CORNELIU ZELEA

CODREANU
Profile of a hero

By Fulgescu Vlad
E213B
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction
II. Early life
III. The Legion – Iron Guard
IV. Sentencing and death
V. Legacy
VI. Vocabulary
VII. Bibliography
 I. INTRODUCTION
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, 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 Căpitanul ("The Captain"), and he held absolute authority over the organization until
his death.
 I. INTRODUCTION
“By our audacious act, we break from the
dominant mentality of this century and of the
world. We kill in ourselves a world in order to
build another, a higher one reaching to the heavens.
The absolute sovereignty of money is broken to be
replaced by the power of the spirit and of moral
values. We do not deny and will not deny the role
and necessity of the material in the world, but we
do deny and always will its right to preeminence.”
 EARLY LIFE
Corneliu Codreanu was born in Huşi to Elizabeth and Ion Zelea Codreanu son of
Neculai born Zelinski. His father, a teacher, would later become a political figure within his son's
movement.
Too young for conscription in 1916, when Romania entered World War I on
the Entente side, Corneliu nonetheless tried his best to enlist and fight in the subsequent campaign.
His education at the military school in Bacău (where he was a colleague of Petre Pandrea, the
future left-wing activist) ended in the same year as Romania's direct involvement in the war. In
1919, after moving to Iaşi, Codreanu found communism to be his new enemy, after witnessing the
impact of Bolshevik agitation in Moldavia, and especially after Romania lost its main ally in
the October Revolution, forcing Romania's leaders to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest; also, the
newly founded Comintern was violently opposed to Romania's interwar.
EARLY LIFE
 THE LEGION

Codreanu put into practice his dream of forming the Legion in November
1927, just a few days after the fall of a new Averescu cabinet, which had continued to
support Cuza. Codreanu claimed to had a vision of the Archangel Michael who told
him he had been chosen by God to be Romania's savior. Right from the start, a
commitment to the values of the Eastern Orthodox Church was core to the message
of the Legion, and Codreanu's alleged vision was a centerpiece of his message. The
Legion introduced Orthodox rituals as part of its political rallies, while Codreanu
made his public appearances dressed in folk costume.
 THE LEGION
The authorities became truly concerned with the revolutionary potential of the Legion, and
minor clashes in 1932 between the two introduced what became, from 1933, almost a decade of major
political violence. The situation degenerated after Codreanu expressed his full support for Adolf
Hitler and nazism (even to the detriment of Italian fascism). Romania was traditionally one of the most
Francophile countries in Europe and had been allied to its "Latin sister" France since 1926, so
Codreanu's call for an alliance with Germany was very novel for the time. A new National Liberal
cabinet, formed by Ion G. Duca, moved against such initiatives, stating that the Legion was acting as a
puppet of the German Nazi Party, and ordering that a huge number of Legionaries be arrested just prior
to the new elections in 1933 (which the Liberals won). Some of the men held in custody were killed by
authorities. The main effect of this was the killing of Duca by the Iron Guard's Nicadori on December
30. Another one was the very first crackdown on non-affiliated sympathizers of the Iron Guard, after the
group around Nae Ionescu decided to voice protests against the repression.
THE LEGION
 THE LEGION
Codreanu was overturned by Carol, who deposed Goga, introducing his
own dictatorship after his attempts to form a national government. The system relied
instead on the new Constitution of 1938, the financial backing received from large
business, and the winning over of several more or less traditional politicians, such as
Nicolae Iorga and the Internal Affairs Minister Armand Călinescu. The ban on the
Guard was again tightly enforced, with Călinescu ordering all public places known to
have harbored Legion meetings to be closed down (including several restaurants
in Bucharest). Members of the movement were placed under close surveillance or
arrested in cases where they did not abide by the new legislation, while civil servants
risked arrest if they were caught spreading Iron Guard propaganda.
THE LEGION
 SENTENCING AND DEATH
He was eventually sentenced to ten years of hard labor. Codreanu was moved from
Jilava to Doftana prison, where, despite the sentence, he was not required to perform any form
of physical work. The conditions of his detention improved, and he was allowed to regularly
communicate with his family and subordinates. On November 30, it was announced that
Codreanu, the Nicadori and the Decemviri had been shot after trying to flee custody the previous
night. The details were revealed much later: it is most likely that the fourteen persons had been
transported from their prison and executed (strangled or garroted and shot) by
the Gendarmerie around Tâncăbeşti (near Bucharest), and it was shown that their bodies had
been buried in the courtyard of the Jilava prison. Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed
under seven tons of concrete.
SENTENCING AND DEATH
 LEGACY
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.
LEGACY
 VOCABULARY

 Audacious=showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks

 Garroted=a method of capital punishment of Spanish origin in which an iron
collar is tightened around a condemned person's neck until deathoccurs by
strangulation or by injury to the spinal column at the baseof the brain.
 Abide=to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc.
 Crackdown=the severe or stern enforcement of regulations, laws, etc., as to
rootout abuses or correct a problem.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corneliu_Zelea_Codreanu#Creatio
n_of_the_Legion

 https://xaameriki.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/profile-of-a-hero-
corneliu-zelea-codreanu-and-the-legion-of-st-michael-the-archangel-
iron-guard/

 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Corneliu-Codreanu