The Legion of Archangel Michael (the Romanian "Iron Guard")

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Legionaries salute their leader, Horia Sima.

The Legion of the Archangel Michael, known in the foreign press as the Iron Guard, was the principal fascist movement in Romania during the interwar period. Led by the charismatic Corneliu Codreanu until his death in 1938, the Iron Guard reached the height of its power under Horia Sima and Ion Antonescu during World War II. The Iron Guard was violent, anti-Semitic and nationalistic, characteristics common to all European fascist movements. However, the Iron Guard had important ideological and operative differences that distinguished it from other fascist movements in Europe. The Iron Guard's deeply religious principles and ability to appeal to peasants and young people, who comprised most of the Iron Guard's members, make it surprisingly unique among fascist movements that tended to reject religion and appeal, for the most part, to veterans. In addition, the Iron Guard was the only fascist movement (other than Hitler and Mussolini) to come to power without the assistance of a foreign nation. The Iron Guard represents a fascinating and extraordinary anecdote in the history of European fascism.

Leadership of the Iron Guard

Corneliu Zelia Codreanu

"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.

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History of the Iron Guard

Exposed at an early age to anti-Semitism, Corneliu Z. Codreanu participated widely in anticommunist and anti-Semitic activities during his university years at Iasi. In 1922 he helped found the Association of Christian Students, where, from 1923 to 1927, he became affiliated with the League of National Christian Defense (LANC), headed by the anti-Semitic university professor A.C. Cuza. Codreanu was arrested and imprisoned in 1923 for threatening to kill "traitors"; arrested again on a murder charge in 1925, he was acquitted.

Corneliu Z.Codreanu, "Captain" of the Iron Guard, 1927-1938

The miserable failure of the LANC convinced Corneliu Codreanu of the necessity of founding a different type of movement that was more in line with his own beliefs. On the evening of June 24th 1927 Corneliu Codreanu issued his Order of the Day Number One, where he announced the founding of the Legion of the Archangel Michael under his leadership. The Legion was the only fascist movement to be founded under the protective symbol of a religious icon that had a profound impact on their ideology. This ideology blended with nationalism to such an extent that it is impossible to draw the line between them.

The first few months of the Legion were unfavorable. There was very slow progress in the formation of their central groups, called nests, and the financial problems were enormous. An Orthodox priest improved their finances by putting his nationalistic paper at the legion’s disposal. By 1927 subscriptions stood at 2,586, which helped stabilize their finances somewhat. In December 1929 the Legion was more than two years old, and their religious activities were not solving many of the groups objectives. Corneliu Codreanu admitted to himself that in order to accomplish the group's objectives, like getting rid of the large Jewish community within Rumania “only a political road was open. A road that demanded that they get in touch with the broad masses.” (Talavera) After going from town to town delivering speeches, Corneliu Codreanu decided to found a combat organization to enroll what he called “militant youth organizations to combat Jewish communism.” (Talavera) These new subdivisions within the Legion were to be called the Iron Guard. The masses, especially the young people and the peasants whose National Peasant party was not well organized, found relief and promise in the charisma and the nationalism offered by the Legion. As democracy broke down and depression widened, the Iron Guard rapidly increased its appeal and strength and the most dissatisfied and militant elements of the Rumanian people joined its ranks. By July 1931, in an election in Neamt, Corneliu Codreanu was elected to parliament. The Iron Guard was becoming something more than a small group of moral people. In the new elections of July 1932, amid a string of violence from the government towards the Iron Guard, the Legion more than doubled its votes and won five mandates.

From the fall of 1933 until the first months of 1941, the history of Rumania is thoroughly connected with that of the Iron Guard. In the years 1933-35, King Carol and the Prime Minister maintained ambiguous relations with the Iron Guard. The Legion could not be easily ignored with their growing numbers. As the Legion grew in importance, it had to take stands on certain practical issues and formed the Corps of Legionary Workers in 1936 and built dozens of labor camps. In less than a year the Battalion of Legionary Commerce opened a string of grocery stores, restaurants and repair shops. Besides the commercial endeavors there was also a Legion welfare organization. And although many tried to stop the Iron Guard, its growth was enormous. There were 4,200 Legionary nests by 1935; 12,000 by January 1937 and by the end of the year there were 34,000. Despite sporadic government abuses during the election, the Legion won 16.5% of the vote; it received sixty-six deputies and became the third largest party in the land.

However on February 12th 1938, King Carol suspended the democratic constitution, dissolved all political parties and promulgated a fascist constitution. Corneliu Codreanu’s end had come because King Carol, who had a Jewish mistress and several close Jewish friends and advisors, believed that the Iron Guard was a threat. On November 24, a relative of the Minister of the Interior, Armand Calinescu, was shot by Iron Guard members. Shortly thereafter, on November 30th, Corneliu Codreanu was “shot while trying to escape.” But in reality he along with several other members of the Iron Guard where tied up, loaded into a truck strangled and shot on a deserted road.

As retribution, the remaining Legionary hostages in Calinescu's camps took it upon themselves to destroy Calinescu for revenge, knowing full well that they were committing suicide. Indeed many conspirators were killed, but six legionaries succeeded in shooting the Premier and killing him, whereupon they turned themselves into police. Retribution was swift and violent. The conspirators were murdered and prefects in every county were order to execute three legionaries immediately. Their corpses were hung on poles, placed in public places and remained there for days to remind others of their deeds. In the concentration camps between 68 and 92 legionaries were murdered, but rather than dampen the spirit of the movement, it restored the faith of those who had been disenchanted.

Though reinvigorated, the loss of leadership devastated the Iron Guard, which never fully recovered. Although it gained power on September 1940, most of its strong leaders were dead. The new commander of the Iron Guard was Horia Sima, who along with General Antonescu formed a new government. Antonescu was appointed prime minister on Sept. 4, 1940 after Romania had lost one third of its territory, partitioned among the Axis powers and the U.S.S.R. (June-September 1940). Antonescu established a conservative dictatorship and openly embraced the Axis powers. His "National Legionary State" briefly brought the Iron Guard to power; but, after a period of Guardist revolutionary and criminal excesses, he suppressed the organization with the help of Adolf Hitler (1941).

Sources: Nagy-Talavera, Nicholas M. The Green Shirts and Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Romania. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1970.

Seton-Watson, Hugh. Eastern Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1941. New York: Archon Books, 1967.

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Ion Antonescu, middle, seen here with Horia Sima, left and Radu Mironovici.

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Culture and Cultural Policy

Much like Germany during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Romania was searching to establish a sense of national identity. Within Romanian culture, artists and other individuals have sought ways to create a national identity for the Romanian people.

During the 19th century, Romanian art explored a means of establishing a national identity by exemplifying the virtues of the peasant life. Artists such as Carol Popp Szathmary ignored the poverty and primitive way of life for the peasants and instead “pictured rural life in an idyllic light and the country folk as wise, healthy children of nature and saw the peasants only as guardians of the old traditions and creators of folk poetry and colorful costumes” (Florea 70). This allowed for the nation to form its own identity through dignifying the condition of the peasant life. Continuing into the 20th Century, this basis for a national identity continued with artists such as Stefan Dimitrescu, who was inspired by life in the village with his scenes recalling “the coloring, hieratic air, and rich meaning of folk art” (96). Very similar to the Volk movement in Germany’s search for a national identity, with an emphasis upon country life, Romania was able to give its people as sense of identity after they were freed from the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The Whitsun Fair. By Carol Popp Szathmary



Women at the Hand Loom. By Stefan Dimitrescu.

With Corneliu Codreanu’s rise to fame as the leader of the Legion of the Archangel Michael movement in 1927, a cultural program was set up as a means of uniting the country under the Iron Guard’s movement. In comparison to the German and Italian cultural programs, Romania did not have a very elaborate program defined by the fascist state. However, Codreanu and the Iron Guard effectively used music as a means of linking the Romanian people with their glorified past and present. Having always had a culture rich in spoken stories and song, Codreanu helped employ an effective means of influence. Composed of a poor population with at least a 50% illiteracy rate, oral means of persuasion such as speeches and music were more effective ways to unite the Romanian people under the Iron Guard movement.

Under the fourth tenet of the Legion of the Archangel Michael it even stated “a love of song.” Acting as a stimulus that created a longing and nostalgia for the past, songs penned under the Iron Guard movement would glorify past and present Romanian heroes, often making them larger than life. One of the past Romanian heroes that was glorified under this creation of song was Stefan the Great. A great military hero, Stefan the Great, along with his army of men, were very successful in battle against the enemy. Titled Stefan Vodã, this song was written by Al. I. Popescu. (This song can be found at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/legiunea_music.htm in Romanian. To view the Romanian lyrics, click here.)

The Iron Guard also honored their own heroic men who fought and died bravely in battle. For instance, two legionaries that were killed in the Spanish Civil War fighting were given this honor. During 1936, Ion Mota, the deputy captain of the Legionaries, and Vasile Marin, leader of the Bucharest legionary organization left with five other men to fight in Spain. Upon their deaths in 1937 they returned as war heroes, with tens of thousands of civilians turning out for their funeral procession. Written by Radu Gyr, with lyrics by Ion Mânzatu, Imnul Mota – Marin (Hymn of Mota and Marin) was dedicated to these two men who died on January 13th, 1937. (This song can be found at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/legiunea_music.htm in Romanian. To view the Romanian lyrics, click here.)

Using music as a means of influencing the people, Codreanu and the Legionary movement commissioned men to write songs that would promote people’s allegiance to the movement. One of the earliest and probably most well-known songs is Imnul Tineretii Legionare (or Hymn of the Legionary Workers), with lyrics created by Radu Gyr and music by Ion Mânzatu. In this song it glorifies the movement of the Iron Guard and the men devoted to it in forging a new nation. (This song can be found at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/legiunea_music.htm in Romanian. To view the Romanian lyrics, click here.)

Music enabled Codreanu and his men to delve within the roots and cultural history of Romania to inspire allegiance and create a national identity for the people. Allegiance to the Iron Guard was so great among the people, that from the turnout at the funeral processions of Mota and Marin, Codreanu was convinced to participate in the 1937 elections. In 1938, King Carol II was fed up of the Iron Guard’s success and decided to seize the government and also capture and kill the Iron Guard’s main leaders (including Codreanu). Music was such a successful form of propaganda and policy for the Legionary movement that King Carol II declared a ban upon music that prohibited singing and playing music in a public atmosphere. Creating a bond between the Romanian people and the Iron guard, music served as an effective means of influence just as great, if not greater, than Germany and Italy’s cultural programs emphasizing medias such as film and artwork because it catered itself to the Romanian people.

Sources:

Centenar Codreanu

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/legiunea_music.htm

Florea, Vasile. Romanian Painting. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983.

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