View source for Iron Guard

{{Short description|Romanian fascist movement and political party}}
{{Other uses|Iron Guard (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox militant organization
| name             = Iron Guard
| logo             = [[File:Iron Guard.png|150px]]
| native_name      = ''Garda de Fier''
| leader           = [[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]]<br />[[Horia Sima]] (disputed)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Holy Legionary Youth|url=https://archive.org/details/holylegionaryyou00clar|url-access=limited|last=Clark|first=Roland|date=2015-06-05|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801456343|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/holylegionaryyou00clar/page/221 221]–[https://archive.org/details/holylegionaryyou00clar/page/228 228]|doi = 10.7591/9780801456343}}</ref>
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1927|06|24|df=yes}}{{refn|In March 1930, Codreanu formed the "Iron Guard" as an armed wing of the Legion.}}
| dissolved        = {{end date and age|1941|1|23|df=yes}}
| split            = [[National-Christian Defense League]]
| successor        = {{Plainlist|
* various separate émigré groups after 1943<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80-00810A003900930009-8|title=Renunciation of Horia Sima by the Iron Guard - Central Intelligence Agency|date=12 April 1954|website=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''[[Noua Dreaptă]]'' (unofficial)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://moldova.europalibera.org/a/intre-legionarism-deghizat-si-nationalism-autoritar/29121256.html|title=Între legionarism deghizat şi naţionalism-autoritar|publisher=Radio Europa Liberă|date=26 March 2018 |last1=Totok |first1=William }}</ref>
}}
| headquarters     = {{nowrap|Green House, [[Bucureștii Noi]]<ref name="Picture of the Green House">{{Cite web|url=http://www.miscarea.org/a/?p=677|title='Casa Verde' din Bucureşti construită de legionari|date=August 24, 2013|website=FRUNŢI SPRE CER|access-date=December 28, 2018|archive-date=November 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129094527/http://www.miscarea.org/a/?p=677|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
| ideology         = {{Tree list}}
* [[Iron Guard#Ideology|Legionarism]]{{refn|group=n|The Iron Guard synthesized [[Orthodoxy|Orthodox christianity]] with [[revolutionary nationalism]] and were heavily inspired by the writings of [[Nichifor Crainic]].<ref name="clark">{{cite journal | last=Clark | first=Roland | title=Nationalism and orthodoxy: Nichifor Crainic and the political culture of the extreme right in 1930s Romania | journal=Nationalities Papers | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=40 | issue=1 | year=2012 | issn=0090-5992 | doi=10.1080/00905992.2011.633076 | pages=107–126 | s2cid=153813255 | quote = The institute only lasted one year, but allowed Crainic to advance ideas such as anti-Masonry, anti-Semitism, and biological racism within an LANC-approved forum (Crainic, ''Ortodoxie'' 147).}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |  issn = 1231-1413 | first = Ovidiu | last = Caraiani | journal = Polish Sociological Review | number = 142 | pages = 161–169 | publisher = Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne (Polish Sociological Association) | title = Identities and Rights in Romanian Political Discourse | quote = Nae Ionescu considered ethnicity as "the formula of today's Romanian nationalism," while for Nichifor Crainic the "biological homogeneousness," the "historical identity" and the "blood and the soil" were the defining elements of the "ethnocratic state."| jstor = 41274855 | year = 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |  issn = 0028-8683 | first = Michael | last = Wedekind | journal = New Zealand Slavonic Journal | pages = 27–67 | publisher = Australia and New Zealand Slavists’ Association | title = The mathematization of the human being: anthropology and ethno-politics in Romania during the late 1930s and early 1940s | volume = 44 | year = 2010 | quote=A prominent proponent of the concept of 'ethnic homogeneity' was the chauvinistic, xenophobic and pro-Nazi writer, politician, poet and professor of Theology Nichifor Crainic (1889–1972), author of "Orthodoxy and Ethnocracy" (''Ortodoxie și etnocrație''), published in 1938.| jstor = 41759355}}</ref>}}
** [[Ethnocracy]]<ref>{{cite book|title=History of the Holocaust – Romania |last=Ancel|first=Jean|year=2002|publisher=[[Yad Vashem]]|location=[[Israel]]|isbn=965-308-157-8|pages=354–61|language=he}}</ref>
** [[Ultranationalism]]<ref name="Zelinka 2009 p. 42">{{cite book |last=Zelinka |first=Elisabeta |chapter=Xenophobia, anti-Semitism and feminist activism in eastern Europe: a case study of Romania |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vjc6k.7 |chapter-url-access=subscription |editor-last=Huggan |editor-first=Graham |editor2-last=Law |editor2-first=Ian |title=Racism postcolonialism Europe |series=Postcolonialism Across the Disciplines |volume=6 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |publication-place=Liverpool |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-84631-562-6 |oclc=865564960 |page=[{{GBurl |id=7G5vEAAAQBAJ |pg=PA42}} 42] |doi=10.2307/j.ctt5vjc6k.7 |quote=The Iron Guard was the ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic, fascist movement and political party in Romania. |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2024-03-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305045423/https://chooser.crossref.org/?doi=10.2307%2Fj.ctt5vjc6k.7 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Payne 2017">{{cite web |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |title=Why Romania's Fascist Movement Was Unusually Morbid – Even for Fascists |website=Slate Magazine |date=2017-02-21 |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/02/romanias-unusually-morbid-fascist-movement-blended-nationalistic-violence-with-fanatical-christian-martyrdom.html |access-date=2024-03-03 |quote=''A Unique Death Cult'': How the Romanian Iron Guard blended nationalistic violence with Christian martyrdom to spread a singularly morbid fascist movement. [...] As in some other Eastern European countries, there had developed strong currents of ''populism'' that espoused a kind of peasant nationalism, equally opposed to liberalism, conservatism, and Marxist socialism. |archive-date=2023-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211064438/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/02/romanias-unusually-morbid-fascist-movement-blended-nationalistic-violence-with-fanatical-christian-martyrdom.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
** [[Mysticism]]<ref name="britannica.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iron-Guard|title=Iron Guard &#124; Romanian organization &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|date=24 May 2023|access-date=23 June 2022|archive-date=27 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627155937/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iron-Guard|url-status=live}}<br />"[...] it was committed to the “Christian and racial” renovation of Romania and fed on anti-Semitism and mystical nationalism. [...]"</ref>
** [[Clerical fascism]]<ref>Iordachi, Constantin (2023). ''[https://www.routledge.com/The-Fascist-Faith-of-the-Legion-Archangel-Michael-in-Romania-192741/Iordachi/p/book/9781138624559 The Fascist Faith of the Legion "Archangel Michael" in Romania, 1927–41 Martyrdom and National Purification] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213090854/https://www.routledge.com/The-Fascist-Faith-of-the-Legion-Archangel-Michael-in-Romania-192741/Iordachi/p/book/9781138624559 |date=2023-02-13}}''. [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-1138624559}}.</ref><ref name="fascism">{{cite web |title=fascism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2025-04-20}}</ref>
** [[Populism]]<ref name="Historia 2018-Tăpălagă 2020-Iordachi 200–Roberts Glăjar 2022-Teodorescu  2022 pp. 65–80">
* {{cite web |title=Rădăcinile intelectuale ale legionarismului |trans-title=The intellectual roots of legionaryism |website=Historia |date=2018-08-28 |url=https://historia.ro/sectiune/general/radacinile-intelectuale-ale-legionarismului-570000.html |language=ro |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2023-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204093124/https://historia.ro/sectiune/general/radacinile-intelectuale-ale-legionarismului-570000.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |last=Tăpălagă |first=Dan |title=AUR și Mișcarea Legionară. Cât de valabilă este comparația între cele două partide |trans-title=AUR and the Legionary Movement. How valid is the comparison between the two parties |website=G4Media.ro |date=2020-12-21 |url=https://www.g4media.ro/aur-si-miscarea-legionara-cat-de-valabila-este-comparatia-intre-cele-doua-partide.html |language=ro |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2021-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019100620/https://www.g4media.ro/aur-si-miscarea-legionara-cat-de-valabila-este-comparatia-intre-cele-doua-partide.html |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Iordachi |first=Constantin |chapter=Charisma, Religion, and Ideology: Romania’s Interwar Legion of the Archangel Michael |chapter-url=https://books.openedition.org/ceup/2418 |editor-last=Lampe |editor-first=John |editor-link=John R. Lampe |editor2-last=Mazower |editor2-first=Mark |editor2-link=Mark Mazower |title=Ideologies and National Identities |url=https://books.openedition.org/ceup/2396 |publisher=Central European University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-963-9241-82-4 |oclc=945782879 |pages=19–53 |via=OpenEdition Books |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2024-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303193124/https://books.openedition.org/ceup/2396 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |last1=Roberts |first1=Jason |last2=Glăjar |first2=Sergio |title=The Legionary Phenomenon: A Romanian Fascist Manifesto |website=illiberalism.org |date=2022-02-22 |url=https://www.illiberalism.org/the-legionary-phenomenon-a-romanian-fascist-manifesto |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2023-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331025553/https://www.illiberalism.org/the-legionary-phenomenon-a-romanian-fascist-manifesto |url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Teodorescu |first1=Bogdan |last2=Sultănescu |first2=Dan |title=Mişcarea Legionară, &#238;ntre istorie și percepții actuale. Amestec de fascism și atitudini populiste |trans-title=The Legionary Movement, between history and current perceptions. Mixture of fascism and populist attitudes |journal=Polis. Journal of Political Science |publisher=Editura Institutul European |volume=X |issue=3 (37) |date=2022 |issn=1221-9762 |pages=65–80 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1064277 |oclc=9627670651 |access-date=2024-03-03 |archive-date=2023-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213090803/https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1064277 |url-status=live}}</ref>
** [[Christian terrorism#Pogroms|Christian terrorism]]<ref name="Tinichigiu2004-Ioanid2004-Volovici1991-yv2013">
* {{cite web |last=Tinichigiu |first=Paul |date=January 2004 |title=Sami Fiul (interview) |url=http://www.centropa.org/index.php?id=91&page=rdetails&rtype=bio&table=biografien |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202222037/http://www.centropa.org/index.php?id=91&page=rdetails&rtype=bio&table=biografien |archive-date=2 December 2013 |access-date=26 November 2013 |publisher=The Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ioanid |first=Radu |title=The sacralised politics of the Romanian Iron Guard |journal=Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions |date=January 2004 |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=419–453 |doi=10.1080/1469076042000312203 |s2cid=145585057 }}
* {{cite book |author=Leon Volovici |title=Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism |url=https://archive.org/details/nationalistideol00volo |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalistideol00volo/page/n108 98] |quote=citing N. Cainic, ''Ortodoxie şi etnocraţie'', pp. 162–4 |isbn=978-0-08-041024-1|year=1991 |publisher=Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem }}
* {{cite journal|title=Roots of Romanian Antisemitism: The League of National Christian Defense and Iron Guard Antisemitism|url=http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/events/pdf/report/english/1.1_Roots_of_Romanian_Antisemitism.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Background and Precursors to the Holocaust|publisher=[[Wayback Machine]]|page=37|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231002707/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/events/pdf/report/english/1.1_Roots_of_Romanian_Antisemitism.pdf|archive-date=2013-12-31|access-date=2022-01-06}}</ref>
** [[Antisemitism]]{{refn|group=n|The Romanian Iron Guard espoused anti-capitalist, anti-banking and anti-bourgeois rhetoric, combined with anti-communism and a [[Antisemitism in Christianity|religious form of anti-Semitism]].{{sfn|Mann|2004|pp=268–269}}<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Crampton |author-first=R.J. |title=Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century |location=London & New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=1994 |page=165}}</ref> The Iron Guard saw both capitalism and communism as being Jewish creations that served to divide the nation, and accused Jews of being "the enemies of the Christian nation."{{sfn|Mann|2004|p=270}}}}
{{Tree list/end}}
| position         = [[Far-right politics|Far-right]]
| attacks          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Ion G. Duca#Assassination|Killing of I. Gh. Duca]]
* [[Assassination of Armand Călinescu|Killing of Armand Călinescu]]
* [[Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom|1941 rebellion and pogrom]]
}}
| battles          = [[Romanian anti-communist resistance movement|Anti-communist resistance]]{{refn|9% of the resistance were former Iron Guardists.<ref name=Deletant>{{cite book|last=Deletant|first= Dennis|author-link=Dennis Deletant|title=Communist Terror in Romania|pages=225–234|publisher= [[St. Martin's Press]]|location=[[New York City|New York]]|year= 1999|chapter=Chapter 10}}</ref>}}
| allies           = {{collapsible list|title = See full list:<ref>{{cite web | title=Radical-and-Nationalistic Environment of the Interwar Ukrainian Political Emigration in the South-Eastern Europe | url=https://eesiag.com/history/radical-and-nationalistic-environment-of-the-interwar-ukrainian-political-emigration-in-the-south-eastern-europe.html }}</ref>|
'''State allies:'''
* {{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}
* {{flagcountry|Fascist Italy}}
* {{flagcountry|Francoist Spain}}
----
'''Non-state allies:'''
* [[File:Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-M.svg|16px]] [[Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists|OUN]]
}}
| opponents        = {{collapsible list|title = See full list:|
* [[File:National Christian Party swastika.svg|16px]] [[National Christian Party]]
* [[File:Crusade of Romanianism emblem.svg|16px]] [[Crusade of Romanianism]]
* [[File:Bologlyph-fudo.svg|16px]] [[Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania)|Democratic Nationalist Party]]
* [[File:Earth symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]] [[League Against Usury]]
* [[File:Logo of the National Agrarian Party (Goga).svg|16px]] [[National Agrarian Party]]
* [[File:I Ching tetragram 4 horizontals.svg|16px]] [[National Socialist Party (Romania)|National Socialist Party]]
* [[File:Ținta (Frontul Românesc).svg|16px]] [[Romanian Front]]
* [[File:National Renaissance Front logo and badge.svg|16px]] [[National Renaissance Front]]
}}
| size             = 272,000 (late 1937 {{estimation}})<ref name="Săndulescu, p. 267">Săndulescu, p. 267</ref>
| partof           = {{Plainlist|
* [[Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations|ABN]] (from 1943)
* [[World League for Freedom and Democracy|WLFD]] (post-war)<ref>{{Cite book|author=Anderson, Scott|title=Inside the League : the shocking expose of how terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American death squads have infiltrated the world Anti-Communist League|date=1986|publisher=Dodd, Mead|isbn=0-396-08517-2|oclc=12946705}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{Cite journal |last=Cragg |first=Bronwyn |date=2024-04-23 |title=Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement |url=http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/jrns.2024.4 |journal=Journal of Romanian Studies |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=47–70 |doi=10.3828/jrns.2024.4 |issn=2627-5325|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
}}
| flag             = [[File:Flag of the Iron Guard (Legion of the Archangel Michael or Legionary Movement).svg|border|175px]]
}}
{{Infobox political party
| colorcode        = {{party color|Iron Guard}}
| name             = Everything for the Country
| native_name      = Totul pentru Țară
| leader1_title    = President
| leader1_name     = [[Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul|Gheorghe Cantacuzino]]{{efn|name=noteCantacuzino|(1934–1937)}}<ref>Predescu, Lucian: ''Enciclopedia Cugetarea, Enciclopedia României - Material românesc. Oameni și înfăptuiri'', p. 959, Editura Cugetarea – Georgescu Delafras, București, 1940.</ref><br />[[Gheorghe Clime]]{{efn|name=noteClime|(1937–1938)}}<br />Horia Sima{{efn|name=noteSima|(1938–1941)}}
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1934|12|10|df=y}}
| registered       = {{start date and age|1935|03|20|df=y}}
| banned           = {{end date and age|1941|01|23|df=yes}}
| predecessor      = ''Gruparea Corneliu Zelea Codreanu''{{efn|name=noteCodreanu|(1931–1932)}}<ref name="rdv1157">Radu-Dan Vlad: ''Procesele lui Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1923–1934), Vol. I''. Editura Miha Valahie. Bukarest 2013. ISBN 978-606-8304-49-6. S. 157.</ref>
| newspaper        = {{ubl|''{{ill|Pământul Strămoșesc|ro|Pământul Strămoșesc}}''<ref>Ioan Scurtu, [http://books.google.ro/books?id=sz8K3N3hrOEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false ''Politica și viața cotidiană în România în secolul al XX-lea și începutul celui de-al XXI-lea''], Editura Mica Valahie, București, 2011, ISBN 978-606-8304-34-2, p. 127.</ref>|''[[Cuvântul]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sandu-Dediu |first=Valentina |date=2016 |title=Murky Times and Ideologised Music in the Romania of 1938–1944 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=983531 |journal=Musicology Today: Journal of the National University of Music Bucharest |language=English |volume=7 |issue=27 |pages=193–214 |issn=2286-4717 |access-date=2023-12-09 |archive-date=2023-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209210720/https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=983531 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=17 October 1940 |title=Title page |pages=1 |work=Cuvântul |url=https://archive.org/details/cuvantul-anul-xvii-serie-noua-nr.-6-17-oct.-1940 |access-date=22 September 2023}}</ref>}}
| youth_wing       = ''{{ill|Frăția de Cruce|ro|Frățiile de Cruce}}''<ref>Ianolides, John: Return to Christ – document for a new world, pp. 35–36</ref>
| wing2_title      = Labour wing
| wing2            = ''[[Corpul Muncitoresc Legionar|Corpul Muncitorilor Legionari]]''
| wing1_title      = {{nowrap|Paramilitary wing}}
| wing1            = Iron Guard
| ideology         = {{Tree list}}
* [[Iron Guard#Ideology|Legionarism]]
** [[Germanophile|Germanophilia]]<ref>[[Francisco Veiga]], ''Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului '', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993. pp. 251–255.</ref>
** [[Ultranationalism]]{{refn|group=n|The Iron Guard developed their own brand of ultranationalism that took on many unique, transcendental religious elements. This so-called “thanatic nationalist” doctrine was expressed through political funerals featuring the cult of the dead, soteriological tropes and martyrological themes of Orthodox Christian inspiration. The Legionnaires developed a redemptive political theology that was underpinned by the idea of "self-sacrificial patriotism" and called for the development of the Fascist “''[[New Man (utopian concept)#Fascism|new man]]''” who "purified" himself to bring his nation closer to God.<ref>{{Citation |last=Rusu |first=Mihai S. |title=The Sacralization of Martyric Death in Romanian Legionary Movement: Self-sacrificial Patriotism, Vicarious Atonement, and Thanatic Nationalism |date=2016 |journal=Politics, Religion & Ideology |volume=17 |issue=2–3 |pages=249–273 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21567689.2016.1232196 |access-date=2023-09-13 |language=en |doi=10.1080/21567689.2016.1232196|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Rusu |first=Mihai S. |title=Staging Death: Christofascist Necropolitics during the National Legionary State in Romania, 1940–1941 |date=2021 |journal=Nationalities Papers |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=576–589 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/staging-death-christofascist-necropolitics-during-the-national-legionary-state-in-romania-19401941/F44F3485CB3F6E00602007710A1D4BDA |access-date=2023-09-13 |language=en |doi=10.1017/nps.2020.22|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="veiga">[[Francisco Veiga]], ''Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: Mistica ultranaţionalismului'' ("History of the Iron Guard, 1919–1941: The Mistique of Ultra-Nationalism"), Bucharest, [[Humanitas publishing house|Humanitas]], 1993 (Romanian-language version of the 1989 Spanish edition ''La mística del ultranacionalismo (Historia de la Guardia de Hierro) Rumania, 1919–1941'', Bellaterra, Publicacions de la [[Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona]], {{ISBN|84-7488-497-7}}), p.47-49, 224-226, 263, 285-286, 292-293, 301</ref><ref>[[Stanley G. Payne]], ''Fascism'', [[University of Wisconsin Press]], Madison, 1980. p. 116. {{ISBN|0-299-08064-1}}.</ref>}} 
{{Tree list/end}}
| position         = [[Far-right politics|Far-right]]
| religion         = {{nowrap|[[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox Christianity]]}}
| colours          = {{color box|#000000|border=darkgray}} [[Black]]  {{color box|#FFFFFF|border=darkgray}} [[White]] {{Color box|{{party color|Iron Guard}}|border=darkgray}} [[Green]]
| affiliation1_title = International affiliation
| affiliation1     = [[1934 Montreux Fascist conference|Fascist International Congress]] (observer)<ref name="Stanley G page 105">[[Stanley G. Payne|Payne, Stanley G.]] "Fascist Italy and Spain, 1922–1945". ''Spain and the Mediterranean Since 1898'', Raanan Rein, ed. p. 105. London, 1999</ref>
| seats1_title     = [[Senate of Romania|Senate]] ([[1937 Romanian general election|1937]])
| seats1           = {{Composition bar|4|113|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}|background-color=#DDDDDD|per=1}}
| seats2_title     = [[Chamber of Deputies (Romania)|Chamber of Deputies]] (1937)
| seats2           = {{Composition bar|66|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}|background-color=#DDDDDD|per=1}}<ref name="Nohlen">{{Cite book |last=von Nohlen |first=Dieter |title=Elections in Europe: A data handbook |publisher=Nomos |year=2010 |isbn=9783832956097 |location=Baden-Baden, Germany |pages=1610–1611}}</ref>
| symbol           = [[File:Totul Pentru Țara election symbol.svg|125px|border]]
| country          = Romania
| footnotes        = {{notelist}}
}}
{{Fascism in Romania}}

The '''Iron Guard''' ({{langx|ro|Garda de Fier}}) was a [[Romania]]n militant [[revolutionary nationalism|revolutionary]] [[Clerical fascism|religious fascist]] [[Political movement|movement]] and [[political party]] founded in 1927 by [[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]] as the '''Legion of the Archangel Michael''' ({{lang|ro|Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail}}) or the '''Legionary Movement''' ({{lang|ro|Mișcarea Legionară}}).<ref name="Payne1">{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffascism00payn |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780299148706 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyoffascism00payn/page/394 394] |author-link=Stanley G. Payne |url-access=registration}}</ref> It was strongly [[Criticism of democracy|anti-democratic]], [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]], and [[Antisemitism|anti-semitic]]. It differed from other European far-right movements of the period due to its spiritual basis, as the Iron Guard was deeply imbued with [[Romanian Orthodox Church|Romanian Orthodox]] [[Christian mysticism]].

In March 1930, Codreanu formed the Iron Guard as a [[paramilitary]] branch of the Legion, which in 1935 changed its official name to the "'''Totul pentru Țară'''" party—literally, "Everything for the Country". It existed into the early part of [[the Second World War]], during which time it came to power. Members were called Legionnaires or, outside of the movement, "'''Greenshirts'''" because of the predominantly green uniforms they wore.<ref>For "greenshirts" see, for example, R.G. Waldeck, ''Athene Palace'', University of Chicago Press eBook (2013), {{ISBN|022608647X}}, p. 182. Originally published 1942.</ref>

When Marshal [[Ion Antonescu]] came to power in September 1940, he brought the Iron Guard into the government, creating the [[National Legionary State]]. In January 1941, following the [[Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom|Legionnaires' rebellion]], Antonescu used the army to suppress the movement, destroying the organization; its commander, [[Horia Sima]], along with other leaders, escaped to Germany.

== Name ==
The "Legion of the [[Michael (archangel)|Archangel Michael]]" ({{Langx|ro|Legiunea Arhangelul Mihail}}) was founded by [[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]] on 24 June 1927 and led by him until his assassination in 1938. Despite various changes of the (intermittently banned) organization's name, members of the movement were widely referred to as "legionnaires" (sometimes "legionaries"; {{langx|ro|legionarii}}) and the organization as the "Legion" or the "Legionary Movement".

In March 1930, Codreanu formed the "Iron Guard" ({{Langx|ro|Garda de Fier}}) as a [[paramilitary]] political branch of the Legion; this name eventually came to refer to the Legion itself.<ref name="britannica.com"/> From June 1935 onwards, the organization used the name "Totul pentru Țară", literally meaning "Everything for the Country", in electoral contexts.<ref>"Totul pentru Țară" is translated as "Everything for the Fatherland" in "[[Collier's Encyclopedia]]" material that is now incorporated into "[[Encarta]]" as a sidebar ([http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500758/1938_Rumania.html 1938: Rumania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831225009/http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500758/1938_Rumania.html |date=2009-08-31}}) and in the "[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]" article [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9042802 Iron Guard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060603170752/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9042802 |date=2006-06-03}}; the [[International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania]] uses "Everything for the Motherland" in the English-language version of its November 11, 2004 [http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/presentations/programs/presentations/2005-03-10/pdf/english/chapter_03.pdf Final Report] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060129104944/http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/presentations/programs/presentations/2005-03-10/pdf/english/chapter_03.pdf |date=2006-01-29}} ([[PDF]]). (All retrieved 6 Dec 2005.).</ref>

==History==
===Founding and rise===
In 1927, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu left the number two position (under [[A.C. Cuza]]) in the Romanian political party known as the [[National-Christian Defense League]] (''Liga Apărării Național Creștine'', LANC), and founded the Legion of the Archangel Michael.<ref>Ioanid, "The Sacralised Politics of the Romanian Iron Guard."</ref>

The Legion differed from other fascist movements in that it had its mass base among the peasantry and students, rather than amongst military veterans. However, the legionnaires shared the general fascist "respect for the war veterans". Romania had a very large ''intelligentsia'' relative to the general population with 2.0 university students per one thousand of the population compared to 1.7 per one thousand of the population in far wealthier Germany, while Bucharest had more lawyers in the 1930s than did the much larger city of Paris.<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115">Crampton, Richard ''Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century – And After'', London: Routledge, 1997 p. 115.</ref> Even before the worldwide [[Great Depression]], Romanian universities were producing far more graduates than the number of available jobs and the [[Great Depression in Romania]] had further drastically limited the opportunities for employment by the ''intelligentsia'', who turned to the Iron Guard out of frustration.<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115"/> Many Orthodox Romanians, having obtained a university degree, which they expected to be their ticket to the middle class, were enraged to find that the jobs they were hoping for did not exist, and came to embrace the Legion's message that it was the Jews who were blocking them from finding the middle-class employment they wanted.

Beyond that, Romania had traditionally been dominated by a [[Francophile]] elite, who preferred to speak French over Romanian in private and who claimed that their policies were leading Romania to the West with the [[National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875)|National Liberal Party]], in particular, maintaining that their economic policies were going to industrialize Romania.<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115"/> The national Great Depression seemed to show the literal bankruptcy of these policies and many of the younger Romanian ''intelligentsia'', especially university students, were attracted by the Iron Guard's glorification of "Romanian genius" and its leaders who boasted that they were proud to speak Romanian.<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115"/> The Romanian-born Israeli historian [[Jean Ancel]] wrote that from the mid-19th century onward, that Romanian ''intelligentsia'' had a "schizophrenic attitude towards the West and its values".<ref name="Ancel pages 463">Ancel, Jean "Antonescu and the Jews", pp. 463–479, from ''The Holocaust and History The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed and the Reexamined'' edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham Peck, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, p. 463.</ref>

Romania had been a strongly Francophile country starting in 1859 when the [[United Principalities]] came into being, giving Romania effective independence from the [[Ottoman Empire]] (an event largely made possible by French diplomacy which pressured the Ottomans on behalf of the Romanians), and from that time onward, most of the Romanian ''intelligentsia'' professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom and human rights, while at the same time holding [[antisemitic]] views about Romania's Jewish minority.<ref name="Ancel pages 463"/> Despite their antisemitism, most of the Romanian ''intelligentsia'' believed that France was not only Romania's "Latin sister", but also a "big Latin sister" that would guide its "little Latin sister" Romania along the correct path. Ancel wrote that Codreanu was the first significant Romanian to reject not only the prevailing Francophilia of the ''intelligentsia'', but also the entire framework of universal democratic values, which Codreanu claimed were "Jewish inventions" designed to destroy Romania.<ref>Ancel, Jean "Antonescu and the Jews" pp. 463–479 from ''The Holocaust and History The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed and the Reexamined'' edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham Peck, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999 p. 464.</ref>

In contrast to the traditional idea that Romania would follow the path of its "Latin sister" France, Codreanu promoted a xenophobic, exclusive ultra-nationalism, where Romania would follow its own path and rejected the French ideas about universal values and human rights.<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115"/> In a marked departure from the traditional ideas held by the elite about making Romania into the modernized and Westernized "France of Eastern Europe", the Legion demanded a return to the traditional Eastern Orthodox values of the past and glorified Romania's peasant culture and folk customs as the living embodiment of "Romanian genius."<ref name="Crampton, Richard page 115"/>

The leaders of the Iron Guard often wore traditional peasant costumes with crucifixes and bags of Romanian soil around their necks to emphasise their commitment to authentic Romanian folk values, in marked contrast to Romania's Francophile elite who preferred to dress in the style of the latest fashions of Paris.<ref>Crampton, Richard ''Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century – And After'', London: Routledge, 1997 p. 114.</ref> The fact that many members of Romania's elite were often corrupt and that very little of the vast sums of money generated by Romania's oil found its way into the pockets of ordinary people, further enhanced the appeal of the Legion who denounced the entire elite as irredeemably corrupt.

With Codreanu as a charismatic leader, the Legion was known for skillful propaganda, including a very capable use of spectacle. Utilizing marches, religious processions, patriotic and partisan hymns and anthems, along with volunteer work and charitable campaigns in rural areas, in support of anti-communism, the League presented itself as an alternative to corrupt parties. Initially, the Iron Guard hoped to encompass any political faction, regardless of its position on the [[political spectrum]], that wished to combat the rise of [[communism]] in the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|USSR]].

The Iron Guard was purposely anti-Semitic, promoting the idea that "Rabbinical aggression against the Christian world"—which manifested through [[Freemasonry]], [[Sigmund Freud|Freudianism]], [[homosexuality]], [[atheism]], [[Marxism]], [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevism]], and the [[Spanish Civil War|civil war in Spain]]"—were undermining society.<ref name="Volovici, p. 98">{{Harvnb|Volovici|1991|page=98}}, citing N. Crainic, ''Ortodoxie și etnocrație'', pp. 162–164</ref>

The [[Second Vaida-Voevod cabinet|Vaida-Voevod government]]{{Disputed inline|date=April 2019}} outlawed the Iron Guard in January 1931.<ref>Savu, pp. 62–63.</ref><ref name=veiga191>Veiga, p. 191.</ref> On 10 December 1933, the Romanian Liberal Prime Minister [[Ion Duca]] banned the Iron Guard.{{Sfn|Rubin|Rubin|2015|page=30}} After a brief period of arrests, beatings, torture and even killings (18 members of the Legionary Movement were killed by the police force), Iron Guard members retaliated on 29 December 1933, by assassinating Duca on the platform of [[Sinaia]] railway station.{{Sfn|Ornea|1995|page=298}}

===Struggle for power===
[[File:Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]], the founder of the Iron Guard]]

In the [[1937 Romanian general election|1937 parliamentary elections]] the Legion came in third with 15.5% of the vote, behind the National Liberal and the [[National Peasants' Party|National Peasant Parties]]. [[Carol II of Romania|King Carol II]] strongly opposed the Legion's political aims and successfully kept them out of government until he himself was forced to abdicate in 1940. During this period, the Legion was generally on the receiving end of persecution. On 10 February 1938, the king dissolved the government and initiated a royal dictatorship.

Codreanu advised the Legion to accept the new regime. However, Interior Minister [[Armand Călinescu]] did not trust Codreanu and ordered him arrested on 16 April. Realizing that the government was looking for an excuse to have him executed, Codreanu ordered the Legion's acting commander, [[Horia Sima]], to take no action unless there was evidence that he was in immediate danger. However, Sima, who was known for his violent streak, launched a wave of terrorist activity in autumn. Codreanu got wind of this and ordered the violence to end.<ref name="Payne">{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |date=1996 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0203501322 |author-link=Stanley G. Payne}}</ref>

The order came too late. On the night of 29–30 November 1938, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were strangled to death by their [[Jandarmeria Română|Gendarmerie]] escort, purportedly during an attempt to escape from prison. It is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt, and that Codreanu and the others were killed on the king's orders, probably in reaction to the 24 November 1938 murder by legionnaires of a relative (some sources say a "friend") of Călinescu. In the aftermath of Carol's decision to crush the Iron Guard, many members of the Legion fled into exile in Germany, where they received both material and financial support from the [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]], especially from the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] and [[Alfred Rosenberg]]'s [[NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs|Foreign Political Office]].<ref name="Haynes pages 676-683">{{cite journal |jstor=4211380 |last1=Haynes |first1=Rebecca |title=German Historians and the Romanian National Legionary State 1940–41 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |year=1993 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=676–683}}</ref>

For much of the interwar period, Romania was in the French sphere of influence, and in 1926 Romania signed a treaty of alliance with France. Following the [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland]] in March 1936, Carol started to move away from the traditional alliance with France as the fear grew within Romania that the French would do nothing in the event of German aggression in Eastern Europe, but Carol's regime was still regarded as essentially pro-French. From the German viewpoint, the Iron Guard was regarded as far preferable to King Carol. The royal dictatorship lasted just over one year. On 7 March 1939, a new government was formed with Călinescu as prime minister; on 21 September 1939, he, in turn was assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu. Călinescu favored a foreign policy where Romania would maintain a pro-Allied neutrality in World War II, and as such, the SS had a hand in organizing Călinescu's assassination.<ref name="Haynes pages 676-683"/> Further rounds of mutual carnage ensued, with the government massacring over 300 Legionnaires nationwide in reprisal.<ref>Iordachi, p. 39.</ref>

[[File:Corneliu Zelea Codreanu archive Legionary Movement Romanian Christian Nationalists.jpg|300px|thumb|left|[[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]] and Iron Guard members in 1937]]

In addition to the conflict with the king, an internal battle for power ensued in the wake of Codreanu's death. Waves of repression almost eliminated the Legion's original leadership by 1939, promoting second-rank members to the forefront. According to a secret report filed by the Hungarian political secretary in Bucharest in late 1940, three main factions existed: the group gathered around Sima, a dynamic local leader from the Banat, which was the most pragmatic and least Orthodox in its orientation; the group composed of Codreanu's father, Ion Zelea Codreanu, and his brothers (who despised Sima); and the Moța-Marin group, which wanted to strengthen the movement's religious character.

After a long period of confusion, Sima, representing the Legion's less radical wing, overcame all competition and assumed leadership, being recognised as such on 6 September 1940 by the Legionary Forum, a body created at his initiative. On 28 September the elder Codreanu stormed the Legion headquarters in Bucharest (the Green House) in an unsuccessful attempt to install himself as leader.<ref>Iordachi, p. 39</ref> Sima was close to SS ''Volksgruppenführer'' Andreas Schmidt, a ''volksdeutsch'' (ethnic German) from Romania, and through him become close to Schmidt's father-in-law, the powerful [[Gottlob Berger]] who headed the SS Main Office in Berlin.<ref name="Haynes pp. 676">Haynes, Rebecca "German Historians and the Romanian National Legionary State 1940–41" pp. 676–683 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'' Volume 71, Issue # 4, October 1993 p. 681.</ref> The British historian Rebecca Haynes has argued that financial and organizational support from the SS was an important factor in Sima's rise.<ref name="Haynes pp. 676"/>

===Sima's ascendancy===
{{See also|Horia Sima|Romania in World War II|Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom}}
In the first months of [[World War II]], Romania was officially neutral. However the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of 23 August 1939, initially a secret document, stipulated, among other things, Soviet interest in [[Bessarabia]]. After the [[invasion of Poland]] by [[Nazi Germany]] on 1 September, [[Soviet invasion of Poland|joined by the Soviet Union]] on 17 September, Romania granted refuge to members of Poland's [[Polish government-in-exile|fleeing government]] and [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|military]]. Even after the assassination of Călinescu on 21 September, King Carol tried to maintain neutrality, but the later French surrender to Germany and the British retreat from Europe rendered them unable to fulfil their assurances to Romania. A lean toward the [[Axis powers]] was probably inevitable.

This political alignment was obviously favourable to the surviving legionnaires, and became even more so after France fell in May 1940. [[Horia Sima|Sima]] and several other legionnaires who had taken refuge in Germany began slipping back into Romania. A month after the fall of France, Carol restructured his regime's single party, the [[National Renaissance Front]], into the more overtly totalitarian "Party of the Nation," and invited a number of legionnaires to take part in the restructured government. On 4 July, Sima and two other leading legionnaires joined the government of [[Ion Gigurtu]]. However, they resigned after only a month due to mounting pressure for Carol to abdicate.<ref name=Payne/>

The [[Second Vienna Award]], which forced Romania to cede much of northern [[Transylvania]] to Hungary, angered Romanians of all political shades and all but destroyed Carol politically. Despite this, a legionnaire coup on 3 September failed.<ref name=Payne/>

==Electoral history==
At the [[1927 Romanian general election|1927]] and the [[1931 Romanian general election|1931 elections]] the movement stood for the [[Chamber of Deputies (Romania)|Chamber of Deputies]] as Legion of the Archangel Michael. In [[1932 Romanian general election|1932]] it stood as the Codreanu Group, winning five of the 387 seats. It did not compete in the [[1928 Romanian general election|1928 election]] and was banned in [[1933 Romanian general election|1933]]. At the [[1937 Romanian general election|1937 election]] it stood as Everything for the Country Party, winning 66 of the 387 seats. At the [[1939 Romanian general election|1939 election]], all opposition parties were banned.

{| class=wikitable style="text-align: right;" width=80%
! Election !! Votes !! Percentage !! [[Chamber of Deputies of Romania|Assembly]] !! [[Senate of Romania|Senate]] !! Position !! Aftermath
|- style="text-align:center;"
![[1927 Romanian general election|1927]]
| 10,761
| 0.4%
| {{Composition bar|0|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{Composition bar|0|113|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{color box|Grey|8th}}
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875)|PNL]] government (1927–1928)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
!rowspan=2|[[1928 Romanian general election|1928]]
|rowspan=2; colspan=2; style="text-align: center;"|''did not compete''
|rowspan=2| {{Composition bar|0|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
|rowspan=2| {{Composition bar|0|110|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
|rowspan=2| –
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[National Peasants' Party|PNȚ]] government (1928–1931)}}
|-
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania)|PND]] minority government (1931)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
!rowspan=2|[[1931 Romanian general election|1931]]
|rowspan=2| 30,783
|rowspan=2| 1.1%
|rowspan=2| {{Composition bar|0|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
|rowspan=2| {{Composition bar|0|113|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
|rowspan=2| {{color box|Grey|12th}}
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[Democratic Nationalist Party (Romania)|PND]] minority government (1931–1932)}}
|-
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[National Peasants' Party|PNȚ]] government (1932)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! [[1932 Romanian general election|1932]]
| 70,674
| 2.4%
| {{Composition bar|5|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{Composition bar|0|113|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| style="text-align: center;"|{{color box|Grey|9th}}
| {{no2|Opposition to [[National Peasants' Party|PNȚ]] government (1932–1933)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! [[1933 Romanian general election|1933]]
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;"|''party banned''
| {{Composition bar|0|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{Composition bar|0|108|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| –
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875)|PNL]] government (1933–1937)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! [[1937 Romanian general election|1937]]
| 478,378
| 15.8%
| {{Composition bar|66|387|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{Composition bar|4|113|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| style="text-align: center;"|{{color box|#CD7F32|3rd}}<br />(as TpȚ)
| {{partial|Supporting [[National Christian Party|PNC]] minority government (1937–1938)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! colspan=6; style="text-align: center;"|''parliament suspended''
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[Miron Cristea]]'s [[Absolute monarchy|monarchist]] government (1938–1939)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! [[1939 Romanian general election|1939]]
| colspan=2; style="text-align: center;"|''party banned''
| {{Composition bar|0|258|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| {{Composition bar|0|88|hex={{party color|Iron Guard}}}}
| –
| {{no2|Extra-parliamentary opposition to [[National Renaissance Front|FRN]] [[Absolute monarchy|monarchist]] government (1939–1940)}}
|- style="text-align:center;"
! colspan=6; style="text-align: center;"|''parliament suspended''
| {{yes2|LAM government (1940–1941)}}
|}

==In power==
More or less out of desperation, [[Carol II of Romania|King Carol II]] named General (later Marshal) [[Ion Antonescu]] as prime minister, partly because of the general's close ties with the Legion. Unknown to Carol, however, Antonescu had secretly reached an agreement with other political figures to force out the king.<ref name=Payne/> Amid popular outrage at the Second Vienna Award, Carol's position became untenable, and he was forced to abdicate in favour of his son [[Michael of Romania|Michael]], who quickly confirmed Antonescu's dictatorial powers and granted him the title of ''[[Conducător]]'' (leader) of Romania.

Although Antonescu was an archnationalist and authoritarian, his first preference was to form a government of national unity, in which all parties would have accepted him as dictator. However, with the exception of the Legion, the other parties at least wanted to maintain the appearance of parliamentary rule. The Legion, in contrast, fully supported Antonescu's vision of an ultranationalist and authoritarian regime. With this in mind, Antonescu formed an alliance with the Legion on 15 September. As part of the deal, Romania was proclaimed a "[[National Legionary State]]," with the Legion as the country's only legal party. Antonescu became the Legion's honorary leader. Sima became deputy premier, and four other legionnaires joined Sima in the cabinet.<ref name=Payne/> The Iron Guard was the only Fascist movement outside Germany and Italy to [[National Legionary State|come to power]] without foreign assistance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1zoXqTR_dAC&pg=PA35|title=Theft of a Nation: Romania Since Communism|first=Tom|last=Gallagher|date=2005|publisher=Hurst|isbn=9781850657163|via=Google Books|access-date=January 29, 2023|archive-date=March 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305045504/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1zoXqTR_dAC&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8taGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA66|title=Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and his Regime, Romania 1940–1944|first=D.|last=Deletant|date= 2006|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780230502093|via=Google Books|access-date=January 29, 2023|archive-date=March 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305045505/https://books.google.com/books?id=8taGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Once in power, from 14 September 1940 until 21 January 1941, the Legion ratcheted up the level of already harsh anti-Semitic legislation and pursued, with impunity, a campaign of pogroms and political assassinations. On 27 November 1940 more than 60 former dignitaries or officials were executed in [[Jilava]] prison while awaiting trial. The following day, historian and former prime minister [[Nicolae Iorga]] and economic theorist [[Virgil Madgearu]] were assassinated; assassination attempts were made on former prime ministers and Carol supporters [[Constantin Argetoianu]], [[Guță Tătărescu]] and [[Ion Gigurtu]], but they were freed from the hands of the Legionary police and put under military protection.

===Armaments===
As a paramilitary force, the Iron Guard had no shortage of firearms while in power. At the start of 1941, in Bucharest alone, the Legionnaires had 5,000 guns (rifles, revolvers and machine guns) as well as numerous hand grenades.<ref>Henry Robinson Luce, Time Inc., 1941, ''Time, Volume 37'', p. 29</ref>  Included in their small arms was the [[MP 18|MP28/II]] [[Submachine gun|submachine-gun]] supplied by [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler's]] [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Romanian Army of World War II | publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]] | author=Axworthy, Mark | year=1991 | page=46 | isbn=9781855321694}}</ref> The Legion also possessed a small, mostly symbolic armored force of four vehicles: two police armored cars and two [[Renault UE Chenillette]]s from the [[Nicolae Malaxa|Malaxa]] factory.<ref>Auswärtiges Amt, H.M. Stationery Office, 1961, ''Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945: The aftermath of Munich, Oct. 1938 – March 1939'', p. 1179</ref> The Malaxa factory had been licence-producing these French armored vehicles since mid-1939,<ref>Ronald L. Tarnstrom, Trogen Books, 1998, ''Balkan Battles'', p. 341</ref>  and aside from the two such machines, the factory also supplied the Legion with machine guns and rifles.<ref>Charles Higham, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1985, ''American Swastika'', p. 223</ref> For transport, the Legion possessed almost 200 trucks in Bucharest alone.<ref>Roland Clark, Cornell University Press, 2015, ''Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania'', p. 232</ref>

==Failure and destruction==
{{main|Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom}}
Once in power, Sima and Antonescu quarreled bitterly. According to historian [[Stanley G. Payne]], Antonescu intended to create a situation analogous to that of [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Francoist Spain|regime]] in [[Spain]], in which the Legion would be subordinated to the state. He demanded that Sima cede overall leadership of the Legion to him, but Sima refused.<ref name=Payne/>

Sima demanded that the government follow the 'legionary spirit', and all major offices be held by legionaries. Other groups were to be dissolved. Economic policy, said Sima, should be coordinated closely with Germany.  Antonescu rejected Sima's demands and was alarmed by the [[Iron Guard death squads|Iron Guard's death squads]]. He decided to bide his time until he had a chance to destroy the Legion once and for all. On 14 January 1941, after securing approval in person from Hitler, and with support of the Romanian army and other political leaders, Antonescu moved in. The Guard started a last-ditch coup attempt but in a three-day civil war,  Antonescu won decisively with support from the Romanian and German armies.<ref>[[Keith Hitchins|Hitchins, Kevin]] (1994) ''Rumania, 1866–1947'' pp. 457–469</ref> During the run-up to the coup attempt, different factions of the German government backed different sides in Romania with the SS supporting the Iron Guard while the military and the [[Federal Foreign Office|''Auswärtiges Amt'']] supported General Antonescu. Baron [[Otto von Bolschwing]] of the SS who was stationed at the German embassy in Bucharest played a major role in smuggling arms for the Iron Guard.<ref name="Simpson, Christopher page 255">Simpson, Christopher ''Blowback America's Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War'', New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988 p. 255.</ref><ref name=Payne/>

During the crisis, members of the Iron Guard instigated a deadly pogrom in Bucharest. Particularly gruesome was the murder of dozens of Jewish civilians in the Bucharest slaughterhouse. The perpetrators hanged the Jews from meat hooks, then mutilated and killed them in a vicious parody of kosher slaughtering practices.<ref>[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005472 ''Holocaust Encyclopedia''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312190740/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005472 |date=2007-03-12}}.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071204204012/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,932546,00.html "New Order," Time magazine, Feb. 10, 1941].</ref> The American ambassador to Romania Franklin Mott Gunther who toured the meat-packing plant where the Jews were slaughtered with the placards reading "Kosher meat" on them reported back to Washington: "Sixty Jewish corpses were discovered on the hooks used for carcasses. They were all skinned....and the quantity of blood about was evidence that they had been skinned alive".<ref name="Simpson, Christopher page 255"/> Gunther wrote he was especially shocked that one of the Jewish victims hanging on the meat hooks was a 5-year-old girl.<ref name="Simpson, Christopher page 255"/> Sima and other legionnaires were helped by the Germans to escape to Germany.

During the rebellion and pogrom, the Iron Guard killed 125 Jews, while 30 soldiers died in the confrontation with the rebels. Following it, the Iron Guard movement was banned and 9,000 of its members were imprisoned. On 22 June 1941, the Iron Guards imprisoned in [[Iași]] since January by the Antonescu regime were released from prison and organized and armed by the police as part of the preparations for the [[Iași pogrom]].<ref>Ioanid, Radu "The Holocaust in Romania: The Iasi Pogrom of June 1941" pp. 119–148 from ''Contemporary European History'', Volume 2, Issue # 2, July 1993 p. 124</ref> When it came to killing Jews, the Antonescu regime and the Iron Guard were capable of finding common ground despite the failed coup in January 1941; Antonescu was as virulently anti-Semitic as the Guard. When the pogrom began in Iași on 27 June 1941, the Iron Guards armed with crow-bars and knives played a prominent role in leading the mobs that slaughtered Jews on the streets of Iași in one of the bloodiest pogroms ever in Europe.<ref>Ioanid, Radu "The Holocaust in Romania: The Iasi Pogrom of June 1941" pp. 119–148 from ''Contemporary European History'', Volume 2, Issue # 2, July 1993 p. 130</ref>

Between 1944 and 1947 Romania had a coalition government in which the Communists played a leading, but not yet dominant role. Journalist [[Edward Behr (journalist)|Edward Behr]] claimed that in early 1947, a secret agreement was signed by the leaders of the exiled Iron Guard in [[displaced persons]] (DP) camps in Germany and Austria and the Romanian Communist Party, under which all of the Legionnaires in the DP camps, except for those accused of the murder of Communists, could return home to Romania; in exchange, Legionnaires would work as thugs to terrorize the anti-communist opposition as part of a plan for the ultimate communist takeover of Romania.<ref name="Behr, Edward page 111">Behr, Edward ''Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite'', New York: Villard Books, 1991 p. 111.</ref> Behr further claimed that in the months after the "non-aggression pact" between the Communists and the Legion, thousands of Legionnaires returned to Romania, where they played a prominent role working for the Interior Ministry in breaking opposition to the emerging socialist government.<ref name="Behr, Edward page 111"/>

Evidence from the [[Vatican archives]] indicates that, following the end of World War II, the [[Congregation for the Eastern Churches]], led by Cardinal [[Eugène Tisserant]] and assisted by Greek Catholic clergy, provided humanitarian aid to several members of the Iron Guard outside of the official displaced persons camps. Between 1945 and 1946, some of these individuals were sheltered near the General House of the [[Religious of Saint Vincent de Paul]], located at Via Palestro 29 in Rome. In the years 1947–1948, Vatican relief officials, including [[Krunoslav Draganović]], facilitated the migration of some members of this group from Italy and Europe. Among them, [[Ilie Gârneață]] and several associates reportedly converted to [[Catholicism]], in the hope that the Vatican would grant them positions within its relief apparatus and support their political aspirations.<ref>Zavatti, F. (2025). ‘To Be Assisted Secretly’: Catholic Humanitarianism and Romanian Displaced Fascists, 1945–7. Journal of Contemporary History, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00220094251347482</ref>

Several leading Legionnaires and their associates, including Horia Sima, [[Constantin Papanace]], and Gârneață, among others, continued to live in exile and organize politically long after the Second World War. Under Sima's leadership and with [[NATO]] funding, Legionnaires were covertly parachuted into Romania in 1949, with the goal of overthrowing the communist government. Related anti-communist resistance groups also received funding from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]],<ref name="ClarkRonald">{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Roland |title=Holy Legionary Youth: Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2015 |location=Ithaca/London |publication-date=2015 |pages=241–242}}</ref> and sections of the Legionary Movement received further support from [[Vatican City|Vatican]] officials.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Turcuș |first=Veronica |date=2018 |title=The Holy See and the Romanians in Spain in the Early 1950s |url=https://www.biblioteca-digitala.ro/reviste/ACTA-MUSEI-NAPOCENSIS/55-II-Acta-Mvsei-Napocensis-istorie-2018_119.pdf |journal=Acta Musei Napocensis |volume=55 |issue=II |pages=119-140}}</ref> By the 1950s, groups of exiled Legionnaires had formed a network of political, cultural, and "religious" organizations in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Canada, the United States, and South America.<ref name=":15">{{Cite journal |last=Cragg |first=Bronwyn |date=2024-04-23 |title=Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement |url=http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/jrns.2024.4 |journal=Journal of Romanian Studies |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=47–70 |doi=10.3828/jrns.2024.4 |issn=2627-5325|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Through these organizations, they continued to publish Legionary, anti-communist, or ultra-nationalist literature; they also forged connections with other ultra-nationalist or fascist movements and attempted to recruit new members.<ref name=":15" /> With funding from supporters, a monument was erected to Ion Moța and Vasile Marin in [[Majadahonda]], Spain in the mid-1970s.<ref name="ClarkRonald" />

==Description==
===Ideology===
[[File:CorneliuZeleaCodreanuEnSello.jpg|thumb|1940 stamp bearing the symbol of the Iron Guard over a white cross that stood for one of its humanitarian ventures.]]
Historian [[Stanley G. Payne]] writes in his study of fascism, "The Legion was arguably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe."<ref name="payne">Payne, Stanley G. (1995). ''A History of Fascism 1914–1945'' Madison: University of Wisconsin Press (pp. 277–289) {{ISBN|0-299-14874-2}}</ref> It was distinguished among other contemporaneous European fascist movements with respect to its understanding of [[nationalism]], which was indelibly tied to [[religion]]. According to Ioanid Radu, the Legion "willingly inserted strong elements of [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]] into its political ideology to the point of becoming one of the rare modern European political movements with a religious ideological structure."

The movement's leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, was a religious nationalist who aimed at a spiritual resurrection for the nation, writing the movement was a "spiritual school...[which] strikes to transform and revolutionise the Romanian soul."<ref name=jstor/><ref name="payne"/> According to Codreanu's philosophy, human life was a sinful, violent political war, which would ultimately be transcended by the spiritual nation. In this schema, the Legionnaire might have to perform actions beyond the simple will to fight, suppressing the preservation instinct for the sake of the country.<ref name="payne"/>

Like many other fascist movements, the Legion called for a revolutionary "new man", though this was not defined in physical terms, as with the Nazis, but was aimed at recreating and purifying oneself to bring the whole nation closer to God.

One of the qualities of this new man was selflessness. Codreanu wrote "When a politician enters a party the first question that he puts is 'what can I gain from this?...when a legionary enters the Legion he says 'For myself I want nothing'".<ref name="jstor"/>

The Legion lacked a well-developed and consistent economic policy, though it generally promoted the idea of a communal or national economy, rejecting [[capitalism]] as overly [[Economic materialism|materialistic]].<ref name="payne"/>

The movement considered its main enemies to be the present political leadership and the Jews.

===Style===
Members wore dark green uniforms, which symbolized renewal, and accounted for them being occasionally referenced as "Greenshirts" ({{lang|ro|Cămășile verzi}}). Like fascist counterparts in Italy, Spain, and Germany, legionnaires greeted each other using the [[Roman salute]].

The main symbol of the Iron Guard was a triple [[cross]] (a variant of the triple parted and fretted one), standing for prison bars (as a badge of [[martyr]]dom), ([[Unicode]]: '''U+2A69 ⩩ ''') and sometimes referred to as the "Archangel Michael Cross" ({{lang|ro|Crucea Arhanghelului Mihail}}).

The Legion developed a cult of martyrdom and self-sacrifice, best exemplified by the action group, ''Echipa morții'', or "Death Squad". Codreanu claimed the name was chosen because members were ready to accept death while campaigning for the organization.<ref>{{cite book|last=Codreanu|first=Corneliu Zelea|title=Pentru legionari|trans-title=For the Legionaries|year=1936|url=ftp://ftp.hmr.ro/De_Citit/Pentru%20Legionari.pdf|author-link=Corneliu Zelea Codreanu|access-date=15 January 2013|language=ro|chapter=Echipa morții|trans-chapter=Death Squad}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|Members of the first "Death Squad" were: Ion Dumitrescu-Borșa (a Christian Orthodox priest), Sterie Ciumetti, Petre Țocu, Tache Savin, Traian Clime, Iosif Bozântan, Nicolae Constantinescu}} A chapter of the Legion was called a ''cuib'', or "nest," and was arranged around the virtues of discipline, work, silence, education, mutual aid, and honor.

=== The Iron Guard and gender ===
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According to a 1933 police report, 8% of the Iron Guard's members were women, while a police report from 1938 placed the figure at 11%.<ref>Bucur, Maria "Romania" pp. 57–78 from ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'' edited by Kevin Passmore, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003 p. 77.</ref> Part of the reason for the overwhelming male membership of the Iron Guard was that a disproportionate number of legionnaires were university students and very few women went to university in Romania during the inter-war period.<ref name="Bucur pages 57">Bucur, Maria "Romania" pp. 57–78 from ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'' edited by Kevin Passmore, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003 p. 70.</ref> In the Romanian language, plurals are attached to most nouns that have either a masculine or feminine form.<ref name="ReferenceA">Bucur, Maria "Romania", pp. 57–78, from ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'' edited by Kevin Passmore, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003, p. 66.</ref> Words in English that are gender-neutral, such as "youth" or "member", are used in Romanian to refer either to Romanian men or Romanian women, young men or young women, and male members or female members.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The Iron Guard almost always used the masculine plural forms in their writings and speeches, which may perhaps suggest that they had a male audience in mind, although in Romanian, like most languages, the masculine plural is also used for mixed-gender groups.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The Iron Guard explained that the problem of poverty in Romania was due to the Jews' ongoing colonization of Romania, which prevented Christian Romanians from getting ahead economically.<ref name="Bucur pages 57"/> The solution to this perceived problem was to drive the Jews out of Romania, which the Iron Guard claimed would finally allow Eastern Orthodox Romanians to rise to the middle class. The Iron Guard claimed that this Jewish colonization was due to most Romanian men lacking the masculine courage to protect their interests.<ref name="ReferenceB">Bucur, Maria "Romania" pp. 57–78 from ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'' edited by Kevin Passmore, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003 p. 67.</ref> The Iron Guard argued that Romanian men had been "emasculated" and were suffering from "sterility", which one Iron Guard, Alexandru Cantacuzino, called the "plague of the present" in a 1937 essay.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Notably, the term Cantacuzino used was the masculine ''sterilitate'' rather than the feminine ''stearpă''.<ref name="ReferenceC">Bucur, Maria "Romania" pp. 57–78 from ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'' edited by Kevin Passmore, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003 pp. 67–68.</ref>{{disputed inline|reason=This is wrong, because "sterilitate" is also a feminine noun.|date=April 2017}} The Iron Guards constantly spoke in viscerally sexualized rhetoric of the need to create a "new man" whose virility and strength would liberate Romanian men from their emasculation.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

==Legacy==
The name ''Garda de Fier'' is also used by a small nationalist group active in the post-[[Communist Romania|communist]] Romania.

There are several contemporary far-right organizations in Romania, such as [[Everything For the Country Party|Totul pentru țară]] (''Everything for the country''), which existed until it was banned in 2015, and [[Noua Dreaptă]] (''The New Right''), the latter considering itself heir to the Iron Guard's political philosophy, including [[personality cult]] centered on [[Corneliu Codreanu]]; however, the group uses the [[Celtic cross]], which is not associated with legionarism.

===Legionary architecture===
Through their summer work camps, the Legionnaires performed volunteer work involving the construction and reparation of roads, bridges, churches and schools in rural areas.<ref>Judith Keene, A&C Black, 2007, ''Fighting For Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War'', p. 220</ref><ref>[[Diana Dumitru]], Cambridge University Press, 2016, ''The State, Antisemitism, and Collaboration in the Holocaust: The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union'', p. 74</ref> One notable construction of the Iron Guard is the "Green House" (''Casa Verde''). Built in the Romanian architectural style, this building on the outskirts of 1930s Bucharest served as the Legion's headquarters and home to Codreanu.<ref name="Julius Evola 2015, p. 71">Julius Evola, Arktos, 2015, ''A Traditionalist Confronts Fascism'', p. 71</ref><ref name="Picture of the Green House"/> The intention of these camps was to cultivate athleticism, discipline, sense of community and elimination of certain societal divisions. Horia Sima stated that the camps "destroyed class prejudice" by bringing together those from different classes. The attendees were not allowed to leave the camp except for emergencies and in their free time were to read literature. Following completion of camp time a diploma was received.<ref name=jstor>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20175210 |jstor=20175210 |title=Work Camps, Commerce, and the Education of the 'New Man' in the Romanian Legionary Movement |last1=Haynes |first1=Rebecca |journal=The Historical Journal |year=2008 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=943–967 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X08007140 |s2cid=144638496 |access-date=2019-03-29 |archive-date=2021-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308111146/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20175210 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Public commemoration===
[[File:RO HD Deva Monumentul luptatorilor anticomunisti.jpg|thumb|The "Monument of the anti-Communist fighters" in Deva, commemorating a member of the Iron Guard (Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu)]]
[[File:Mircea Eliade (2474950873).jpg|thumb|A bust of Mircea Eliade]]
The Iron Guard is currently commemorated in Romania and elsewhere through permanent public displays (monuments and street names) as well as public distinctions (such as posthumous honorary citizenship) dedicated to some of its members. A few such examples include:

*[[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]], the leader of the Iron Guard, has a roadside cross a few miles from [[Bucharest]], near [[Buftea]]. It was built on the spot where he was executed in 1938. The site serves as a current destination for [[Neo-Legionarism|neo-Legionaries]], who regularly gather there to commemorate Codreanu. Occasionally, members of right-wing extremist parties from outside Romania (such as Germany, Sweden and Italy) also attend these ceremonies. In 2012, the [[Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania|Elie Wiesel Institute]] notified the Romanian general prosecutor about the monument, claiming that two symbols displayed at the site &ndash; the logo of the Iron Guard and a photograph of Codreanu &ndash; were illegal. The prosecutor decided that the memorial did not violate the law, because Codreanu had not been convicted for crimes against peace or crimes against humanity, and because the symbols displayed are not propaganda. Finally, the prosecutor referred to a legal exception which stated that the public use of such symbols is allowed if it serves an educational, academic or artistic purpose. However, the prosecutor also established that the flagpole and fence did not have a construction permit, so they were removed. The cross itself was left in its place.<ref>Alexandru Florian, Indiana University Press, 2018, ''Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania'', pp. 84–85</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zavatti|first=Francesco|date=October 2021|title=Making and contesting far right sites of memory. A case study on Romania|journal=Memory Studies|language=en|volume=14|issue=5|pages=949–970|doi=10.1177/1750698020982054|s2cid=234161735|issn=1750-6980|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*[[Radu Gyr]] was a commander and ideologue of the Iron Guard who was convicted of [[war crimes]]. The Wiesel Institute requested the renaming of Radu Gyr Street in [[Cluj-Napoca]]. As of September 2025, the street had not been renamed.<ref>[[United States Department of State]], ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180421054247/https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/277453.pdf Romania 2017 Human Rights Report]'', p. 27</ref>
*[[Valeriu Gafencu]] was a Legionary who was active during the [[Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom|Legionary Rebellion]]. He is now an honorary citizen of the town of [[Târgu Ocna]].<ref>Alexandru Florian, Indiana University Press, 2018, ''Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania'', p. 194</ref>
*[[Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu]] was one of the main leaders of the [[Romanian anti-communist resistance movement]], but prior to that he was a member of the Iron Guard. He now has a monument in his memory in [[Deva, Romania|Deva]], plus a foundation that bears his name. The neo-Legionary "Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu" Foundation is active in promoting the memory of the Iron Guard, such as when it organized a symposium dedicated to [[Gogu Puiu]], a prominent Iron Guard leader, in January 2016. A motion-picture about Ogoranu's life, ''[[Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man]]'', was produced in 2010.<ref>Alexandru Florian, Indiana University Press, 2018, ''Holocaust Public Memory in Postcommunist Romania'', pp. 110, 115, 175</ref>
*[[Ion Moța]] and [[Vasile Marin]] were two Legionaries who were killed during the [[Spanish Civil War]] on 13 January 1937 while fighting on [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]'s side. At [[Majadahonda]], the site of their deaths, a monument was built in their honor.<ref>Romanian Cultural Foundation, 1994, ''Romanian Civilization, Volume 3'', p. 135</ref><ref>Central European University, Jewish Studies Program, 2003, ''Jewish Studies at the Central European University: 2002–2003, Volume 3'', p. 186</ref><ref>{{cite speech |title=Acto en Recuerdo a Mota y Marín: Majadahonda |first=Miguel |last=Menéndez Piñar |author-link= |event=[[Francisco Franco National Foundation]] |location=[[Majadahonda]] |date=January 15, 2015 |url= https://fnff.es/actividades/acto-en-recuerdo-a-mota-y-marin-majadahonda/?__cf_chl_tk=2DqRgxW2hw.zAyl38dHsFdJIygfwRsCDT1Enz685Oa8-1731160805-1.0.1.1-hsRSSkLGSSbRpuG_Zdco_PmOicVW7tIb4131usIw57c |access-date= 9 November 2024}}</ref>
*[[Mihail Manoilescu]] was an economist and politician, [[Governor of the National Bank of Romania]] between June and November 1931. In 1937, he joined the Iron Guard when he ran as a senator on the list of the ''Totul pentru Țară'', an organization established by the Iron Guard. He succeeded in becoming senator following the [[1937 Romanian general election|election]]. His views corresponded to a large extent with the ideology of the Iron Guard. In 1948, he was detained at the [[Sighet Prison]] where he died in 1950. He never faced trial, and thus he was never convicted.<ref>Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman, Routledge, 2016, ''Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century'', p. 624</ref> On 14 April 2016, the [[National Bank of Romania]] issued a set of commemorative coins in the honor of three former bank governors. Manoilescu, who led the bank for several months in 1931, was among them. Manoilescu's inclusion drew strong protests from the Wiesel Institute, on the grounds of Manoilescu's advocacy of Fascist ideology and antisemitism before World War II. In spite of the criticism, the Bank did not withdraw the coin.<ref>[[United States Department of State]], ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20170307090344/https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/265676.pdf Romania 2016 Human Rights Report]'', p. 34</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-criticizes-romania-central-bank-for-anti-semitic-coin/|title=US knocks Romania for 'anti-Semitic' coin|website=[[The Times of Israel]]|date=13 May 2016 |access-date=2023-01-27|archive-date=2023-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127034625/https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-criticizes-romania-central-bank-for-anti-semitic-coin/|url-status=live |issn=0040-7909}}</ref>
*Historian [[Mircea Eliade]] was perhaps the most well-known person to have been a member of the Iron Guard. As with Manoilescu, his membership was the result of his joining the ''Totul pentru Țară''.<ref>Horst Junginger, Brill, 2008, ''The Study of Religion Under the Impact of Fascism'', pp. 36–37</ref> Eliade is currently honored by various means, ranging from stamps to busts.
*[[Nicolae Paulescu]], a Romanian [[physiologist]] and [[Academic staff|academic]], most famous for his work on diabetes, including patenting pancreine (a pancreatic extract containing [[insulin]]), was an important antisemitic doctrinaire who was a member of the [[:ro:Senatul legionar|Legionary Senate]].<ref>{{Cite web | title=Întrebări şi Răspunsuri-Personalităţi legionare marcante, personalităţi  de talie naţională şi mondială, membre ale Mişcării Legionare | url=http://www.zelea-codreanu.com/Doctrina/Intrebari-Raspunsuri/2007_05-Personalitati_legionare_de_talie_nationala.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718073328/http://www.zelea-codreanu.com/Doctrina/Intrebari-Raspunsuri/2007_05-Personalitati_legionare_de_talie_nationala.htm | archive-date=2014-07-18 | access-date=2025-08-25}}</ref> A hospital in [[Bucharest]], is named after him<ref>https://paulescu.ro/</ref> and he is currently honored by various means, ranging from stamps to statues (including one outside the [[Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy]]).<ref>https://evz.ro/o-statuie-a-savantului-nicolae-paulescu-a-fost-vandalizata-nebunia-cancel-culture-a-ajuns-si-in-romania-din-pacate.html</ref>

===Iron Guard in other countries===
The defunct American [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] [[Traditionalist Worker Party|Traditionalist Workers Party]] of the [[Nationalist Front (United States)|Nationalist Front]] took influence from Corneliu Zelia Codreanu for their ideology. The group's leader [[Matthew Heimbach]] (a [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] convert to [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christianity]]) was photographed wearing a T-shirt promoting Codreanu and the Iron Guard's Archangel Michael's Cross symbol in the aftermath of the deadly [[Unite the Right rally]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/archive/au/entry/this-holocaust-survivor-noticed-a-detail-in-charlottesville-you-might-have-missed_a_23186618|title=This Holocaust Survivor Noticed A Detail In Charlottesville You Might Have Missed|last=Freitas|first=Alessandra|website=[[The Huffington Post]]|date=2017-08-25|access-date=2022-06-17|archive-date=2022-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618021201/https://www.huffpost.com/archive/au/entry/this-holocaust-survivor-noticed-a-detail-in-charlottesville-you-might-have-missed_a_23186618|url-status=live}}</ref> The Archangel Michael's Cross was among the symbols emblazoned on the firearms used by Brenton Tarrant during the 2019 [[Christchurch mosque shootings]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/st-michaels-cross|title=St. Michael's Cross|publisher=Anti-Defamation League|access-date=2020-05-22|archive-date=2022-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514142826/https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/st-michaels-cross|url-status=live}}</ref> and by Payton S. Gendron during the [[2022 Buffalo shooting]].<ref name="Lombardi 2022">{{cite web |last=Lombardi |first=Marco |title=L'attacco a Buffalo e l'eredità tattica di Tarrant – Federico Borgonovo e Marco Zaliani |trans-title=The attack on Buffalo and Tarrant's tactical legacy - Federico Borgonovo and Marco Zaliani |website=ITSTIME |date=2022-05-17 |url=https://www.itstime.it/w/lattacco-a-buffalo-e-leredita-tattica-di-tarrant-federico-borgonovo-e-marco-zaliani |language=it |access-date=2022-06-14 |archive-date=2022-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614142228/https://www.itstime.it/w/lattacco-a-buffalo-e-leredita-tattica-di-tarrant-federico-borgonovo-e-marco-zaliani |url-status=live}}</ref>

During a 2018 interview with [[alt-right]] [[Mormonism|Mormon]] blogger Ayla Stewart, the Canadian [[White nationalism|white nationalist]] [[Faith Goldy]] recommended Codreanu's book ''For My Legionaries''—which explicitly called for the extermination of the Jews—calling it "very, very, very, very spot on, given a lot of what the movement is talking about right now";<ref name="PressProgress">{{cite web |url=https://pressprogress.ca/ex-rebel-media-host-promotes-1930s-book-by-fascist-author-advocating-the-elimination-of-jews |title=Ex-Rebel Media Host Promotes 1930s Book by Fascist Author Advocating 'The Elimination of Jews' |website=Press Progress |access-date=2019-08-24 |date=2019-04-03 |archive-date=2019-07-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731202913/https://pressprogress.ca/ex-rebel-media-host-promotes-1930s-book-by-fascist-author-advocating-the-elimination-of-jews |url-status=live}}</ref> she later said she no longer endorsed the book.<ref name="PressProgress"/>

The Iron Guard symbol was also spotted at [[Highlander Research and Education Center]] in [[New Market, Tennessee]] when the building was burned deliberately.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/tennessee/2019/04/03/christchurch-shooter-used-racist-symbol-found-at-highland-center-fire/33746678002|title=White power symbol found at Highland Center fire used by Christchurch shooter|last=Dorman|first=Travis|work=Knoxville News Sentinel/USA Today|access-date=April 3, 2019|date=April 3, 2019}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Valerian Trifa]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Chioveanu, Mihai. ''Faces of Fascism'', by  ([[University of Bucharest]], 2005, Chapter 5: The Case of Romanian Fascism, {{ISBN|973-737-110-0}}).
*{{Cite book |last=Coogan |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Coogan |title=Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International |title-link=Dreamer of the Day |publisher=[[Autonomedia]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57027-039-0 |location=Brooklyn |language=en}}
*Ioanid, Radu.  "The Sacralised Politics of the Romanian Iron Guard,"  ''Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions'', Volume 5, Number 3 (Winter 2004), pp.&nbsp;419–453.
*Ioanid, Radu. ''The Sword of the Archangel'', (Columbia University Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0-88033-189-5}}).
*Iordachi, Constantin. "Charisma, Religion, and Ideology: Romania's Interwar Legion of the Archangel Michael", in John R. Lampe, Mark Mazower (eds.), ''Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-century Southeastern Europe'', Central European University Press, Budapest, 2004
* {{cite book|author-last=Mann |author-first=Michael |year=2004 |title=Fascists |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0521538556}}
*[[Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera|Nagy-Talavera, Nicholas M.]] ''The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania'' by  ([[Hoover Institution Press]], 1970).
*{{Cite book |last=Ornea |first=Z. |title=Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească |publisher=Fundației Culturale Române |year=1995 |isbn=978-9-73915-543-4 |location=Bucharest |language=RO |trans-title=The Thirties: Romanian Far Right |author-link=Zigu Ornea}}
*[[Stanley G. Payne|Payne, Stanley G.]] ''Fascism: Comparison and Definition'', pp.&nbsp;115–118 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1980, {{ISBN|0-299-08060-9}}).
*Ronnett, Alexander E. ''The Legionary Movement''  Loyola University Press, 1974; second edition published as ''Romanian Nationalism: The Legionary Movement'' by Romanian-American National Congress, 1995, {{ISBN|0-8294-0232-2}}).
*{{Cite book |last1=Rubin |first1=Barry M. |title=Chronologies of Modern Terrorism |last2=Rubin |first2=Judith Colp |publisher=Taylor and Francis |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-31747-465-4 |location=Armonk}}
*{{Cite book |last=Volovici |first=Leon |title=Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism: The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s |publisher=Pergamon Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-08041-024-1 |location=Oxford}}
*[[Eugen Weber|Weber, Eugen]]. "Romania"  in ''The European Right: A Historical Profile'' edited by Hans Rogger and Eugen Weber ([[University of California]] Press, 1965)
*[[Eugen Weber|Weber, Eugen]]. "The Men of the Archangel"  in ''International Fascism: New Thoughts and Approaches'' edited by [[George L. Mosse]] (Sage Publications, 1979, {{ISBN|0-8039-9842-2|0-8039-9843-0}} [Pbk]).

===Primary sources===
*''[[Fascism (book)|Fascism]]'' (Oxford Readers) edited by [[Roger Griffin]], Part III, A., xi. "Romania", pp.&nbsp;219–222 ([[Oxford University]] Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-19-289249-5}}).
*''The Suicide of Europe: Memoirs of Prince Michael Sturdza'' by [[Mihail R. Sturdza]] ([[John Birch Society|American Opinion Books]], 1968, {{ISBN|0-88279-214-8}}).

===In German===
* Heinen, Armin. ''Die Legion "Erzengel Michael" in Rumänien'', (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1986, {{ISBN|978-3-486-53101-5}}) – one of the major historical contributions to the study of the Romanian Iron Guard.
* Totok, William. "Rechtsradikalismus und Revisionismus in Rumänien" (I–VII), in: ''Halbjahresschrift für südosteuropäische Geschichte Literatur und Politik'', 13–16 (2001–2004).

== Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Sima |first=Horia |title=The History of the Legionary Movement |publisher=The Legionary Press |year=1995 |isbn=1-899627-01-4 |location=Hampshire |author-link=Horia Sima}}
*{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Keith M |title=Codreanu and the Iron Guard |publisher=Steven Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-90491-192-0 |location=London}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170311145544/http://www.ushmm.org/research/scholarly-presentations/symposia/holocaust-in-romania/romania-facing-its-past Facing the Past]. Information on the Holocaust in Romania, including the role of the Iron Guard, from a report commissioned and accepted by the Romanian government.
*{{Cite news |last=Clogg |first=Richard |date=October 8, 2005 |title=An untold footnote to World War II |work=Kathimerini |url=http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_100002_08/10/2005_61665 |url-status=dead |access-date=December 23, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229235213/http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_ell_100002_08/10/2005_61665 |archive-date=December 29, 2010}} An aborted 1945 mission of the [[Aromanians|Aromanian]] Iron Guardists in Greece.

{{Fascism}}
{{Historical Romanian political parties}}
{{Romanian nationalism}}

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