THE ROMANIAN "NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES" - ION ANTONESCU AND THE OVERTHROW OF THE IRON GUARD

by Empire and Revolution

Adolf Hitler, far from being an "extreme radical," as he is often portrayed, quite frequently sided with Conservative and establishment elements at key points in his career. This goes back to his sidelining of the more radical Strasser faction in the National Socialist Party in 1930, as well as his famous Night of the Long Knives purge in 1934, when he reined in the power of the Brownshirts and other populist elements in his party, in order to win the favour of the German ruling elites. 

Another example of Hitler's inherent conservatism was the position he took during the revolt launched by the Romanian Iron Guard on this day -- January 21st -- in 1941, when the German Fuhrer sided with the relatively "moderate" Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu.

CODREANU AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS

by Keith Preston

European civilization of the early to middle twentieth century was characterized in part by the growth of political movements with a martial character. These included both the many variants of fascism from the far Right and revolutionary socialist currents from the far Left. The proliferation of such movements accelerated sharply in the interwar period. Particularly noteworthy were Mussolini’s Fascisti and the National Socialists of Germany, given the later success of these at actual achievement of state power, as well as the various factions involved in the Spanish Civil War. Romania’s Iron Guard, under the leadership of Corneliu Codreanu, was unique among these movements in that it was one of the few such tendencies with a strong religious orientation, and a highly eccentric religiosity at that. (Payne, 1995)