The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1250: Codreanu and the Romanian 'Iron Guard' w/ Karl Dahl

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

111 MinutesPG-13Karl Dahl is an author specializing in the Spanish Civil War and historical "fiction."Karl joins Pete to give an overview of the life and work of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and the Romanian "Iron Guard."Faction: With the CrusadersKarl's SubstackKarl's MerchPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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with vouchers from Trump Dunebag. Search Trump-Ireland gift vouchers. Trump on Doonbiog, Kus Farage. If you want to get the show early and ad-free, head on over to the piquinez Show.com. There you can choose from where you wish to support me. Now listen very carefully. I've had some people ask me about this,

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Carl Dahl is back with a new subject. No Spanish Civil War this time. We're not going to the Orient. We're going to actually a country I lived in for a little while. How you doing, Carl? Doing great, Pete. Glad to be here. I mean, I know that this is going to be a lot of information.

So just run with it, man. And I'll jump in. You got it. I have one slight correction is that there is a Spanish Civil War tie-in in this story. Of course, yeah. All the way at the very end. Yeah, you sort of. You sort of have to, Thomas and I recorded with Adam from the 20th century the other day.

They're doing the review of the World at War series from BBC, I think of the 70s. And they didn't, I think they've glossed over the Spanish Civil War. And we covered it. I went on and we covered some of it. And of course, Thomas did the tie-in with two Romanian gentlemen in the Spanish Civil War. Absolutely. Absolutely. Right on. All right. Well, I'll dive right into it then. So the subject of this episode is the Legion of the Archangel Michael, aka the Iron Guard, organization out of Romania in the interwar period. And I think Pete, I'll start with my usual preface that this is not a Fed post. But I will say that there are many concepts within

uh, Kodriano's kind of conceptual framework and organizational structure that are, I think, very important. I also think that the, the legion or the iron guard, whatever terminology you want to use became something different after Kaldriano died. Uh, it, it was different versus the, the, what was taking place. frankly through the sheer force of his personality.

So let's dive into it. So I have a little agenda here. I'm going to start out with my sources. I'll provide a history in brief of Romania plus the topic of Romania and anti-Semitism because it's really important to understand what we're talking about here. We'll talk about the captain,

Cornelio Zelaya Caldreanu and kind of an overview of him and some of his life experience will then talk about the political scene in Romania, in and around this topic. In fact, that's like a consistent theme throughout everything. One of the key folks in that is AC Cusa, who represents kind of a more like the establishment conservative angle, although he was an early ally of Cadriano. Oh, and go go find some of A.C. Coos's more famous writings. Yeah, definitely. That's something that we'll hit on here is when there's a work. We're going to definitely recommend that you read it.

I will also point out, though, to that end, there's a great deal of material that is not easy to get from Romania. But a lot of it is still is seemingly available in Romanian, in Romania, whether it's online or not. This is not something that they're shy about. In fact, there's a pretty notable remaining legacy in Romania. And then we'll kind of close out with the timeline of the Iron Guard slash Legion of Archangel, Michael until the very bitter end. So let's get going. My sources, one of the primaries is for my legionaries,

which is a fantastic book by the captain himself, Cornelia Zalea Kodriano. I highly recommend that everyone read it. It's available online. I would say that the translation is pretty good. in every version I've seen. I haven't read, I've only read two or three versions that are,

my suspicion is that they're just repackaging, so the same translation, but there are some others that may be slightly better. And there's some things, I mentioned that because there's some artifacts that stand out to me as being like these very minor inaccuracies, but would be an easy mistake to make from kind of translations of that era. Like one of them being obviously referring to an automatic pistol and using the term revolver,

that's an incredibly common error in the interwar period for some reason in the translations into English. The next is the organizational documentation that we still have, which is the Nest Leaders Manual, which refers to a kind of a leadership position within the Iron Guard or the Legion of the Archangel Michael. And then also referring to a great article by Stanley Payne, of course, the great Stanley Payne, the expert on the stuff who you should go to. If there's any material on a topic and Stanley Payne wades in on it, You need to read Professor Payne's works.

So I'm referring to his material on the Iron Guard and the Romanian political scene from a history of fascism, 1914 to 1945. Ready for huge savings? We'll mark your calendars from November 28 to 30th because the Liddle Newbridge Warehouse sale is back. We're talking thousands of your favorite Liddle items all reduced to clear. From home essentials to seasonal must-habs, when the doors open, The deals go fast. Come see for yourself.

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Step outside and be captivated by the wild Atlantic surrounds. Your five-star getaway, where every detail is designed with you in mind. Give the gift of a unique experience this Christmas with vouchers from Trump-Dunbeg. Search Trump-Ireland gift vouchers. Trump on Dunbiog, Kush Farage. Not to try to call Professor Payne out or get him in trouble, but would you say he is sympathetic or is he just? honest he's neutral he's honest okay I mean I you'll you'll see in this article like he he does a little

bit of the stuff that tells you he's not being sympathetic or or how would I put it he's sympathetic to humanity and he believes in the truth and he's just transparent utterly transparent and he speaks from a position of reality and knowledge and detachment. So he doesn't, he's not performative in his denouncements or anything like that. So very, very helpful, very important. And then finally, a Julius Evel a piece, the tragedy of the Romanian Iron Guard, Kaudreanu, highly recommend that you read this. this is available online also.

I've meant to read that on the show, and I just haven't had a chance to. And it's a perfect way to describe it because I see it as a tragedy in many ways also. Yeah. So we'll get into that. Again, I just want to advertise for my legionaries. It details his activism, his philosophy, his motivation, and his goals. It's interspersed with a lot of Romanian history, statistical support for what he's talking about. And I believe it is the most inspiring and actionable interwar memoir that's out there.

I don't have the copy with this lovely cover here with the Carrie Bolton introduction. My suspicion is that it is based on what I've read online, it seems to corroborate. my suspicion that it is a slightly better translation than the old one. And just it's a comfy book that you can sit and read in your chair. So I would, I feel comfortable recommending it. So, Cadriani is very famous for this first quote that we have here. And I just want to read a couple of these inspirational quotes because it tells you how serious this guy was and how realistic he was. as well as his mindset, which I think in many ways, not always, but in many ways does translate

to things that we should keep in mind in our own lives based on where we're at. So the first and fiercest punishment ought to fall on the traitor, second on the enemy. If I had but one bullet and I were faced by both an enemy and a traitor, I would let the traitor have it. And this is a position that he comes to. This is a quote from four of my legionaries because of the issues that they have with traitors of all kinds. And it's very important to understand that you have, in Kaudriano's framing, you have traitors, you have adversaries and you have enemies.

And the adversary is treating you as their enemy, but you're not really enemies. It's something that will constantly kind of, up. Conservatives. Second, we have first seized the front line of trenches, then the second and the third, and our adversary shut up in his retreat, in the safety which it offers, is now firing at us, not knowing that we would like nothing better than to come to his aid against the real enemy. And then finally, I see the true destiny of our people as lying not in time, but in eternity, political achievements, culture, struggles, and national greatness are means, not ends

in themselves. The ultimate goal is not life, but resurrection. He's often referred to as a mystic, and I believe that's from the perspective of materialists who just don't understand, because they're bugman. So to understand this story, we need to do a little bit of Romanian history and it's as briefly as possible because it figures, it looms large in this talk. So the first thing I want to say is that the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were founded in the 14th century. there's a lot of debate over whether an ancient like dossian or docco-Roman population survived in the kind of intervening fort you know 12 11 centuries from when this was a roman territory or not because of all the migrations that took place there's a huge amount of debate there or did some later migrate? And then because this is a dark age period where there's just very little remaining evidence,

other than legends, right? And legends can be created in retrospect. So, Romanians often claim descent from Romanized, then Christianized. I think Doccians is the term Thracians or the Gite. Romania was squeezed between the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires. And as this kind of distinct population with a distinct language, of course,

it's extremely important to like dig in and focus on what your heritage is. But this is one of those things we literally just don't know, but Romanian patriots will certainly make reference to their ancient claim to the land, which is fine by me. Under the Ottoman Empire, these principalities became unified and recognized as Romanian unified principalities, not semi-autonomous, but more like responsible for their own government as the Ottoman Empire was deteriorating in 1862. and then formally became the kingdom of Romania, those principalities, in 1881.

The old kingdom, which was within that small footprint, survived until 1914 and then expanded in 19, beginning in 1914, through frankly, 1947 before it became totally reorganized under the Soviets. So in brief, it's really important to understand the context right before the inner war period.

So the Kingdom of Romania entered the Second Balkan War, which if you remember your World War one history, predated World War I proper. They were fighting against the czardom of Bulgaria. And part of it was to try to claim some territory that they felt was theirs. And a lot of it, there was a substantial Romanian population in Bulgaria, in these little corners of Bulgaria. So in 1916, as this war is ongoing, Romania enters on the Entente side. So like France, Russia.

Romanian forces did not fare well militarily, but by the end of the war, the Austrian and Russian empires were gone. So everything's getting carved up. We know that there were major changes in borders after World War I, just as these treaties were being laid out. So Transylvania, Bessarabian, Bukovina voted on union with Romania because they had pluralities, if not full majorities of ethnic Romanians within their territory. So this was formalized along with some other territorial gains in 1919 by the Treaty of Saint-Germain and in 1920 by the Treaty of Triunan. And then as in neighboring countries, the earliest 20th century saw leftist terrorism

and uprisings, including in Romania the Soviet-backed Tartarbonne, uprising in the 1920s. So there's this massive pressure of these changes in the borders and, you know, war and combat and movements of peoples. So a little bit of context about the Romanian political scene at the time, because this is really important, but we're not going to beat it to death. So executive power resided in the king, and he delegated. his power to the council of ministers who he appointed to basically run things for him. The legislative power was entrusted to both parliament and the king, so that the king could, depending on his level of power at a given time, could come in and shut things down.

So there was a bicameral parliament. There was a Senate, which was elected by electoral bodies. so basically elites being selected. And then the Assembly of Deputies was elected by the populace. There was really limited suffrage, however, before a 1923 constitution of the union, which granted universal male suffrage. Most importantly, regardless of religion or origin. You catch them in the corner of your eye. Distinctive. By design.

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Trump on Dunbiog Koshvarega. Oh, that's going to come to bite them in the ass. It absolutely does. So as all these different peoples are being settled and they're figuring out who's in their territory. And again, you can't really go back and be like, wait, were you here before 1914 or 1918 or 1919 or 1920? There's not really a way to do that. It's literally everyone has it and you're here and you're a citizen. not the most wonderful idea. What is going on? Okay, so, so previously, before the

interwar period, I should say, Romania's parliament was, was two part, consisted of two parties. There was a conservative and a national liberal party. So the national liberal hints that they're nationalists, but they're pretty liberal. And I'll point that out because there was a big, very strong anti-communist movement in Romania, and a lot of that was because, frankly, in Romania, communism was vast majority Jewish, just like right over the border in the Russian Empire. So during the Great War, the majority of Romanian conscripts, had been landless peasants that were marginalized by what was called census suffrage.

So like I said, there was limited suffrage and it, you know, really kind of what you, you're standing in the census and what you owned, et cetera, like could dictate how much skin in the game that you had. And so there was this huge swell and there had been revolts in 1907 called the Peasants Revolt and all these uprisings. The government of Romania was very unpopular because they were not doing well as a country. They had oil wealth, but it wasn't going down below the elites. So as this universal suffrage is granted, tons of political parties pop up. And nationalist populist political movements exploded in popularity from the Peasants Party to the People's Party. And really, this is my summary is that the key foci that determine their alignments within kind of this landscape were positions on lamb reform, whether they were explicitly anti-Semitic or not, their position on anti-communism.

And then the relationships with non-Romanian ethnics, which we'll get into here in a second. When you say non-Romanian ethnics, you're talking about deospra's within Romania? Whether they're diaspora or they're the settlers, like German settlers or the Hungarians in Transylvania. So I'll dive into that in more detail here very shortly. No problem. So to understand Romanian anti-Semitism, you have to see 200 years together. And I say that because Pete has a wonderful series that he's doing with Dr. Johnson on this. And it's the same stuff.

It's exactly the same. It's exactly the same stories. So that was not something that the Romanians believed. But it's the same story. We'll dive right into it. So if you read like conventional, histories of it, like if you go to the Wikipedia talking about this, it's all

Libtards and like Yad Vashem articles. Okay. So it, but the truth is is that this anti-Semitism was not xenophobia or chauvinism. So this territory, which had been under the Turks, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian empire, etc.,

had long been multi-ethnic, and there were distinct legal codes and semi-autonomous government for these individual groups. So the Jews had a very small population, very small population that was allowed. There were expulsions in Romanian history. The Jewish communities governed themselves under the Kholl, which we'll look at here in a second, and some stuff that Kodriyano talks about regarding the khal, which also is a reference back to 200 years together. So an example of this is that German settlers were brought in over hundreds of years to kind of fortify those borderlands against the Ottomans and slash or develop these lands in Transylvania, Regat, Budyak, and along the Danube. river basin. So there were very important, respected German populations all over the place. Their

position changes a little bit, given the kind of geostrategic things going down in the 20th century, the rise of Germany. But at the same time, these are people who are recognized as being like Christians and honest. They have their own interests. aren't necessarily other peoples, but like literally Kaudrean who never wants slanders Germans or Hungarians. He talks about some of the political challenges that they're having over ownership of these territories in domination, but that's different. So when you read these Wikipedia articles, they say, oh, well, a lot of this, you know,

Romanian nationalism, which is just chauvinism from all these people that were coming in, and they were just different and they didn't know how to deal with it. That's nonsense. Here's the other thing. The Jewish population in Romania exploded in the 19th century. So after the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople, which was basically wrapped up the Ottoman-Russian wars, there were all these of course there were all these trade and travel rules

that were imposed which were to it's that whole libertarian concept that if goods don't cross borders tanks will so that was the theory which meant that there was a flood of Jews

from the Russian Empire and probably other parts of the Ottoman Empire into Romania, which was this crossroads and thus very important for trade. So by the year 1900, they go from like an almost non-existent population that are, you know, in their stettles and, you know, having these, you know, they're important with commerce and lending money and stuff, but they're not that powerful to just utterly dominating the economy, the press, the schools, and the political parties. And then at the conclusion of World War I, as all these borders are being redrawn, the Jewish population basically doubles in Romanian territory, mostly up in kind of the northeastern part of the country, which is hard against Ukraine. which is bananas. So here's a table because we're going to get into educational militancy,

or at least this massive uprising of nationalistic agitation in the school system and the university system. And percentiles would have been handy here, but the long and the short of it is in a lot of the key university, the Romanians came back from war and found that they were totally outnumbered in many of the schools in university, the school of pharmacy.

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But they weren't used to this situation where there are these huge populations. or they're like totally outnumbered in the school of medicine, um, et cetera. If you look up at the very top and you see what the actual attendance in these other schools is, is, is that like in the rural areas,

there's almost no Jews. And that's frankly because of policy that the, they were excluded from being able to live in the countryside as much as possible. For the same reasons, you know, there were such edicts made in, the Russian Empire. And then when you look at the urban schools, again, like on paper, you'd think that they wouldn't, it just doesn't translate to these tiny percentiles, but dominating these universities. Let's look at a more general population breakout from a 1930 survey. And this is where they find out what the real numbers are. So in the 20th,

20s, Kadriano had stated that he believed that the Jewish population was being reported as one half of what it was because the numbers were based on pre-World War I projections, and they found that they were right. So in Bukovina, it was 30% Jewish, Bessarabia, 26.8%, Moldavia, 23.1%. I mean, and it goes all over. And so, again, the cities were very, very much dominated by Jews, again, as these people come back from World War I and the lines are being redrawn. And so that's going to leave people mift. It's not like these are people that they've been living with for hundreds of years. It's this massive surge of this population that came from just across the border, frankly.

And also it blockade. When you read Blockade, there's this mysterious thing where the Soviets are sending these populations to raid on the borders, Kaudriano talks about the same thing taking place, whether it's raiding or whether it's just repopulating people, just this constant flow of people from these, from these Soviet areas and spreading a communist message, which, to their credit, the Romanian government was suppressing quite,

quite thoroughly. So Kodriano asserts, and again, And the way that for my legionaries is written, he does a weave. He does a very a Trumpian weave and that he will be talking about, this is what's going on right now. And then he'll step back and he'll write about history and provide a bunch of statistics. And then he'll provide some philosophical stuff, you know, his positions on certain things. And so as he's telling this story about like what they're seeing in these university cities, and with the struggles that are taking place,

he intersperses, hey, there are these people that are saying, well, just retreat to the rural areas. You know, this is a common refrain in the United States. You know,

just give up these things. Give up the universities. Give up the towns. Give up the cities. And Kaldriani points out, the towns and cities are the economic centers of a nation. And a population reproduces and develops within its means, you know,

based on how the economy is treating them. towns are also the cultural centers of the nation as they contain the schools, libraries, theaters, lecture halls. So that's where culture is expressed and how it is spread. And then finally, the towns are the political centers of a nation. Nations follow the lead of the towns. Whoever controls the towns directly or indirectly has the political leadership of the country. So he says, you can't hand these places over to your enemies or they will take your country over.

I think he's right. You know, maybe the right place for certain people is in a small town. But if you give up these centers of power, you're literally just handing them over to your enemy. Well, it's also kind of hard when your enemy already has complete control of it, you know, then I'd really like to give me the explanation of how you get it back. Oh, yeah, absolutely. No, I agree. Kadriano's position is that you fight by all means legal or otherwise. Good luck in the United States.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's pretty fair to say that he's correct in the meta, but tactically, all considerations are different. Absolutely. He's 100% correct when it comes to. I mean, he's, you know, it's like the libertarians. Sure, they can diagnose a problem, solve it. Yeah, exactly. Well, I think what, uh, Kodriano also, uh, his position would be that, you know,

stick to the places where the Romanians are, are the majority. And if the, the Romanians are an extreme minority, like, don't worry about it. So what, we'll look at that here in a second. So, uh, the Kahaul. And I just wanted to point this out because this. is something that, you know, you read in 200 years together, a great deal of talk about the Cahal, which supposedly had basically gone away at some point in the 18th or 19th century, but Caudreaniol asserts that the, this exact same system is taking place. It exists in Romania.

And he says, in every city or market town where a number of Jews settle, the Cahol, the Jewish community there, its leadership really, is immediately formed. This cahal has its own leaders, separate judicial setup, taxes, etc. and holds the entire Jewish population of that locality tightly united around itself. It is here in this tiny cahal of the market town or city that all plans are made. How to win over local politicians and authorities. How to infiltrate certain circles of interest to them, such as magistrates, officers, high officials, what, plans to use to take over such and such branch of commerce from the hands of a Romanian, how to destroy a local anti-Semite, how to destroy an incorruptible representative of local

authority who might oppose Jewish interests. What plans to apply when, squeezed beyond endurance, the population would revolt and erupt into anti-Semitic movements. So this is from his section the plans of Judaism against the Romanian nation, which he had written based on, frankly, court records. We'll get into it here in a second, but he was a lawyer. So he goes into great detail here. We'll be here all day if I read all his thoughts. You really should just read for my legionaries.

I'm just going to provide a provisional ethnic map before we dive into the characters to kind of wrap up this history and context section here. I found this online. It's a fantastic map from that 1930 census that was taken, that was done that identifies like ethnicity by province. And it's, it really shows how the, how Romania acquired a lot of these territories that it found itself with after World War I or partly into World War I. And some of them are kind of in question.

You'll notice this big green spot in the middle. This is basically Transylvania. And there was a huge Hungarian settlement. And you'll see the Hungarians are all up here in the direction of Hungary from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And the Hungarians were settled in Transylvania again as a blockade against the Ottomans in a lot of ways. Or I should say they were reinforced because Hungarians had been there for a very long time. but they're also huge Romanian populations to the west surrounding them. So it's a sticky, it's a sticky situation.

You'll also notice up here in the borderland with Ukraine, you know, there's a substantial Ukrainian population. There are German populations. That's where I crossed over when I was there. Oh, okay. Gotcha. And there's some poles up here. You know, there's even some Czechoslovaks and Serbs and Croats and gypsies and Tatars over here and, you know, Russians and Bulgarians.

So it's a big mess. So even if you have a substantial Romanian population, you know, you're dealing with a lot of kind of struggle for the, the population and political power. On the many nights of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to the Christmas nights at gravity. This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Savour festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails,

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in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Get more at airgrid.I.E. 4.Northwest. Employers. Did you know you can now reward you and your staff with up to 1,500 euro in gift cards annually, completely tax-free. And even better, you can spread it over five different occasions. Now's the perfect time to try Options Card.

Options Card is Ireland's brand-new multi-choice employee gift card packed with unique features that your staff will love. It's simple to buy, easy to manage, and best of all, There are no extra fees or hidden catches. Visit options card.I.E. Today. 28.1% as of 1920, 28.1% of the population was non-Romanian. Of those, so 7.9% of the population total were Hungarian Magyars, 1.4 million. And then next is Germans with almost half the population of the Magyars at 4.4 million. And then next is Germans with almost half the population of the Magyars at 4. 1%, Jews were a full 4% of the population minimum in 1920, growing to over 2 million by 1930. And then it filters down smaller portions after that.

So very important context, because now it's time for us to talk about Cornelius, Elea, Kaudryanu and the Iron Guard and the political movement and machinations. So he was born in Hussi, Western Moldavia, Romania, to nationalist politician, Jan, Zilea, Kaudreanu. The interesting thing is Zalaya had been Zelensky. his father was a Romanianized Slav. Some would say Ukrainian or his family was from that background.

With some mixing. His mother was from those subtler German populations. So kind of a hybridized Romanian but a true believer, nonetheless. He spent five years at the Diallo Military High School, which is within the Diallo Monastery, which is a very interesting place. It's the resting place of the head of Michael the Brave, who was a 16th century Romanian hero. So his teen years were religion, nationalism, and martyrdom. Those were the things being pumped into him. the uh tail end of that period

is when World War I is happening. He tries to join his father, uh, who goes off to war in, uh, 1918 and tags along as a volunteer and basically has to

participate in like one operation or like a with kind of a holding and withdrawal type of situation. And so when that crisis ends, he sent off for formal military training. He spends over a year there, and then the war ends. So he leaves from the military academy, frankly, because he was on track to be an officer, because, again, because of his background at the military high school, as was the style at the time. So he's sent to Yasi University in 1919 and immediately becomes active in nationalist politics.

Yassi University had been the hub of Romanian nationalist politics at the time. When Kaudreanu gets there, he's incredibly disappointed in how leftist it had become, except for a core of hardcore right-wing nationalist professors. So while he's in Yossi, he participated in street protests and anti-communist action and so on, with an organization called the Guard of the National Conscience, which was a, quote, National Christian Socialist Street Organization led by a famous union leader, Constantine Panku, who was a very tough guy. He had been one like strong man competitions and like circus boxing matches where they would take on like all comers and stuff, pretty wild stories.

So there's great stories about the fights that they get into around that. And then he goes on to found the Christian Students Association in 1922 to combat what he described as non-Christian academic trends in doing that through due process, agitating within the structure of the universities. Well, because of all this, he ends up being expelled by the university Senate. His Kaudreanu's position is that this is because they're corrupt. And frankly, that seems to be the case.

But he gets massive support. And while all this is going on, there's massive support from Romanians all over the country, as well as in the city, coming out to support them with these struggles against the university. So the faculty of law said because he was going to law school refused to recognize the expulsion dictated by the university senate. He continues his studies and he's issued a degree by the law school, although the university would not give him a formal diploma. So who is one of the fellows backing him in the law school? A. Z. Kuzza. who is described as the father of expressly anti-Semitic Romanian nationalism

because of his own writings, as you mentioned, Pete, very interesting stuff, very firebrand type material. He was a longtime professor at the University of Yassi. He launched the National Christian Union in 1922, which morphed into the National Christian Defense League in 1923, which Kodryanu joined. he was a big wheel in nationalist politics because of his writing and so on. He called for, and this is really key, a gradual withdrawal of rights for Jews followed by an expulsion.

He was doing the lawfully legal political angle. He was an old friend of Cornelieu, Kaudrianu's father, Yon. there were old friends and political allies. Like I pointed out, Yon was a politician from back in the day. So very interestingly, there is an incident that takes place in 1923 or 1924. We'll like at it here in detail

where Cadriano defends himself against an abusive police chief basically named Mansu, and the press says Mr. Cusa aimed and Cardriano fired. So he's being accused of supporting these street militants that are attached to his political movement. Ultimately, he and Kaudreanu formally split in 1927, although it's done amicably and respectfully. And Kaudreanu talks about the issues with Kuzza's approach to things and why he doesn't want to follow them, but he's very respectful about him and talks about how important he was as a figure in identifying and communicating the issues. actually faced by the country. Later on, Kuzha was appointed a minister of state in 1937 in his short-lived Goga government. The 1930s, the governments are changing constantly

because of King Carroll II. We'll look at that more later. And then he ends up in King Carroll the Second's Crown Council, 1939, 1940. He was a big fan of the windmill of friendship. and used it in his movement documentation and logos beginning in 1921, and is very interesting. So, Kaudreanu says of Kuzha in, for my legionaries, in recommending his work, he says,

all these are impeccably treated by Professor A.C. Cusa in his writing. The peoplehood, nationality and articles, parliamentary discourses and courses in political economy. The ideas that I give below belong essentially to Professor Coos's thought. So he's constantly referring to him as a thought leader that influenced him. On the many nights of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee Christmas nights at gravity. This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Saver festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails, and Dance the night away with DJs from Love Tempo.

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Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i. 4.n. Northwest. Employers, did you know, you can now reward you and your staff, with up to 1,500 euro and gift cards annually, completely tax-free. And even better, you can spread it over five different occasions. Now's the perfect time to try options. Card. Options card is Ireland's brand new multi-choice employee gift card packed with unique features

that your staff will love. It's simple to buy, easy to manage, and best of all, there are no extra fees or hidden catches. Visit OptionsCard.i.e. today. So in 1923, Cadriano and some of the other militant youth of the National Christian Defense League were placed in Vakaresti prison, which is a hellhole from the descriptions. It's just think of the worst prison conditions you've heard of in film or books, and that's Vakaresti prison and how these guys were treated. They were placed there in 1923 for conspiracy. but were acquitted because they did not meet the terms of an actual conspiracy according to Romanian law. And again, here's a couple of lawyers that you're putting in prison for conspiracy.

They had volunteers to represent them, did a lot of their own speaking themselves, and basically designed, Kadrano designed his own defense in many ways. was acquitted. They had more than 10,000 Romanians outside of the trial and just like a packed courtroom. And the position that Kodriano constantly finds himself in is that he appeals to people's patriotism and says everything that we're fighting for is out of faith and love for our country and the Romanian people. We assume the obligation to fight to the end. And, and just doesn't, doesn't want to pretend that he's not, you know, fighting the power and is completely honest about it, but will also not state that he committed any kind of crime.

So huge, huge theme in his work. While in Vauceresti prison, Kodriano conceived of what becomes the Legion of the Archangel Michael, named after an icon of the Archangel Michael that was in the Vaukrucci prison chapel that they would sit at while praying and meditating upon the icon. So very interestingly, some people are determined to not have participated in a conspiracy,

somewhat surprisingly, including Yon Mota, who becomes very famous later, and they're freed from before the trial. And then during jury deliberation, Jan Mota goes into the courtroom and assassinates a traitor, Varanichescu, who had been one of their comrades who ratted them out to the government and claimed that they were engaged in a conspiracy.

Yon Mota is given a jury trial and found not guilty or acquitted of charges by a jury basically because the jury thought he was cool. And they were like, cool, you should do that to people who do that, which is wild. In 1924, while defending. So basically there was a,

Constantine Manchu was a police prefect, so very powerful in the police in Yasi, and had been like the key guy who was cracking down on the nationalist agitators. And they'd been like holding students and torturing them and just beating them. And any time that they tried to get together, they would attack them.

Kaudriyanu claims that at one point, Manchu, after beating them up at a rally, and they basically chained up the prisoners and paraded them through a Jewish quarter in Yasi, where, you know, to show them that he was doing what they wanted in his,

in Kadriano's terms, where they were then heaped with abuse and assaulted and stuff like that. And then we'd just let them go after a couple days. Anyway, Kodriyahu was defending another National Christian Defense League member in court, again, because he's a lawyer at this point.

And Munchu and a bunch of guys come and start attacking him. Well, he's smoking a cigarette during a break, you know, in the trial. Cadrionu pulls his piece and blasts and turns himself in immediately, just sets his weapon down, lets himself get arrested. But then he's acquitted, and the position is that it was an act of self-defense. And so they could not, they did the whole like, what's the term, shopping around for a jurisdiction where he could be tried, where they would think they would find a favorable jury. And the jury there is like, nah, he's great.

We think he's wonderful. Some of the jurors in that first conspiracy trial, like, came in after, when they're reading the findings, they have arm bands with swastikas on them. And they're like, not guilty. Wild. So if you can't tell, like, there's massive upswelling of nationalism in Romania at this time, which is a huge challenge for the government, frankly.

And the government interprets it as an attack on them, despite all these entreaties of the nationalists to work with the government. So anyway, after he's acquitted and some stuff happens, he's been engaged to Elena, who's there in this. This is a photo from right after their wedding. And their wedding is the major social event in all of Romania for that year with 80 to 100,000 people who came out in attendance. And the story of them, like in this. walking from town to town to come to this, for this wedding is just wild with people coming out, dressed in like folk costumes, as you can see he's wearing here.

And, you know, ornate carriages and people are donating all kinds of stuff. And it's like this huge, massive party, almost like a royal wedding. And it's filmed by a, a film crew and then shown in movie houses in Bucharest and then the Ministry of Internal Affairs shuts it down and confiscates the film and destroys it because again because of obviously what's what's happening here. So after his wedding and all this tension and the fact that he's like got away with yeating a cop, you know, he and his wife think, eh, we should probably a very avail ourselves of some of our opportunities to like go over, you know, go out of the country for a little while and continue my legal studies.

So Kaudreanu and Yon Mota go to Grenoble, France, with Elena coming along and basically live in abject poverty, but get to know, like, the locals in really, really liking. like what they call the genuine French culture. You have to keep in mind that Romania had been for like at least 100 years, uh, total francophiles that, especially in the elite circles, um, much like the Russians,

right, Pete, like France was like the center of the liberal modern world in Europe, um, for those kinds of people. So many, so many of the Bolsheviks had, there and absolutely yeah and so uh cadriano's observations about france are very interesting

but in general he's like we found the right people and we found good churches and and so on so after he completes his studies in grenoble but you know there's all kinds of things taking place uh politically in romania that draw him back including a great deal of oppression of the League of Christian National Defense, Cadriano returns and is moved to say, I don't want to participate in party politics, because we're not in a position where we can be successful doing this, just because of the state of the nation and ourselves,

which is really interesting. So he founds the Legion of the Archangel Michael out of with the root and the core leadership of it being the Brotherhood of the Cross, which was a youth subset of the League of Christian National Defense, that they've been working together for years and trusted each other. So very interestingly, one of their members said, there are defeats and deaths which can awaken a nation to life, just as there are triumphs of the kind,

which you can put a nation to sleep. And so that was kind of their, uh, an expression of their motivation for creating this separate group. Because they just felt like the issue that they had was any successes that they had would mute the energy of what they were doing. And then it would just, things would dissipate.

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incredible food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at ginniss storehouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. Air Grid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the northwest. We're planning to upgrade. the electricity grid in your area

and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community.

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to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding. Visit optionscar.com.i.e. today. And they didn't want to have a political platform or like a quote unquote program to use the term that Cadriano uses. Kadriano says this country is dying of lack of men, not of lack of programs. And so his statement, his quote is, as a consequence of seeing the state of affairs, the political state of affairs, the cornerstone on which the Legion stands is man, not the political program. man's reform, not that of the political programs. The Legion of the Archangel Michael will be, in other words, more a school in an army than a political party. He says in another quote,

Our intimate feelings from which the Legion was born were these. It did not interest us whether we would triumph or be conquered or whether we would die. Our purpose was different to advance. united, moving forward and a united front with the help of God and the Romanian people's justice, no matter what destiny awaited us, that of being vanquished or that of death. It would be a blessed one, and it would bear fruit for our people. So again, they realize that this political agitation, every victory two steps back. So they step away and they try to kind of peacefully do

their own thing for a while. We shall create an atmosphere, a moral medium in which the heroic man can be born and can grow. And it's based on four leading principles. Faith in God, faith in their mission, love for each other. And then interestingly, song as the chief manifestation of our state of mind. And this just resonates with me. They treat prayer as a decisive element for victory.

One of their members, Mihail Polyhronid, gosh, these names are killing me, said, fascism venerates the state, German national socialism, the race, and the nation. Our movement strives to fulfill the destiny of the Romanian people through salvation. So they want to be heroes. And the hero comes from,

a product of the legionary education. The hero will be able to know how to elaborate programs instead of focusing on pre-defining a program. They'll know how to organize the state. They will know how to convince the other Romanians, and if not, he will know how to win, for that is why he is a hero. And Cadrionu said, why they held up song as the chief manifestation of their state of mind. He says, to be able to sing one has to be in a certain state of spirit and inner harmony. A person bent on robbing someone cannot sing, nor can one who is about to commit some other wrong, nor he whose soul is consumed by envy and hate of his comrade, nor he whose soul is devoid of faith. That is why you, legionaries of today and tomorrow, anytime you feel the need to orient yourselves in the legionary spirit,

You must return to these four lines of our beginning, which constitute the basis of our movement. And the song will be a guide to you. If you are not going to be able to sing, you must know that a sickness gnaws at the depth of your spiritual being, or that life has filled your innocent soul with sins. And if you cannot rid yourself of these sins, you ought to step aside, leaving your place to those who can sing. Very interesting. All right. I'm going to cover the doctrine and then the six fundamental laws, and then we're going to dive right into some more action.

So the Legion was an organization founded on order and discipline, guided by peer nationalism, stemming from the boundless love of a nation and country. The Legion wants to awaken all the creative energies of the nation to battle. The Legion defends the altars of the church that our enemies want to tear up. down. The Legion kneels before the crosses of the brave and the martyrs of the nation. The Legion stands as an unwavering shield around the throne from which commanders and kings have sacrificed themselves for the defense and exultation of the fatherland. They wanted a legitimate ruler and wanted to support a king. The Legion wants to build a strong country, a new Romania, from strong souls and strong arms. And then they had six,

fundamental laws. The law of discipline to be disciplined, legionary, for only then will you win. The law of labor, work, work every day, and work with love. The law of silence, speak little, but speak what is necessary. The law of education, you must become another, a hero. The law of mutual aid, help your brother in distress, and the law of honor, walk only on the paths indicated by honor. So as an expression of this, let's step back and look at some other things that Kodriano had been up to for some time, along with this core group. They conceived of work, basically work camps or labor camps that were a volunteer thing for these students and the student movement that was growing. So in 1924, back when they were in

Yasi. They were no longer able to meet in university buildings or their dormitories. They were being shut out by the Reds and the conservatives. So the nationalist students determined to build their own headquarters in Yasi. They developed a brickyard on donated land in Ungeni along the Pruth River and to supplement donations that they received from the public, a group of students while these people are working in the brickyard also worked a two-acre garden plot that they were given for food. So in this way, the student of all social classes, even if they're upper class,

even if they're upper middle class, they learn the value of manual labor. It also gives them great capabilities. As well, the peasants and workers around them saw the students laboring, saw these future elites and saw them as being on their a level. They not only respected them, but knew that they were genuinely, you know, on the same level in terms of what they, you know, getting in the dirt, getting messy. So the picture at

right is the Christian cultural home of Yassi that was completed in 1925, built from the bricks that the students made themselves in a brickyard that they developed themselves with their own hands and then they built the Christian cultural home with those bricks. Subsequently, the Legion followed this method, built their own barracks and facilities. See, we can't do that here. We just got to elect the right people. Exactly. We've got to elect the right people because, you know.

This is a fundamental, a fundamental step back at we have to create entirely parallel institutions. That was Kaudreanu's position that the voting nonsense couldn't, there was a time when that could do something, but it wasn't time for that yet. So if they were denied access to the things that everyone else got, they would build their own. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid is powering up the northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th

of November. Have your say online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid. dot i.e. 4.6 Northwest. Employers,

rewarding your staff? Why choose between a shop voucher or a spend anywhere card when with options card, you can have both. With options card, your team gets the best of both worlds. They can spend with Ireland's favourite retailers or choose a spend anywhere card. It's simple to buy and easy to manage.

There are no hidden fees, it's easy to use and totally flexible. They can even re-gift or donate to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding. Visit optionscar.orgia today. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid

in your area and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i.4 slash northwest. You can't vote anything into existence unless the only people who are voting are your people. Exactly.

Even if you have slight, you can only have slight differences. You can't have people who are completely at odds, one with another worldviews at odds, and expect to vote your way out of anything. Yeah. So a very interesting thing exactly to that point is that Kadryanu, I mean, this man was a genius and he understood people and he clearly deeply felt what basically the life that he was living and so even before it was like the legion this was something that he did going back to those student days he always credited people for their financial contributions in their publications

and he would publish letters from these contributors and well-wishers. And it wasn't just to give them credit, but it was also so that readers could see that here are other people that feel the same way I feel. He also punished the misdeeds of people in his organizations, even if there were misdeeds against enemies. He tells a story about some legionaries, who went into a Jewish-owned restaurant, who ate food and then refused to pay and walked out.

And he made them work to pay off their, basically punish them for their debt. He's like, look, what you're doing is you're worse than the person that you're ripping off because you're debasing yourself. through sin. So you can say, oh, well, this guy's a sinner, you know, but so are you. Like, what you're doing here is a sin. Once the punishment is fulfilled, once you've made good on your error, you're free of its burden as if nothing has happened. It's forgiveness of sin through, through punishment, productive punishment. It isn't like whipping or anything. It's him doing

labor. And then the other thing, too, that I kind of jumped around, and we'll look at some examples of this. The very bottom button bullet point is that something that, again, learning to build these structures, et cetera, they took on local improvement projects. And so there were work centers all over the country that we'll see in detail here. And it really exploded as the Legion built up. And they would do irrigation in rural areas. They would repair bridges, upgrade roads, build fencing for peasants, for their animals, tend to the homes of the elderly and widows, tend to cemeteries and abandoned graves, just to show respect to people and to take care of their people. In 1929, November, they toured Romania. They said, we've had a couple of years

of building this organization. It's time to go to the masses. And not only spread the Legion. So, but Quadriano would go out and be introduced by the local head of the Legion to the people. The people would be wanting to go see the famed Kaudrianu

that they've heard about for so long. And Kaudreanu, even though he was like the leader unquestioningly of the whole Legion, he would defer to the local Legion leaders who would present him to the people.

It's really fascinating stories around that. And then the other thing, too, they have all these lawyers. So they're volunteering to defend persecuted Romanians in court proceedings, whether they're part of their crew or whether they're just poor people who are, you know, in a tight spot. So this is how they spread their, not only their program, even though there was no program, right? It wasn't a political program. It was a cultural program.

These are cool pictures. I was really happy to find high quality versions, a high quality version of this map here. So the Iron Guard completed construction of its greenhouse headquarters on the left, again, with bricks from that brickyard, the building is still there in Bucharest in 1934. This became the headquarters. for the whole country for the organization.

The map at the top right shows over 300 settlements can be counted on this map, the fruit of the work of the legionary camps. So they built cathedrals, churches, they restored monasteries, hermitages, built dormitories, built shelters for the poor, built rest houses for the needy,

improved mountain roads, built dams and bridges or fixed them. They built hospitals or restored hospitals for the poor, developed canteens for orphans, and many other kind of public works. The coolest one is the cathedral of the archangels Michael and Gabriel that still stands, as you can see from this photo, in Orastia. I don't know how to pronounce Romanian words. This was like one of their final big works. The Cornerstone was laid in 1936. and completed in 1940.

So here's this organization where the whole thing is just work. There's not an awful lot of politics that are involved in this. We'll talk about the national level politics and the wrangling taking place shortly. But the average person isn't engaged, you know, average Legionera is not engaging in politics. They're working to build things to improve the lives of people around them. That's really their commitment. So this church, the founder of this was Yon Mota, who was Yon Mota's father. The senior, the elder, was a prominent figure in Romania during the inner wear period.

He founded the newspaper Libertatier. And he was, again, the father of Yonel Mota, was one of the founding members of the Legionary Movement. So the very first Holy Mass that was celebrated at this church was the funeral of Yon Mota on November 23rd, 1940. the elder Motas passed away before the first Holy Mass could take place in the cathedral here. He died of natural causes. I was almost shocked.

But they had very hardcore dignitaries come out from all over the kind of the Axis world to this Holy Mass and funeral. So as I'm about to get into a timeline of, you know, the Legion slash Iron Guard in the 1930s, and we have to talk about King Carroll the second. So King Carroll reigned from June 1930 to September 1940. His succession rights were removed by his father, King Ferdinand I, in 1940. 25, due to his trifling behavior, his very dishonorable behavior, he was a total womanizer and just a scumbag, hated by the Romanian people. So he was exiled to France. His father passed away. And then because of the kind of stacking political crises, he was returned to Romania in 1930 and reinstated via a coup. over his son, Michael the first, who was under a regency. So basically, just like in Spain in the 19th century,

where they essentially have a corrupt Libtar regency that caused the, like, Carlist succession crisis, this was essentially what happened in Romania in this time. So in 1940, he was forced to abdicate by Prime Minister General Jan Antonescu, who was one of Germany's greatest allies. Stanley Payne, again, describes King Carroll II as the most cynical, corrupt, and power-hungry monarch, whoever disgraced a throne anywhere in 20th century Europe. So that sets the stage for what we're going to cover now.

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They can even re-gift or donate to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding. Visit OptionsCard.I.E. today. So the 1930s acceleration. So in the year 1937, someone dubs the Legion of the Archangel Michael, the Iron Guard as an alternative name for them.

There's various, there's various stories. Some of them are that it's like the militant groups of them would be the iron. guard, but it became just kind of a short hand for the overall organization. As King Carol II is enthroned, Kaudreanu makes a direct patriotic appeal to him, saying, we're not opposed to you. We're trying to improve Romania. Why don't we find ways to work together? Kind of like, please stop oppressing us also, right?

So right out of the gate, King Carroll the second consolidating power sidelines democratic institutions as much as he can. So, you know, if we remember in the way that their legislature and the king's ship governed, he has his counsel of regents right below him, there's a lot of push poll. And under Carroll, he's just like grabbing as much power as he can and taking as much away from the democratic institutions as possible. And it plays out in a really interesting way, which we'll get into you here in a second. In 1930, Cadriano was put on trial for conspiracy to commit murder because a kid who Cordyano will not allow into the least. because he seems off, murders a political, someone in politics. And Kadriani who has nothing to do with it, but because this kid had Legion materials with him, there's a claim that Kadriano was involved in this.

He wasn't, he was, he's acquitted. Again, after spending like two months in what these hell prisons. in Romania. In 1931, Carol the second appoints one of A.C. Cousa's associates, Nikolai Yorga, as the premier, the prime minister. He's creating a coalition government that is kind of, that gives some power to like the national liberals

and then some power to the right-wingers. He wants to strike this balance. And part of that is in terms not only for domestic policy, but also what's going on in Europe as things are starting to catch fire in the rest of Europe. They outlaw the Legion in January 1931 because it's seen as a direct challenge to the government. the leadership is rounded up and arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government, even though there's absolutely no conspiracy whatsoever. They're acquitted. Well, they're retried because, again, the point of arresting them and putting them on trial is to get rid of them.

They're acquitted in March. So, again, several months in these hell prisons. And Cadriano decides that it's time to take advantage of an open slot in Parliament and runs for Parliament and is elected later that year. So in 1932, the Yorga government again dissolves the guard. So before they had been decreed outlawed and there was a roundup of the leadership, but it wasn't like really proactively going out and shutting them down. In 1932, they go out and like padlock their print shops and headquarters all around the country.

And there's pretty brutal repression of them. The, despite this, members of the guard run in a newly conceived political party that is basically the guards party. And they went five seats in parliament under a national peasants government, which is kind of an agrarian right-wing coalition. So they continue to grow.

They continue to organize, even though they're technically outlawed and being oppressed. There's one of the work camps, A legionary dam project at Vassani is attacked by the police, and they're like cracking heads. And as word gets out about this, like the Romanians fall in to support the Legion, and the hatred of the government grows like crazy. The prime minister, a new prime minister is put in place from the National Liberal Party, again, because there's this constant. in a shuffle in the 1930s under King Carroll the second. This PM Yon Duka is assassinated by some legionaries because of what they're up to.

1934 to 1937, Cadrionu's political party, which is called Everything for the Country, continues to grow until it's the third largest political party in all of Romania. It's about, it's like 15.6 to 16%. of the electorate falls into this bucket with another like 60 to 70% of the country being super sympathetic to their positions, but wanting to do things strictly through the electoral process. So King Carroll the second appoints another prime minister, George Tatarescu. And what he's doing is he's playing the national liberal and national, peasant parties against the Legion. So the top two political parties are being played against the Legion and in support of his own, again, authoritarian rule. So these elections are almost

just like placeholders for people to talk about what their positions are to pitch their programs, but they don't have very much actual governing power. It's largely theatrical. Caldrianu's book for my Legionaries must read, downloaded or buy it, is published in 1936. And then in 1936, the Legion sends eight volunteers, including Yon Mota, who's one of the founders and one of their thought leaders of Vasily Marine to Spain. they present a Toledo sword to the general who led the defense of the Alcazar and immediately go into fighting. And in January 1937, Mota and Marine are killed on the Madrid front.

Let me share something. Okay. Go for it. Thomas posted this up this morning. This is a picture of the Romanian iron. guard and I think under it it'll say that moda is the second from the left left yes this is this is Madine right here murdering yes this is a serious bunch of looking a bunch of guys very serious all of their pictures all of their pictures are very serious so this is a big deal

And I would say not only was it a big deal for their martyrdom in the Spanish Civil War, not only was it a big deal in Romania, but it became huge in the kind of international kind of fascist alliance that was building. not only was this a direct tie from Romania to really before the before World War II and the formalization of like the axis powers being defined, but they were engaging with one another at this point. So Mota had been in Vakaresti prison with Cadriano in 1923. He was one of his oldest friends. He was the second in command. He was the deputy captain of the Iron Guard.

And then again, his own father was a famed nationalist Orthodox priest. And he was married to Cadriano's sister Irredenta. So Vasily Marine is interesting. I have a quote from him to close this out. But he was a member of the National Peasants Party until 1932. And then when he was in law school, he oriented towards Cadriano, lawyer, politician. And then I wrote Thinking Man's because he was a very sophisticated analytical guy. His writings are really interesting.

There aren't tons of them that I was able to find translated online. but he's very interesting. So after their martyrdom, you know, Thomas has talked about this a lot. They basically their coffins toured Romania and would have, you know, unlike George Floyd, cool people went out to see them. And it was a huge, huge deal. It actually goes beyond that. Their bodies were put on a train and sent home, and every country that they went through, partisans would come out and they would throw up Romans at the train. Women would, you know, kneel.

Yeah. They were definitely seen as martyrs for the defense of Christendom in Europe. And the, a core of hardcore members of the Legion were, was dubbed the Motamarine Corps and the name, or their, their motto was ready to die. So what I want to point out is that when you read, when you read, uh, Libtard, an enemy framing on the Iron Guard. They talk about how it's morbid and almost like suicidal. It's like, no, it's practical. They point out, they point out that you're fighting for a world that you may not see.

And there's a strong likelihood that you will have to sacrifice, not only sacrifice along the way, but also sacrifice your life. so that your children and your children's children will have a better life. And that's like fundamental to really Christian thought. It, you know, it's not like, you know, bedazzled jeans, guitar playing, you know, Christian youth pastor thought, but it's like real Christian thought. So an acceptance and an understanding of sacrifice totally makes sense. You see the same thing with the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.

They're not morbid. They're joyful. They're ready to do what needs to be done. So it's just one of these insane things. There's also these allegations of certain rituals that I just don't trust as being real because of who reports on them. You know, I mean, maybe some of them, there's supposedly like there's like blood brother rituals, which might be real. But then there's certain angles of them that just sound totally fantastic. I don't know, maybe some things happened later after Kaudreanu died, but I'm skeptical.

So things really shift at this point because the guard becomes absolutely massive. It becomes a juggernaut that can't be controlled by King Carroll II, who himself is out of control. So in 1937, the universities are closed down by this premier Tatarescu because they're totally out of control because the nationalists are so ascendant at this point. So they just say, oh, well, we're going to shut this down because then they can't organize. there's another election in December 1937. King Carroll blocks while the coalitions are being built. He blocks the guard who's in third place for total seats from participating in the government. And he appoints Octavian Goga from the fourth place National Christian Party,

which is Coosz's party, as prime. minister. Again, here's your right wing red meat, but we're not going to let you guys in, because again, he saw them as a threat. And a lot of it, frankly, was because of the, I can say, cult of personality about Kodriano, but really his sheer force of personality is a better way to put it. So the intent was to shift things right, to co-op to the Iron Guard's popularity. So in 1938, King Carroll, the second, imposes a new constitution on Romania, which proclaims Romania a one-party state, which outlaws all these other parties. Kodriano and the Legion leadership are arrested and tried on very shaky grounds.

First, Kodriano was arrested and tried for libel because of... comments he made about, I think Goga, I don't have it handy. That doesn't really go anywhere. And then he and his whole crew, his leadership, are tried for sedition. General Jan Antonescu, who's the defense minister at this point, and his name comes up again soon, resigns in protest on March 30th because he sees King Carroll the second as totally. totally out of control. Cadriano is sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the salt mines. He urges the Legion to refrain from violence.

And then in November of 1938, Codrianu and 13 other legionaries who were in prison are murdered extrajudicially. the Legion chimps out and just like goes off and starts assassinating people like crazy. Kaudriano becomes a martyr. Now here's the thing. You'll notice that Kaudriano all along the line urges like a refrain from violence, kind of unless he's participating in it, and he'll only participate in it

if it's going to actually accomplish something and is done with this vision for like the future. Because he's seen that his own participation in violence in the past didn't necessarily move the needle. He sees the Legion as what it is, which is, you know, they kind of captured the heart of the country at this point. And so he's trying to guide them in this way. With him gone and with Mota gone, like you have these guys who are in charge who are like totally going nuts.

So there was a reporter named R.G. Waldek, a feature. female reporter who was present in Romania in 1940 to 1941. And she said that the violent killing of Kaudriano only served to cement his popularity and arouse interest in his cause. So she wrote, to Romanian people, the captain remained a saint and a martyr and the apostle of a better Romania. So this did not have the cooling effect that King Carroll the second thought it would have. Basically, by 1940, King Carroll is forced to abdicate by the fine fellow that we see here, Antonescu. The government is totally illegitimate at this point.

And so in June 1940, the Legion enters the Romanian government. And three legionaries are in the cabinet of Jan Gygdor two by July. Again, the shuffling of all these different political parties in the cabinet is at its end. World War II is on. The Soviet Union occupies Bessarabia. Northern Bukovina, which are those, you know, recent acquisitions up in the north and northeast. It's Ukrainian territory that's still, I believe is still, you know, majority Hungarian, but in Ukraine today, the Ukraine, I should say. And the National Legionary State is proclaimed September 1940. Like I said, King Carol, the second was forced to abdicate.

And the Legion or the Iron Guard was the only recognized political movement left in Romania. But immediately there are struggles because the Legion wants to completely just go nuts and take over, whereas Antonescu is trying to keep them calm down and exercise power instead of getting revenge quite yet. right? He doesn't think it's time for revenge. Antonescu being the best ally, basically, of the Germans, allows German troops to enter Romania, October 1940. Again, it's important for them to do so because it will be able to defend Romania against the Soviet Union at this point. In November, Romania joins the Axis. The Legion, like I said, began to go nuts.

And at this point, there's a, there's a bunch of imprisoned members of previous governments who are in that Veresti prison where Kadrano had been in before, and Legion officials go in and just execute all of them. And then they start killing their enemies on the street for revenge. And Antonescu is trying to get them to see into the future and beyond lashing out at this point. And is not very successful at it. Under Antonescu is part of policy of the Romanian government,

as was desired by something like 70% of, of those in power in the old legislature. They begin official expropriations of Jewish property, under which excesses take place. They're barred from owning rural property, forests, and river transport companies, interestingly. And during these expropriations, there's all kinds of issues.

And in fact, this is where that whole correlation between, you know, the Yad Vichem stories as to what Germany was involved in or like official, you know, Holocaust stuff, like a huge amount of it with Romanians doing this stuff and the Romanian state, as well as just, just partisans, frankly.

So the Legion is so, out of control at this by January 1941 that Antonescu attempts to suppress their growing authority. He's been replacing people in cabinets with army loyalists. There's a Legion rebellion. Not everybody participates in it, but the upper tiers of the Legion go off. There's a description of the Legion. a pogrom in Bucharest that is purportedly carried out by the Legion at this time. And again, it's described as the Legion doing it, but per my reading, it's a relatively small

portion of the Legion, but it gets the Legion crushed. Like 9,000 Legionaires are arrested and I believe executed over the next couple months. Um, the vast majority bend the knee, you know, and, uh, excuse me, hundreds were killed, thousands were arrested, like 9,000 ended up spending a lot of time in prison and surviving leadership fled Romania. So again, when you, when you read the, um, the official story, uh, the end of the National Legionary State in 1941, um, is really, just consolidation under, excuse me, under Antonescu, the vast majority of the Legion bends the knee and doesn't fight it out with the government. And then kind of the rest is history. It becomes

it becomes Romania, World War II. Well, you know, classic story. I don't think Thomas and I have talked about this on the show, but we've definitely talked about it privately. I'm not going to get deep into it because he's the one better one to talk about it, but he said that this even caused rifts between Hitler and the SS and members of the SS because Hitler was 100, yeah, Hitler was 100% behind Antonescu and there were people in the SS who were 100% behind the guard and were actually working to subvert Antonescu by helping the guard And yeah, that's, Thomas needs to do an episode about that. It's very interesting.

And he knows the, he knows the goings on in on the German side, far better than I could hope to express. But long story short, my assertion is that without Kaudreanu, the Legion, the Iron Guard wasn't a thing anymore. It wasn't a, it wasn't a power. It couldn't be a power. Kaudreanu was the animating spirit that gave it, that elevated state. But I'll also point out that, yes, just the level of oppression that they were under,

like of course, of course they would react that way. Of course. Because King Carroll II was not a legitimate leader, a leader. And their government had not been legitimate if it had ever been legitimate for a very long time. And the people of Romania didn't see them as legitimate, which is why they supported Antonescu. And, you know, so a very strange balancing act. Everyone always saw the Legion and Kodriano in particular as a threat to the government, even when they were supporting the people and what everyone said that they wanted,

whether or not they were ready for it. So it's just one of these tragedies. And I feel comfortable wrapping up my presentation here with Vesile Marines, quote here describing the Legion. And I see it kind of as their legacy and really what we should think about. It's really quite motivating because it's not, like I said before, it's not the way that they're described in the like Wikipedia three paragraph summary. So Marine states, quote,

Soaked in dynamism, our movement is revolutionary. The Legion promotes the creative spirit. and all the fields of public life and sincerely rejects conservatism. The Legion organizes the conquest of the future with the help of all the productive categories of the nation and does not represent a reaction toward the past. Elfin. Well, I think it's safe to say that Kodriano was not only a leader, but he was a spiritual leader. And once he was gone. Once he was gone, there was no one there to preach that message, to preach it from that side, where now you just had a, you know, it was about violence and it was about force.

And the spiritual was gone. What I would say is that given the size of the Legion by the time he was dead, though, that it would. have been much worse. It could have easily been much worse in terms of just like misguided chimp outs. But the core group that participated in that, you know, was fairly easily crushed because it wasn't huge. it'd be really interesting to have more information on that. But I agree with you. This was a spiritual movement. It wasn't just a political operation.

They weren't doing a politics. They weren't doing in economics. They were living. They were living their platform. They were living their program. And just had a fundamental, different view than the way we think about political parties and political movements. And I think that's really important.

You know, stripping away some of the activities and some of the allegations about them, if you look at what they actually did, it was very, very positive and productive. And there was a, there was a stamp. published in Romania for the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Mota and Marine under communism, which is wild. The Romanian people, you know, say what you will about what Romania is right now. I'm certainly no expert on it. I've never been there.

I don't speak Romanian. But, like, you go on Romanian. websites and like or look at videos online from the uh kind of the the legionary state period there's a bunch of german filmed color uh videos of um antennascu uh and some you know some legionnaires speaking um and it's really interesting that just the massive number of people that turn out for these things. And the comments are filled with comments in Romanian that are like in support of this like overwhelmingly. Like almost no opposition to it. So it's really interesting. Even the even the academic papers that you'll see, you know,

that are in Romanian are, you know, you're running through a translator and you're like, oh, this is relatively neutral, talking about, you know, really spending a lot of time talking about the problems with like King Carroll and the government and all that. And, uh, you know, people, people genuinely supported these guys because they, because they supported the people and they were doing something totally different. All right. Promote, promote away. Go ahead, Carl.

Thanks, Pete. Um, another classic Carl Dull, appearance on this. You want to show it. So humble. You can find more of my stuff, including my effort posts on Substack, Carl Dahl.substack.com. That's K-A-L-D-A-H-L.

Dot substack.com. I have two novels on Amazon. That's the best way to support me. It's the only way to give me monies is to buy book. my most recent is Faction with the Crusaders, which is a nationalist sympathetic tale from the period of the Spanish Civil War. 75 pages in. Nice. I just couldn't believe how you started that.

It was like, oh, just throw me right into the middle of something. Thank you. Got your attention. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks, Pete. I appreciate it. Finally getting around to read it.

I apologize. You know, I read a lot. I know you read a lot. Believe me. I do. I do. All right, man. Until the next time. Musilmes. Thanks, people.