Iron Guards offer the salute to their leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
In the 1930s, many patriots of Romania joined the Legion of the Archangel Michael (commonly known as the “Iron Guards”), a revolutionary nationalist Romanian Orthodox Christian party very similar to Catholic movements in Spain such as the Falange.
The Legion of the Archangel Michael was a deeply Christian movement. Even though it was Orthodox, it viewed Romania as a part of Latin civilisation and therefore closer to the Spaniards, French, Portuguese, and Italians, than to the Slavic Orthodox nations.
It was founded in 1930 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899-1938), a Romanian nationalist who wanted to build the fledgling Romanian state around ideals of Latin unity, Romanian Orthodox mysticism, and nationalism. He had a special devotion to the Archangel Michael.
The Legion’s ideology is often described as that of a fascist death cult, which is a grave misreading of its ideology and aims. It was neither truly fascist in the classical sense nor a death cult. Rather, the Legion viewed itself as the defender of Romanian Orthodox nationality and civilisation. Its members believed, as Codreanu said, that it was ‘better to end our life dying to the last man up in the mountains for our faith.’ For Codreanu, Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church had enemies on all sides: Bolsheviks, Jews, masons, Protestants, capitalists, and liberals. Therefore it was necessary for the movement to always be on the offensive.
In his autobiography, Codreanu quoted an inscription he once saw on an icon of Saint Michael the Archangel, which read: "Towards the unclean hearts who come into the most pure House of the Lord, I mercilessly point my sword." This indeed was the underlying ideology of the movement. It was based on the revolutionisation of Romanian society around ideals of Christianity, militarism, and nationalism.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Codreanu himself was assassinated whilst in prison in 1938.
In September 1940 the Legion of the Archangel Michael became a part of the new Romanian government. However, in January 1941, as Marshal Antonescu tried to suppress the movement and subordinate it to his state, its members rebelled and the Legion was banned. It never really gained power in Romania. It would be interesting to consider what Romania might have looked like if it had.
THE ANTHEM OF THE “IRON GUARDS”
Holy Legionary Youth,
With a hardened iron chest and a lily soul
Iureș unbridled by spring,
With his forehead like a Carpathian lake,
With our own hands we build under the Sun,
Iconostases for the ages;
We build them from the rocks, from the fire, from the sea,
And then we plaster them with Dacian blood.
Guard, Captain,
Turn us into iron hawks
Country, Captain,
And the Archangel from heaven.
Death, only legionary death,
It's our most expensive wedding ever,
For the Holy Cross, for the country,
We defeat the forests and subdue the mountains;
There is no dungeon to frighten us,
Neither torment nor the vigor of the enemy;
If we all fall, hit in the forehead,
We love death for the Captain!
Holy Legionary Youth,
We go to church, we stay brave in prisons.
In persecution no matter how bitter,
We sing and think of Nicadori,
We wear it in the sun and in the sun,
Lights for winners,
We build altars for the brave,
And we only have bullets for traitors!
If you can find a picture of the icon of St. Michael with that inscription, please post it or send it to me.
Thank you !