Ionut Biliuta on Clark, 'Holy Legionary Youth' (original) (raw)

The Fascist Phenomenon. National Legionary State between laws, journals, memoirs, and the Jewish repression between -January

Journal of Education Culture and Society

The aim of the study is to show the evolution of the National Legionary State from its beginnings to its fi nal form of revolt (20-23rd January 1941). This type of state was created on 14th September 1940 by the royal wish of Michael I of Romania, who was infl uenced by General Ion Antonescu. The study has the purpose to show how anti-Semitism can transform itself from a philosophy concept, through the ideas of Nae Ionescu, to a state ideology. The main documents which I studied are based on archives, the constitution of the state, during the period mentioned in the title, and the journals of general Ion Antonescu, or main political fi gures, and the notes written by Filip Browner, known better as Filip Brunea Fox, in his City of massacre. Journal of Legionary, Rebellion and Crime. This study is important because it analyzes a totalitarian regime that was made possible by the intervention of political arrangements alongside the help of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, founded by the Corneliu Zelea Codreanu in 1927

The Ultranationalist Newsroom: Orthodox " Ecumenism " in the Legionary Ecclesiastical Newspapers

The present paper discusses the anti-Greek Catholic and anti-Jewish attitudes of some Orthodox clergy as reflected in the interwar legionary press. By making reference to several newspapers (Legiunea, Predania, Glasul Strămoșesc) the article sheds light on the political mobilization of the legionary Orthodox clergymen and intellectuals in support of the xenophobic agenda regarding other denominations (especially the Greek-Catholics) and religious groups (the Jews) in interwar Romania.

The religious self-representation of fascism: the case of Mario Appelius (ASMI Summer School, 19-20 June 2014, University of Edinburgh)

In the period between 1919 and 1945 fascism devoted much energy to represent itself as a religious system. The regime also looked to endow itself with both supreme political and spiritual power. It tried to do so through the construction of the «Myth of Mussolini» and the sacralisation of profane fields (such as politics, war or colonialism). The fascist regime also imposed rites, norms, forms of behaviour and customs on Italians. Mario Appelius was a very popular personality during the fascist regime, today unknown in the academic field, who wrote almost thirty books and hundreds of pieces for newspapers and magazines such as, for instance, Il secolo d’Italia and Gerarchia. He was one of the most fervent supporters of the idea that fascism was a religion. In this way he developed a religious dialectic concerning the unbreakable relationship between single races and their religions. According to Appelius, every race has an own religion in its genetic and spiritual expertise: so, in the world there are better and worse races (better and worse religions). According to him, life in the world is a clash of races, and indeed, a clash of different religions. Considering his opera my paper aims to point out one aspect of his whole thought: the representation of fascism as a religion. The narration of the black-shirt Antonio Furlaneto’s funeral, in which fascism is both the truly way of redemption and an antagonistic «religion» to Catholicism, will be the focus of my paper.

Literature review. New books on the history of the Legionary Movement

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Historia, decembrie 2020, 2020

In recent years, many works dealing with the phenomenon of the Legionary Movement have appeared. The scholars tried to understand the Iron Guard from a synchronous historiographical perspective called the "new consensus", theorized by Roger Griffin. In this context, the present article aims to analyse the works of Oliver Jens Schmitt, Tatiana Niculescu, Roland Clark and Traian Sandu. In their work, the writers adopt a broader understanding of the legionary phenomenon as an indigenous version of European fascism, reconfiguring Captain Codreanu's image in two provocative biographies. Clark’s book analyses the local and regional activity of the Iron Guard while Sandu’s work uses sociological research. A first part aims to compare the authors’ interest on researching the subject, as well as the methodological similarities and differences between their books. Each work is analysed separately, seeking to observe traits of their specificity and originality. The second part focuses on the common elements of each author, followed by a section of comparative perspectives, where we observe how the student activity and the religious spirit (two support pillars of the Iron Guard) may involve multiple valences of historiographical interpretation.

“Taming the Spirit”: Notes on the Shaping of the Legionary “New Man”

Abstract: Drawing on the heuristic value of the theoretical and methodological insights of the cultural approach to the study of fascism, the present work focuses on the spiritual components used by the Romanian Iron Guard in order to shape the profile of its followers, with the final goal of creating a “new man”. The process of spiritually taming the young legionaries was realized with the help of elements such as songs, poetry, marches, and military and religious education. http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=32368