The Iron Guard: Romania's Far-Right Mystery

In the 1920s and 1930s, as Romania enjoyed a cultural renaissance, a dark shadow grew: the Legion of the Archangel Michael, better known as the Iron Guard. This episode dives into the rise of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and his fascist movement, blending Orthodox mysticism, anti-Semitism, and peasant grievances into a potent political force. We trace the Guard's origins, its assassination of Prime Minister Ion G. Duca, the 1937 electoral breakthrough, and the violent rivalry with King Carol II. Lucas and Luna explore the Guard's strange rituals, its appeal to youth and clergy, and the eventual suppression under Carol's dictatorship. The conversation also touches on the Guard's brief alliance with Ion Antonescu during World War II, the Bucharest pogrom of 1941, and the movement's bloody end. This is a story of idealism twisted into extremism, set against the backdrop of a fragile democracy trying to hold itself together.

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