page_title: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
section_title: Lifetime influence and Legionary power
hierarchical_section_title: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu / Legacy / Lifetime influence and Legionary power
caption_attribution_description: English: Romanian general Ion Antonescu, conducator of the nation, next to Iron Guard leader and vicepremier Horia Sima in a tribute to Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, October 1940. A large picture of Codreanu is visible in the background, above both of them Español: El general rumano Ion Antonescu, conducator de la nación, junto al dirigente de la Guardia de Hierro y viceprimer ministro Horia Sima en un homenaje al fundador de la Guardia, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, en octubre de 1940. Română: Generalul român Ion Antonescu, Conducător al ţării, împreună cu vicepremierul şi liderul Gărzii de Fier, Horia Sima, la o manifestaţie în memoria fondatorului Gărzii de Fier, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, în octombrie 1940.
context_page_description: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu, was a Romanian politician who was the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard, an ultranationalist, antisemitic, antimagyar, and antiziganist organization active throughout most of the interwar period. Generally seen as the main variety of local fascism, and noted for its Romanian Orthodox-inspired revolutionary message, the Iron Guard grew into an important actor on the Romanian political stage, coming into conflict with the political establishment and democratic forces. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Căpitanul, and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death. He is cited on the list of the 100 Greatest Romanians.
  Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iaşi Police prefect Constantin Manciu. Codreanu left Cuza to found a succession of far-right movements, rallying around him a growing segment of the country's intelligentsia and peasant population.
context_section_description: According to Adrian Cioroianu, Codreanu was "the most successful political and at the same time anti-political model of interwar Romania". The Legion was described by British researcher Norman Davies as "one of Europe's more violent fascist movements." Stanley G. Payne also argued that the Iron Guard was "probably the most unusual mass movement of interwar Europe", and noted that part of this was owed to Codreanu being "a sort of religious mystic", while British historian James Mayall sees the Legion as "the most singular of the lesser fascist movements".
  The charismatic leadership represented by Codreanu has drawn comparisons with models favored by other leaders of far right and fascist movements, including Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Payne and German historian Ernst Nolte proposed that, among European far rightists, Codreanu was most like Hitler in what concerns fanaticism. In Payne's view, however, he was virtually unparalleled in demanding "self-destructiveness" from his followers. Mayall, who admits the Legion "was inspired in large measure by National Socialism and fascism", argues that Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's vision of omul nou, although akin to the "new man" of Nazi and Italian doctrines, is characterized by an unparalleled focus on mysticism. Historian Renzo De Felice, who dismisses the notion that Nazism and fascism are connected, also argues that, due to Legionary attack on "bourgeois values and institutions", which the fascist ideology wanted instead to "purify and perfect", Codreanu "was not, strictly speaking, a fascist." Spanish historian Francisco Veiga argued that "fascization" was a process experienced by the Guard, accumulating traits over a more generic nationalist fiber.
  According to American journalist R. G. Waldeck, who was present in Romania in 1940–1941, Codreanu's violent killing only served to cement his popularity and aroused interest in his cause. She wrote: "To the Rumanian people the Capitano [that is, Căpitanul] remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Rumania. Even skeptical ones who did not agree with him in political matters still grew dreamy-eyed remembering Codreanu." Historiographer Lucian Boia notes that Codreanu, his rival Carol II, and military leader Ion Antonescu were each in turn perceived as "savior" figures by the Romanian public, and that, unlike other such examples of popular men, they all preached authoritarianism. Cioroianu also writes that Codreanu's death "whether or not paradoxically, would increase the personage's charisma and would turn him straight into a legend." Attitudes similar to those described by Waldeck were relatively widespread among Romanian youths, many of whom came to join the Iron Guard out of admiration for the deceased Codreanu while still in middle or high school.
  Led by Horia Sima, the Iron Guard eventually came to power in 1940–1941, proclaiming the fascist National Legionary State and forming an uneasy partnership with Conducător Ion Antonescu. This was a result of Carol's downfall, effected by the Second Vienna Award, through which Romania had lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary. On November 25, 1940, an investigation was carried out on the Jilava prison premises. The discovery of Codreanu and his associates' remains caused the Legionaries to engage in a reprisal against the new regime's political prisoners, who were detained on the same spot. On the next night, sixty-four inmates were shot, while on the 27th and 28 November there were fresh arrests and swift executions, with prominent victims such as Iorga and Virgil Madgearu (see Jilava Massacre). The widespread disorder brought the first open clash between Antonescu and the Legion. During the events, Codreanu was posthumously exonerated of all charges by a Legionary tribunal. His exhumation was a grandiose ceremony, marked by the participation of Romania's new ally, Nazi Germany — Luftwaffe planes dropped wreaths on Codreanu's open tomb.
  Codreanu's wife Elena withdrew from the public eye after her husband's killing, but, after the communist regime took hold, was arrested
caption: Conducător of Romania Marshal Ion Antonescu and Iron Guard leader Horia Sima in a tribute to Iron Guard founder Codreanu, October 1940
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