian Defense League. They were joined in 1925 by
Ion Moţa, translator of the antisemitic forgery know as
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and future ideologue of the Legion. Codreanu was subsequently tasked with organizing the League at a national level, and became especially preoccupied with its youth ventures.
With the granting of full rights of
citizenship to persons of Jewish descent under the
Constitution of 1923, the League raided the Iaşi
Ghetto, led a group that
petitioned the government in
Bucharest (being received with indifference), and ultimately decided to assassinate
Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and other members of government. Codreanu also drafted the first of his several death lists, which contained the names of politicians who, he believed, had betrayed Romania. It included
Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu, who held several offices in the Brătianu executive, and who was personally responsible for promoting the emancipation of Jews. In October 1923, he was betrayed by one of his associates, arrested and put on trial. He and the other plotters were soon acquitted, as Romanian legislation didn't allow for prosecution of
conspiracies that hadn't been assigned a definite date. Before the jury ended deliberation, Moţa killed the traitor and was given a prison sentence himself.
Manciu's killing
Codreanu clashed with Cuza on the issue of the League's structure: he demanded that it develop a
paramilitary and revolutionary character, while Cuza was hostile to the idea. In November, while in
Văcăreşti prison in
Bucharest, Codreanu had planned for the creation of a
youth organization within the League, which he aimed to call
The Legion of the Archangel Michael. This was said to be in honor of an
Orthodox icon that adorned the walls of the prison church, or more specifically linked to Codreanu's reported claim of having been visited by the Archangel himself.
Back in Iaşi, he created his own system of allegiance within the League, starting with
Frăţia de Cruce ("Brotherhood of the Cross", named after a variant of
blood brotherhood which requires
sermon with a cross). It gathered on
May 6,
1924, in the countryside around Iaşi, starting work on the building of a student center. This meeting was violently broken up by the authorities on orders from
Romanian Police prefect
Constantin Manciu. Codreanu and several others were allegedly beaten and tormented for several days, until Cuza's intervention on their behalf proved effective.
After an interval when he retreated from any political activity, Codreanu took revenge on Manciu, assassinating him and severely wounding some other policemen on
October 24, in the Iaşi Tribunal building (where Manciu had been called to answer accusations, after one of Codreanu's comrades had filed a complaint).
Forensics have shown that Manciu wasn't facing his killer at the moment of his death, which prompted Codreanu to indicate that he considered himself in
self-defense based solely on Manciu's earlier actions. Codreanu turned himself in immediately after having fired his gun, and awaited trial in custody. In the meantime, the issue was brought up in the
Parliament of Romania by the
Peasant Party's
Paul Bujor, who first made a proposal to review legislation dealing with political violence and
sedition; it won the approval of the governing
National Liberal Party, which, on
December 19, passed the
Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Mârzescu, who had been appointed
Minister of Justice) — it most notable, if indirect, effect was the banning of the
Communist Party. In October and November debates between members of Parliament became heated, and Cuza's group was singled out as morally responsible for the murder:
Petre Andrei stated that "Mr. Cuza aimed and Codreanu fired", to which Cuza replied by claiming his innocence, while theorizing that Manciu's brutality was a justifiable cause for violent retaliation.
Although he was purposely tried as far away from Iaşi as
Turnu Severin, the authorities managed to find no neutral jury. On the day he was acquitted, members of the jury, who deliberated for five minutes in all, showed up wearing badges with League symbols and
swastikas (the symbol in use by Cuza's League). After a triumphal return and the ostentatious wedding to Elena Ilinoiu, Codreanu clashed with Cuza for a second time and decided to defuse tensions by taking a leave to
France. Before leaving, he was the victim of an assassination attempt — Moţa, just returned from prison, was given another short sentence after he led the reprisals.
Creation of the Legion
He returned from
Grenoble to take part in the
1926 elections, and ran as a candidate for the town of
Focşani. He lost, and, although it had had a considerable success, the League disbanded in the same year. Codreanu gathered former members of the League who had spent time in prison, and put into practice his dream of forming the Legion (November 1927, just a few days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to support Cuza).
Based on
Frăţia de Cruce, he designed as a selective and
autarkic group, paying allegiance to him and no other, and soon expanded into a replicating network of political cells called "nests" (
cuiburi).
Frăţia endured as the Legion's most secretive and highest body, which requested from its members that they undergo a
rite of passage, during which they swore allegiance to the Captain. According to
American historian
Barbara Jelavich, the movement "at first supported no set ideology, but instead emphasized the moral regeneration of the individual", while expressing a commitment to the
Romanian Orthodox Church. The Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu made his public appearances dressed in
folk costume — a traditionalist pose adopted at the time only by him and the
National Peasant Party's
Ion Mihalache. Throughout its existence, the Legion maintained strong links with members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, and its members fused politics with an original interpretation of Romanian Orthodox messages — including claims that the Romanian kin was expecting its national salvation, in a religious sense.
Such a mystical focus, Jelavich noted, was in tandem with a marked preoccupation for violence and self-sacrifice, "but only if the [actsof terror] were committed for the good of the cause and subsequently expiated." Legionaries engaged in violent or murderous acts often turned themselves in to be arrested, and it became common that violence was seen as a necessary step in a world that expected a
Second Coming of
Christ. With time, the Legion developed a doctrine around a cult of the fallen, going so far as to imply that the dead continued to form an integral part of a perpetual national community. As a consequence of its mysticism, the movement made a point of not adopting or advertising any particular platform, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu explained early on: "The country is dying for lack of men and not for lack of political programs." Elsewhere, he pointed out that the Legion was interested in the creation of a "new man" (
omul nou).
Despite its apparent lack of political messages, the movement was immediately noted for its antisemitism, for arguing that Romania was faced with a "
Jewish Question" and for proclaiming that a Jewish presence throve on uncouthness and
pornography. The Legionary leader wrote: "The historical mission of our generation is the resolution of the kike problem. All of our battles of the past 15 years have had this purpose, all of our life's efforts from now on will have this purpose." He accused the Jews in general of attempting to destroy what he claimed was a direct link between Romania and God, and the Legion campaigned in favor of the notion that there was no actual connection between the
Old Testament Hebrews and the modern Jews. In one instance, making a reference to the
origin of the Romanians, Codreanu stated that Jews were corrupting the "
Roman-
Dacian structure of our people."
He began openly calling for the destruction of Jews, and, as early as 1927, the new movement organized the sacking and burning of a
synagogue in the city of
Oradea. It thus profited from an exceptional popularity of antisemitism in Romanian society: according to one analysis, Romania was, with the exception of
Poland, the most antisemitic country in
Eastern Europe.
Codreanu's message was among the most radical forms of Romanian antisemitism, and contrasted with the generally more moderate antisemitic views of Cuza's former associate, prominent historian
Nicolae Iorga. The model favoured by the Legion was a form of
racial antisemitism, and formed part of Codreanu's theory that the Romanians were biologically distinct and superior to neighbouring or co-inhabiting ethnicities (including the
Hungarian community). However, according to various commentators, Codreanu won his most significant following in the rural environment, which in part reflected the fact that he and most other Legionary leaders were first-generation urban dwellers. British historian of fascism
Stanley G. Payne, who noted that the Legion benefited from the 400% increase in university enrolment ("proportionately more than anywhere else in Europe"), has described the Captain and his network of disciples as "a revolutionary alliance of students and poor peasants", which centered on the "new underemployed
intelligentsia prone to radical nationalism". Thus, a characteristic trait of the newly-founded movement was the young age of its leaders: later records show that the average age of the Legionary elite was 27.4.
By then also an
anticapitalist, he identified in Jewry the common source of
economic liberalism and communism, both seen as
internationalist forces manipulated by a
Judaic conspiracy. As an opponent of
modernization and
materialism, he only vaguely indicated that his movement's economic goals implied a non-
Marxian form of
collectivism, and presided over his followers' initiatives to set up various
cooperatives.
First outlawing and parliamentary mandate
Codreanu felt he'd to amend the purpose of the movement after more than two years of stagnation: he and the leadership of the movement started touring rural regions, addressing the churchgoing illiterate population with the rhetoric of
sermons, dressing up in long white
mantles and instigating Christian prejudice against
Judaism (this intense campaign was also prompted by the fact that the Legion was immediately sidelined by Cuza's League in the traditional
Moldavian and
Bukovinan centers). Between 1928 and 1930, the
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod National Peasants' Party cabinet gave tacit assistance to the Guard, but
Iuliu Maniu (representing the same party) clamped down on the Legion after July 1930. This came after the latter had tried to provoke a wave of
pogroms in
Maramureş and
Bessarabia. In one notable incident of 1930, Legionaries encouraged the peasant population of
Borşa to attack the town's 4,000 Jews. The Legion had also attempted to assassinate government officials and journalists — including
Constantin Angelescu, undersecretary of Internal Affairs. Codreanu was briefly arrested together with the would-be assassin
Gheorghe Beza: both were tried and acquitted. Nevertheless, the wave of violence and a planned march into Bessarabia signalled the outlawing of the party by Premier
Gheorghe Mironescu and
Minister of the Interior Ion Mihalache (January 1931); again arrested, Codreanu was acquitted in late February.
Having been boosted by the
Great Depression and the malcontent it engendered, in 1931, the Legion also profited from the disagreement between
King Carol II and the National Peasants' Party, which brought a cabinet formed around
Nicolae Iorga. Codreanu was consequently elected to
Chamber of Deputies on the lists of the
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Grouping (the provisional name for the Guard), together with other prominent members of his original movement — including Ion Zelea, his father, and
Mihai Stelescu, a young activist who ultimately came into conflict with the Legion; it's likely that the new Vaida-Voevod cabinet gave tacit support to the Group in subsequent partial elections. The Legion had won five seats in all, which was its first important electoral gain.
He quickly became noted for exposing corruption of ministers and other politicians on a case-by-case basis (although several of his political adversaries at the time described him as bland and incompetent).
Clash with Duca and truce with Tătărescu
The authorities became truly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for
Adolf Hitler and
nazism (even to the detriment of
Italian fascism, and probably an added source for the conflict between the Captain and Stelescu). A new National Liberal cabinet, formed by
Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a puppet of the
German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionaries be arrested just prior to the
new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the men held in custody were killed by authorities. The main effect of this was the killing of Duca by the Iron Guard's
Nicadori on
December 30. Another one was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after the group around
Nae Ionescu decided to voice protests against the repression.
Codreanu had to go into hiding at an secret location, waiting for things to calm down and delegating leadership to General
Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, who later assumed partial guilt for Duca's killing; Stelescu, who soon became Codreanu's adversary as head of the
Crusade of Romanianism, later alleged that he'd been given refuge by a cousin of
Magda Lupescu, Carol's mistress, implying that the Guard was becoming corrupt ("She was a person adverse to your action. How did you get along so well?"). Codreanu's resurgence brought arrest and prosecution under the
martial law imposed in the country; he was acquitted yet again.
Some time after the start of
Gheorghe Tătărescu's premiership and
Ion Inculeţ's leadership of the
Internal Affairs Ministry, repression of the Legion ceased, a measure which reflected Carol's hope to ensure a new period of stability. In 1936, during a youth congress in
Târgu Mureş, Codreanu agreed to the formation of a permanent
Death Squad, which immediately showed its goals with the killing of Mihai Stelescu by a group deemed Decemviri (led by Ion Caratănase), neutralizing the Crusade's campaign of exposing the Guard's weaknesses, and silencing Stelescu's claims that Codreanu was hypocritical in his official display of
ascetism,
politically corrupt, uncultured, and a
plagiarist.
The year was also marked by the deaths and ostentatious funerals of Moţa (by then, the movement's vice president) and
Vasile Marin, who had volunteered on
Francisco Franco's side in the
Spanish Civil War and had been killed in the
Majadahonda battle. Codreanu also published his autobiographical and ideological essay
Pentru legionari ("For the Legionaries" or "For My Legionaries").
It was during that period that the Guard came to be financed by
Nicolae Malaxa (otherwise known as a prominent collaborator of Carol), and became interested in reforming itself to reach an even wider audience: Codreanu created a
meritocratic inner structure of ranks, established a wide range of
philanthropic ventures, again voiced themes which appealed to the industrial workers, and created
Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar, as a Legion branch which grouped members of the
working class. King Carol met difficulties in preserving his rule after being faced with a decline in the appeal of the more traditional parties, and, as Tătărescu's term approached its end, he made a bold offer to Codreanu, demanding leadership of the Legion in exchange for a Legion cabinet; he was promptly refused.
"Everything for the Fatherland"
After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion turned into a political party, running in elections as
Totul Pentru Ţară ("Everything for the Fatherland"). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in
Eastern Europe, in particular the
Little Entente and the
Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with the
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and
Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule.
In the
elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of
electoral fraud, the Guard received 15.5% of the vote Despite the failure to win the
majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third political option in Romanian politics, the only one whose appeal was shown to be growing in 1937-1938, and by far the most popular fascist group.
The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly-formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet
Octavian Goga and his
National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders didn't get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting
corporatism. In parallel, he was urging his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advise of
Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "
Jewish Question". — and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out — while attempting to profit from the king's
authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible
single-party system.
Clash with the King and 1938 trials
Codreanu's designs were overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his own
dictatorship after his attempts to form a
national government. The system relied instead on the new
Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister
Armand Călinescu (
see National Renaissance Front). The ban on the Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to have harbored Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants in
Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or arrested in cases where they didn't abide by the new legislation, while civil servants risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
Upon being informed of the indictment, he urged his followers not to take any action if he was going to be sentenced to less than six months in prison, stressing that he wanted to give an example of dignity, but ordered a group of Legionaries to defend him in case of an attack by the authorities. On
November 30, it was announced that Codreanu, the
Nicadori and the
Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous night. The details were revealed much later: it's most likely that the fourteen persons had been transported from their prison and executed (strangled or
garroted and shot) by the
Gendarmerie around
Tâncăbeşti (near Bucharest), and it was shown that their bodies had been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison. Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Legacy
Lifetime influence and Legionary power
According to
Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of
interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher
Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements."
Stanley G. Payne also argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic", while British historian James Mayall sees the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
The
charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favored by other leaders of far right and fascist movements, including Hitler and
Benito Mussolini. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who admits the Legion "was inspired in large measure by
National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of
omul nou, although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism.
Marxist historian
Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "
bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist."
According to American journalist
R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940-1941, Codreanu's violent killing only served to cement his popularity and aroused interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [thatis,
Căpitan] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who didn't agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school. Historiographer
Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader
Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached
totalitarianism.
Led by
Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power in 1940-1941, proclaiming the fascist
National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with
Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the
Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost
Northern Transylvania to
Hungary. On
November 25,
1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionaries to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were detained on the same spot. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and the 28th of November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and
Virgil Madgearu (
see Jilava Massacre). The widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was
posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany —
Luftwaffe planes dropped wreathes on Codreanu's open tomb.
Codreanu and modern-day political discourse
The movement was eventually toppled from power by Antonescu as a consequence of the
Legionary Rebellion. The events associated with Sima's term in office resulted in the conflicted tendencies within the Legion and its contemporary successors: the obvious, gratuitous and unlimited violence of the Legion under Sima managed to surpass most atrocities demanded by Codreanu, which led to many today claiming to obey Codreanu, but not Sima. At the same time, the Sima faction claims to have followed Codreanu's guidance and inspiration.
Codreanu had an enduring influence in
Italy. His views and style were attested to have had an impact on the controversial
Traditionalist philosopher and racial theorist
Julius Evola. Evola himself met with Codreanu on one occasion, and, in the words of his friend, the writer and historian
Mircea Eliade, was "dazzled". Reportedly, the visit had been arranged by Eliade and philosopher
Vasile Lovinescu, both of whom sympathized with the Iron Guard. Their guest later wrote that the Iron Guard founder was: "one of the worthiest and spiritually best oriented figures that I ever met in the nationalist movements of the time." According to De Felice, Codreanu has also become a main reference point for the Italian
neofascist groups, alongside Evola and the ideologues of nazism. He argues that this phenomenon, which tends to shadow references to
Italian fascism itself, is owed to Mussolini's failures in setting up "a true fascist state", and to the subsequent need of finding other role models. Evola's disciple and prominent neofascist activist
Franco Freda published several of Codreanu's essays at his
Edizioni di Ar, while their follower
Claudio Mutti was noted for his pro-Legionary rhetoric.
In parallel, Codreanu is seen as a hero by representatives of the maverick
neonazi movement known as
Strasserism, and in particular by the British-based Strasserist
International Third Position (ITP), which uses one of Codreanu's statements as its motto. Codreanu's activities and mystical interpretation of politics were probably an inspiration on
Russian politician
Alexander Barkashov, founder of the far right
Russian National Unity.
After the
Romanian Revolution toppled the
communist regime that had been set up after World War II, various extremist groups began claiming to represent Codreanu's legacy. Reportedly, one of the first was the short-lived
Mişcarea pentru România ("Movement for Romania"), founded by the student leader
Marian Munteanu. It was soon followed by the Romanian branch of the ITP and its
Timişoara-based mouthpiece, the journal
Gazeta de Vest, as well as by other groups claiming to represent the Legionary legacy. Noua Dreaptă often makes use of Codreanu's portraits in its public rallies, usually associating it with its own symbol, the
Celtic cross.
In the early 2000s,
Gigi Becali, Romanian businessman, owner of the
Steaua Bucureşti football club and president of the right-wing
New Generation Party, said that he admires Codreanu and has otherwise made attempts to capitalize on Legionary symbols and rhetoric, such as adopting a slogan originally coined by the Iron Guard: "I vow to God that I'll make Romania in the likeness of the holy sun in the sky". The statement, used by Becali during the
2004 presidential campaign, owed its inspiration to Legionary songs, was found in a much-publicized homage sent by
Ion Moţa to his Captain in 1937, As a result of it, Becali was argued to have broken the 2002 government ordinance banning the use of fascist discourse.
In cultural reference
Late in the 1930s, Codreanu's supporters began publishing books praising his virtues, among which are
Vasile Marin's
Crez de Generaţie ("Generation Credo") and Nicolae Roşu's
Orientări în Veac ("Orientations in the Century"), both published in 1937.
After the National Legionary State officially hailed Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as a martyr to the cause, his image came to be used as a
propaganda tool in cultural contexts. Codreanu was integrated into the Legionary cult of death: usually at Iron Guard rallies, Codreanu and other fallen members were mentioned and greeted with the shout
Prezent! ("Present!"). His
personality cult was reflected into Legionary art, and a stylized image of him was displayed at major rallies, including the notorious and large-scale Bucharest ceremony of
October 6,
1940.
In November 1940, the Legionary journalist Ovid Ţopa, publishing in the Guard's newspaper
Buna Vestire, claimed that Codreanu stood alongside the mythical
Dacian prophet and "precursor of Christ"
Zalmoxis, the 15th century
Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, and Romania's national poet
Mihai Eminescu, as an essential figure of Romanian history and Romanian spirituality. Other Legionary texts of the time drew a similar parallel between Codreanu, Eminescu, and the 18th century
Transylvanian Romanian peasant leader
Horea. Also in November 1940, Codreanu was the subject of a conference given by the young philosopher
Emil Cioran and aired by the state-owned
Romanian Radio, in which Cioran notably praised the Guard's leader for "having given Romania a purpose". Although Codreanu was officially condemned by the communist regime, it's possible that, in its final stage under
Nicolae Ceauşescu, it came to use the Captain's personality cult as a source of inspiration.
The Legionary leader was portrayed in a poem by his follower
Radu Gyr, who notably spoke of Codreanu's death as a prelude to his
resurrection. Despite his earlier confrontation with the Iron Guard, the poet
Tudor Arghezi is thought to have deplored Codreanu's killing, and to have alluded to it in his well-known
Făt-Frumos.
Mircea Eliade, whose early Legionary sympathies became notorious, was indicated by his disciple
Ioan Petru Culianu to have based Eugen Cucoanes, the main character in his novella
Un om mare ("A Big Man"), on Codreanu.
This hypothesis was commented upon by literary critics
Matei Călinescu and
Mircea Iorgulescu, the latter of whom argued that there was too little evidence to support it.
The neofascist
Claudio Mutti claimed that Codreanu inspired the character Ieronim Thanase in Eliade's
Nouăsprăzece trandafiri ("Nineteen Roses") story, a view rejected outright by Călinescu.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Corneliu Zelea Codreanu'.
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