FASCISM ROMÂNESC, CHARISMĂ POLITICĂ ȘI MESIANISM NAȚIONAL: REFLECȚII BIBLIOGRAFICE ASUPRA MIȘCĂRII LEGIONARE
Romanian Fascism, Political Charisma, and National Messianism: Bibliographical Reflections upon the Legionary Movement

Summary/Abstract: Starting from Oliver Jens Schmitt’s biography of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, this study engages into a wider reflection upon the interwar ultranationalist Romanian Legionary movement (also known as the Iron Guard). It starts by situating Schmitt’s work within the recent trend of de-orientalizing the Legion of Archangel Michael, after the latter has longtime been conceived of as an exotic incarnation of the generic model of fascism at the Europe’s Eastern hinterland. Engaging in a dialogue with the scholarship done in fascists studies in general and on the Legionary movement in particular, the study reflects upon the “fascisticity” of the latter. After arguing that the Legionary movement should be conceived of as a particular species of fascism, the study explores the movement’s fulminant rise in Romanian politics and society. This success is accounted within a structuralist framework which insists upon the structural features of Romanian interwar societies that made possible and facilitated the movement’s growth. Next, the paper focuses its analytical scope upon the role of Codreanu’s charisma in integrating an otherwise internally fractured political organization. Lastly, it concludes with some reflection on Codreanu and the Legion’s contested legacy in the heavily disputed politics of memory within contemporary Romania.

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