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Cultura Documentos
1.1
Beginnings
Stelescu left together with some other high-ranking activists of Codreanus movement, who helped him establish the White Eagles party, and possibly convinced
all of the Guards youth sections in Bucharest to join
them.[9] Historian Franklin L. Ford sees the schism as important, arguing that Stelescu eectively took control of
the Cross Brotherhood network, which he had helped
recruit for the Guard in the late 1920s.[10] Citing the
Guards supposed elitism, Stelescu hoped to rely on support from more populist Guardsmen, including Ion Moa
and Gheorghe Clime.[11]
On November 22, 1934,[12][13] Stelescu established his
eponymous weekly newspaper, Cruciada Romnismului,
with Alexandru Talex as editor and himself as director.
Talex, who was politically independent, had been university colleagues with Stelescu. He was moved by Stelescus
marginalization, but, as he recalled in a later interview,
personally disliked him.[14]
Talex and Stelescu were allegedly supplied with funds
by Prince Constantin Karadja,[6] who also contributed
to the paper.[13] Another important gure was Gheorghe
Iron Guard rally, 1933. Codreanu is front row, right, with Stelescu by his side
HISTORY
The orphaned movement still counted among its members some relevant gures in Romanian politics. Nicolae
Rdescu, a Romanian Land Forces general, was an aliate, and, according to some sources, became the Crusades leader upon Stelescus murder.[30] He was in any
case the decision-maker, and probably contributed to
the movements nancing.[31] Previously registered with
Averescus PP, Rdescu was a stated enemy of the political establishment. In 1933, upon presenting his resignation from the army, he had accused proteering politithe kings "camarilla" of commercializing milThe LANC merger never took place. In September 1935, cians and[32]
itary
life.
the Crusade of Romanianism sealed a pact with the rightwing Georgist Liberals and Grigore Foru's extrem- Other Crusade members were harmed by Codrenist atist Citizens Bloc of National Salvation.[22] This three- tacks, and, within the Iron Guard, Stelism became a
pronged alliance aimed at involvement in national pol- crime punishable by death.[33] Nevertheless, Cruciada
itics. The Georgists had also formed a cartel with the Romnismului newspaper was in print until 1937,[12] by
Peoples Party (PP), which had previously been one of the which time some of its members had embraced other
three most powerful parties in Romania. The Georgist"- causes. Moving on from the Crusade, Sergiu Lecca was
Populist alliance, or Constitutional Front, came to in- involved in arranging contacts between the mainstream
National Peasants Party (PN) and communist cells.[34]
clude both the Stelists and the Citizens Bloc.[22]
3
Gheorghe Beza was also accepted into the PN, and later
left Romania altogether.[35] At least one other Stelist had
registered with the Social Democratic Party by 1946.[36]
Instead, Mircea Mateescu returned into the Iron Guard,
celebrating its ght against the deep, massive, darkness
of the Romanian Sodom.[37]
The group dissolved itself, but Rdescu remained politically active into World War II, and was listed as one of
King Carols more potent enemies.[32] He survived the
"National Legionary" episode of Iron Guard rule, when
he was reportedly marginalized as a "Freemason".[38] According to one testimony, the general was never forgiven
by the Guard for having supported Stelescu. During the
putsch of January 1941, Iron Guard assassin squads were
on the lookout for Rdescu, who went into hiding.[39]
Some former Crusade members were already working at
undermining Romanias involvement with the Axis Powers. When, under the Ion Antonescu regime, Romanian troops occupied Transnistria, Rdescu issued a formal protest and spent a full year in the concentration
camp.[32][39] From his diplomatic post, Prince Karadja
extended protection to Jews eeing the Holocaust, coming into conict with the SS.[40] Meanwhile, Sergiu
Lecca, who was the brother of Antonescu aide Radu
Lecca, took part in informal negotiations between Romania and the Allied Powers.[41]
2 Ideology
2.1 Confusing the extremes
Political historian Stanley G. Payne describes the Crusade as distinct among the Romanian fascist groups: a
tiny organization which sought to target workers and
to inspire socioeconomic transformation.[49] Within the
party, there was always a degree of assimilation between
fascist trappings and far-left causes, indicative of Stelescus indecision. In his rst-ever editorial column, Stelescu derided all political uniforms, and implicitly all political extremes, stating: one can believe in something
without donning a colored shirt, just as one can wear
a colored shirt without believing in anything. He demanded a united front of fearless warriors, entirely
cut o from all preexisting ideologies.[50] In March 1935
Eugne Ionesco, the left-leaning literary columnist, noted
that Stelescus newspaper made a habit of confusing the
extremes. Ionesco was referring to Cruciada Romnismului 's appreciation for the socialist poetry of Liviu Bratoloveanu.[51]
2.2
IDEOLOGY
in fascism the possibility of arousing a crisis-struck Europe from its lethargy. He is in the company of Knut
Hamsun, Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis.[65] Philologist Tudorel Urian asks: Who really is Istrati: the frantic socialist he was before his visit to the USSR [...] or
the nationalist of his very last months, the emblem of a
Guardist periodical? There is something that those who
judge him rarely take into account: in the periods when
he irted with socialism [...] and Guardism, both movements where in their romantic, idealistic stages. Once he
came face to face with the brutal realities of the Soviet
regime, Istrati broke with socialism and perhaps his famous motto, je ne marche pas ['no, I won't bite'] would
have come into play in relation with the Guardists, should
he have lived to see their earliest crimes.[66]
According to literary historian Angelo Mitchievici, Interestingly, [the Crusade] had stated its dissidence and a
distinct position within the Iron Guard movement. Perhaps it was the groups marginal, dissident status that appealed to Istrati. [...] Even if, in this very context, Panait
Istrati endures as a freelancer, he could not have evaded
the abusive assimilation into a direction that did not truly
reect his anities.[31]
2.4
Dening Romanianism
The Crusades agenda was debated among Jewish Romanian intellectuals. Fellow writer Mihail Sebastian described Istrati as politically illiterate and addled.[71]
In his words, Mr. Istrati ghts nowadays for the Crusade
of Romanianism, searching for the formula of reasonable
antisemitism (neither here nor there), for the way into a
more gentle chauvinism, for a nice agreement between
his anarchic vocation and a methodical process of bashing heads in.[72] Other Jewish literary gures, including
Josu Jhouda, issued statements in support of Istratis
stance.[73]
The Crusade may have contextualized its antisemitic reexes within a pro-Christian bias. The American Jewish Committee papers describe the Crusade as a Fascist group which did not have anti-Jewish tendencies,
quoting Stelescus statement that he was not a Jew-baiter
and that, although his party was nationalist, it was inspired by genuine Christian principles.[74] The movement resented the secularization of public aairs, and
expressed admiration for Romanian Orthodoxy: And if
some church servants have indeed trespassed, faith itself
is not to blame. The belief in God and The Cross is a
banner and support for our combat, and the token of our
coming victory.[75] However, according to at least one
account, the ailing Istrati was in the process of becoming
When Stelescu founded his White Eagles, the rightwing nativists, the centrists and the advocates of left-wing
nationalism in Romania had been disputing over the concept of Romanianism for over a decade. The idea of a
homegrown ideological current of that name was swiftly
embraced by intellectual sympathizers of the Iron Guard,
among them Nae Ionescu, Nichifor Crainic, Alexandru
Randa, Traian Brileanu and Mihail Manoilescu.[78] An
alternative Romanianism, liberal and skeptical toward nationalist rhetoric, was being promoted by the philosophers Constantin Rdulescu-Motru and Mircea Eliade,
who demanded the continuous Westernization of Romanian society.[79] Before he was won over by fascism,
Eliade dened Romanianism as neither fascism nor
chauvinismrather, the mere desire to realize an organic, unitary, ethnic, balanced state.[80]
The Crusades version of the concept borrowed from all
sides of the debate. In his democracy sickens us essay, Stelescu proposed: Romanianism is the only credo
that might invigorate this nation. Solutions for its sons,
from its bosom, within its spirit, on its soil.[81] According to Talex, this brand of Romanianism was noble and
creative, Istrati being its leading exponent.[13] When rst
introduced to Gandhism and the Ramakrishna Mission in
1930, Istrati himself had declared: To me, the Occident
is dead.[60] In 1934, Stelescus newspaper noted with satisfaction that nationalism was even making its comeback
in the Soviet Union. Reading the Soviet press, the Stelists
remarked that references to the Comintern and the cause
of proletarian internationalism were being discarded, and
that Mother Russia was returning in force.[82]
Talex, who described himself as a know-nothing in political matters,[14] had for a personal idol the nationalist
historian Vasile Prvan. He was especially inspired by
Prvans Russophobia, which colored his reading of Istratis work.[14] His admiration for Romanianism pitted him against the more cosmopolitan liberals of the
day, prompting the Crusades journalistic attacks against
Eugen Lovinescu, the doyen of Romanian liberalism.
Lovinescu (who had been Talexs high school teacher)[14]
was called a con artist in Cruciada Romnismului.[83]
3 NOTES
Notes
[41] Dan Amedeo Lzrescu, Andrei Goldner, Opiuni n politica extern", in Ion Solacolu (ed.), Tragedia Romniei:
1939-1947. Institutul Naional pentru Memoria Exilului
Romnesc: Restituiri I, Editura Pro Historia, Bucharest,
2004, p.69-70. ISBN 973-85206-7-3
[52] (Romanian) Teodor Vrgolici, Publicistica lui Panait Istrati, in Romnia Literar, Nr. 14/2007
[53] Mermoz & Talex, p.292
4 References
Cruciada Romnismului, Year I, Issue 1, November
22, 1934
Franklin L. Ford, Political Murder: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism, Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1985. ISBN 0-674-68636-5
4
Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci.
Extrema dreapt
romneasc, Editura Fundaiei Culturale Romne,
Bucharest, 1995. ISBN 973-9155-43-X
Stphane Roux, Une approche sociologique de la
diusion de l'uvre de Panat Istrati, in Alain
Pessin, Patrice Terrone (eds.), Littrature et anarchie, Presses Universitaires du Mirail, Toulouse,
1998, p.95-112. ISBN 2-85816-308-1
(Romanian) Stelian Tnase, Document. Panait Istrati, in Sfera Politicii, Nr. 108/2004, p.52-56
(Romanian) Ottmar Trac, Stelian Obiziuc,
Diplomatul Constantin I. Karadja i situaia
evreilor romni din statele controlate/ocupate de cel
de-al III-lea Reich, 1941-1944, in the Romanian
Academy (George Bari Institute of History)
Historica Yearbook 2010, p.109-141
Francisco Veiga, Istoria Grzii de Fier, 19191941:
Mistica ultranaionalismului, Humanitas, Bucharest,
1993. ISBN 973-28-0392-4
REFERENCES
5.1
Text
5.2
Images
File:Monumentul_lui_Eminescu_aa_cum_i-l_imagineaz_d._Tonitza.JPG Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/2/2c/Monumentul_lui_Eminescu_a%C5%9Fa_cum_%C5%9Fi-l_imagineaz%C4%83_d._Tonitza.JPG License:
Public
domain Contributors: Arta i Arheologia, 2/1929 (available through the Bucharest City Library DacoRomanica archive); republished from
Adevrul, 12 Feb 1929 Original artist: Nicolae Tonitza
File:Stelescu_&_Codreanu,_Casa_Verde,_1933.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Stelescu_%26_
Codreanu%2C_Casa_Verde%2C_1933.JPG License: Public domain Contributors: Micarea legionar: istorie n imagini, online series at
the Historica magazine site (2013) Original artist: uncredited
File:nmormntarea_lui_Panait_Istrati,_apr_1935.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/%C3%
8Enmorm%C3%A2ntarea_lui_Panait_Istrati%2C_apr_1935.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: George Potra Collection Original
artist: uncredited
5.3
Content license