Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (Romanian pronunciation: [kor'neliu 'zelea ko'dreanu] ( listen); born Corneliu Zelinski; September 13, 1899 - November 30, 1938), commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu, was a Romanian politician who was the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard (also known as the Legionnaire movement), an ultranationalistic and antisemitic 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, and often resorted to terrorism. The Legionnaires traditionally referred to Codreanu as Capitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until his death. Codreanu, who began his career in the wake of World War I as an anticommunist and antisemitic agitator associated with A. C. Cuza and Constantin Pancu, was a co-founder of the National-Christian Defense League and assassin of the Iasi Police prefect Constantin Manciu.

After the consequent ban on paramilitary groups, the Legion turned into a political party, running in elections as Totul Pentru Tara ("Everything for the Country"). Shortly afterwards, Codreanu went on record stating his contempt for Romania's alliances in Eastern Europe, in particular the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact, and indicating that, 48 hours after his movement came into power, the country would be aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Reportedly, such trust and confidence was reciprocated by both German officials and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, the latter of whom viewed Goga's cabinet as a transition to the Iron Guard's rule. In the elections of 1937, when it signed an electoral pact with the National Peasants' Party with the goal of preventing the government from making use of electoral fraud, the Guard received 15.5% of the vote (occasionally rounded up at 16%). Despite the failure to win the majority bonus, Codreanu's movement was, at the time, the third political option in Romanian politics, the only one whose appeal was shown to be growing in 1937-1938, and by far the most popular fascist group. The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol, who preferred newly formed subservient movements and the revived National-Christian Defense League. Cuza created his antisemitic government together with poet Octavian Goga and his National Agrarian Party. Codreanu and the two leaders did not get along, and the Legion started competing with the authorities by adopting corporatism. In parallel, he was urging his followers to set up private businesses, claiming to follow the advice of Nicolae Iorga, after the latter claimed that a Romanian-run commerce could prove a solution to what he deemed the "Jewish Question". The government alliance, unified as the National Christian Party, gave itself a blue-shirted paramilitary corps that borrowed heavily from the Legion -- the Lancieri -- and initiated an official campaign of persecution of Jews, attempting to win back the interest the public had in the Iron Guard. After much violence, Codreanu was approached by Goga and agreed to have his party withdraw from campaigning in the scheduled elections of 1938, believing that, in any event, the regime had no viable solution and would wear itself out -- while attempting to profit from the king's authoritarianism by showing his willingness to integrate any possible one-party system.

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The Legion was excluded from political coalitions by nominally fascist King Carol,