"I greet those who march toward the great legionary victory" - Corneliu Zelia Codreanu - 1938
EARLY
INFLUENCES:
Corneliu Zelia Codreanu was born
Cornelius Zelinski on September 15, 1899 in Husi, a small, north Moldavian town,
to immigrant parents Elisa Brauner and Ion Zelinski.
Corneliu was the oldest son in a family of seven and attended the famous
military school, Manastirea Dealului - the Cloister on the Hill - from age
eleven to sixteen. He was admitted to the Infantry Officers' School, but
graduated only after World War I was over.
In military school, Codreanu learned respect for discipline and order,
honor and hierarchy, religious fervor, and strong nationalism. All of these lessons would later appear in the doctrine of
the Iron Guard.
ANTI-BOLSHEVISM:
Codreanu was a fervent
anti-Bolshevist, and first fought against Bolshevism during the Iasa strikes of
1919-1920. Soon after the strikes,
Codreanu formed the National-Christian Socialist party to fight communism and
protect workers rights. Codreanu
believed that the striking workers had been led astray by Jewish Communist
leaders and henceforth focused his nationalism on Communism, Jews and
irreligion. Not only was Codreanu a
fervent anti-Communist, but an anti-Capitalist and anti-Modernist as well, due
also to the perceived Jewish influence. The
party was short lived and unsuccessful, and Codreanu returned to his studies as
student activist, overseeing the student movement and establishing militant
nationalism and violent unrest at the universities until World War II.
Codreanu was expelled but quickly reinstated by Professor A.C. Cuza, a
fervent anti-Semite and close friend of the Codreanu family.
Codreanu graduated from law school in 1922, after which he spent a year
studying in Berlin, where he was to hear for the first time of Adolf Hitler and
his anti-Semitic fascism.
THE
LANC AND THE LEGION OF THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL:
Cuza, inspired by Codreanu and his
friends, formed the League of National-Christian Defense (LANC).
The league espoused violent anti-Semitism, and when the government
modified the constitution to grant citizenship to Jews, Codreanu and his
supporters conspired to shoot the supporters of the measure.
In the end, the conspirators were exposed, jailed, tried and acquitted.
While in prison, Codreanu had a vision of the Archangel Michael, who
would become the patron saint of the Iron Guard. In prison, Codreanu and his companions decided that faith and
labor was the solution to Romania's Jewish and Bolshevik "problems".
Out of prison, he organized the Brotherhoods of the Cross (FDC's) to
encourage youths in nationalistic action. Codreanu
chose Ion Moţa as the head of the Brotherhoods, a movement with strong
emphasis on comradeship, bravery, loyalty and self-sacrifice.
Violence soon divided the group between the older, non-violent members
and younger men such as Codreanu who wanted a semi-military organization. In June of 1927, Codreanu, with the help of his father and
four friends, founded the paramilitary Legion of the Archangel Michael with four
basic characteristics developed by Codreanu himself: "(I) faith in God, (2)
faith in our mission, (3 )love for each other, (4) and songs as the primary
manifestation of our state of mind." (Rogger, 527)
As Captain of the Legionary Movement, Codreanu espoused a great
admiration for Hitler and Mussolini, but did not wholly identify with the Nazis.
Codreanu wanted Romanian nationalism to be unique.
The Legion distinguished itself from other fascist movements in that it
began as a young student movement, and espoused a deeply Christian faith,
whereas most other fascist movements began as veteran's movements and were
against organized religion.
FORMATION
OF THE IRON GUARD
Codreanu formed the Iron Guard in 1930 as a paramilitary political branch of the
Legion. Codreanu found his support
in peasants, teachers, and above all young people.
The Legion, led by young men, refused to admit men over thirty years old
into their elite formation. Codreanu's
insistence on discipline and effort, as well as the enthusiasm and dedication of
the peasant Legionaries helped encourage the Legion's success.
By 1937, the Legion had grown to six times its original membership.
This rapid growth frightened King Carol, who ordered Codreanu and twelve
other Legion leaders jailed. After
a friend of Premier Armand Calinescu was murdered by Legionaries, the men were strangled, shot in the back,
and buried in a mass grave. King
Carol told the people of Romania that Codreanu had been shot while trying to
escape. Legionaries, disbelieving
the lie, murdered Calinescu for revenge. King
Carol then ordered the reprisal killing of hundreds of Legionaries decimating
the movement. A new Legionary
movement began to regroup in 1939 under the leadership of Horia Sima.
Horia
Sima
Horia Sima was a provincial high-school teacher, a devoted
Legionnaire, regional chief of the Banat, and a friend of several conservative
government officials. Even before
Codreanu's death, Sima took Codreanu's anti-Semitism to a new level and his
small underground movement began distributing flyers, beating up Jews, burning
their shops and synagogues and eventually, killed a friend of Premier Armand
Calinescu, the Minister of the Interior. Though
Sima and Codreanu both attempted to stop the murder, it nevertheless took place,
and produced harsh consequences. This
event forced Sima into exile, led to Codreanu's death and resulted in the deaths
of over one hundred legionaries. Sima
returned from exile in 1940 as the Commander of the Legionary movement when the
government began to free the remaining legionaries.
He became a supporter of King Carol and encouraged his followers to
support him as well. Sima, along with two of his followers, entered the government
under King Carol for a short time. When
Ion Antonescu rose to power, Horia Sima became the Vice-Premier and the Iron
Guard held the majority of the power. Sima
wanted Romania to be a totalitarian Legionary state immediately, and called for
the abolition of all other political parties.
Antonescu disagreed and, with Hitler's strong support, took it upon
himself to eliminate the Iron Guard. Antonescu
displaced Sima and removed several prominent Legionary prefects and chiefs of
police. Sima went into exile again, setting up a puppet government in
Vienna, and moving to Alt-Aussee in 1945. After
the war, Sima took on a new identity as Iosef Weber and went into hiding.
CONCLUSION
Sima's rule was not what Codreanu would have envisioned. His movement was "made up of men of the second rank [and] was a looser, more heterogeneous collection, less dedicated, less disciplined, less well trained." (Rogger, 561) The movement began to be accused of Bolshevism, the very thing they hated most and Sima was seen as a weak element that had undermined the authority of the Legion. The Legionary Movement, as first envisioned and created by Codreanu, ended with his death. Codreanu's father went so far as to establish a new Legionary movement in opposition to Sima's Iron Guard and frequently ridiculed Sima in public. In the end, Horia Sima was responsible for the Iron Guard's swift rise to power, as well as their ultimate demise.
Sources:
Cullen, Stephen M. "Leaders and Martyrs: Codreanu, Mosley and Jose Antonio." History 71
(October 1986) 408-430.
Rennie, Bryan S. "The Diplomatic Career of Mircea Eliade: A Response to Adriana Berger."
Religion 22(1992) 375-392.
Rogger, Hans and Weber, Eugen, eds. The European Right: A Historical Profile. London:
Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1965.
Ronnett, Alexander E. Romanian Nationalism: The Legionary Movement. Chicago: Loyola
University Press, 1974.
Seton-Watson, Hugh. Eastern Europe Between the Wars 1918-1941. Connecticut: Archon
Books, 1967.
Weber, Eugen. "The Men of the Archangel." Journal of Contemporary History 1.1(1966)
101-126.