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WORK CAMPS, COMMERCE, AND THE EDUCATION OF THE ‘NEW MAN’ IN THE ROMANIAN LEGIONARY MOVEMENT*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2008

REBECCA HAYNES
REBECCA HAYNES
Affiliation:
University College London
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Abstract

This article explores two aspects of the Romanian legionary movement's organization in the 1930s, namely work camps and commerce. These are placed in the context of the Legion's attempts to construct a ‘parallel society’ that challenged the hegemony of the state and the dominant class of Romanian politicians and Jewish capitalists. The Legion's work camps and commercial ventures played a crucial educational role within the movement. The work camps were regarded as ‘schools’ in which the legionary ‘New Man’ was to be created and nurtured. Through its commercial ventures, the Legion aimed to educate a new generation of ‘Christian’ entrepreneurs to win back the economic position which the Romanians had allegedly lost to Jewish traders. This new elite would thus replace the decadent Romanian political and commercial classes which the Legion regarded as devoid of national awareness. The success of the Legion's ‘parallel society’ provoked government counter-measures which culminated in the murder of the movement's leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, in 1938, and the fragmentation of the Legion. The article draws upon hitherto unused Romanian archival sources, as well as legionary memoirs and articles.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 943 - 967
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

The research and writing of this article was made possible through the generosity of the AHRC under its Research Leave Scheme. I would also like to thank Professor Dennis Deletant (UCL-SSEES) for his advice in the preparation of this article, and Valentin Adrian Săndulescu for providing me with a copy of his unpublished MA dissertation, ‘Young Romanians into legionaries: the quest for the “New Man” in the ideology of the Romanian legionary movement (1927–1937)’ (Central European University, Budapest, 2003).

References

1 Václav Benda, Milan Šimečka, Ivan M. Jirous, Jiří Dienstbier, Václav Havel, Ladislav Hejdánek, , and Šimsa, Jan, ‘Parallel polis, or an independent society in Central and Eastern Europe: an inquiry’, Social Research, 55 (Spring/Summer 1988), pp. 211–46, at p. 217Google Scholar.

2 Lagerspetz, Mikko, ‘From “parallel polis” to “the time of the tribes”: post-socialism, social self-organization and post-modernity’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 17 (June 2001), pp. 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 4.

3 See, for example, Dragoş Zamfirescu, Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail de la mit la realitate (Bucharest, 1997), pp. 83, 197, 217–20; Constantin Petculescu, Mişcarea Legionară: mit şi realitate (Bucharest, 1997), pp. 60–2; Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the others: a history of fascism in Hungary and Romania (Iaşi and Oxford, 2001), pp. 367, 397–8, 402–6; Armin Heinen, Die Legion ‘Erzengel Michael’ in Rumänien: soziale Bewegung und politische Organisation (Munich, 1986), pp. 229–30, 282–4; Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941: mistica ultranaţionalismului (Bucharest, 1993), pp. 219–22.

4 For Codreanu's early career, see Irina Livezeanu, Cultural politics in Greater Romania: regionalism, nation building and ethnic struggle, 1918–1930 (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1995), pp. 245–96, and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, For my legionaries (The Iron Guard) (Madrid, 1976) (originally published as Pentru legionari, Sibiu, 1936), pp. 3–117.

5 Codreanu, For my legionaries, pp. 58–72, at p. 117.

6 Ibid., p. 88.

7 For Codreanu's views on liberal democracy, see, ibid., pp. 302–26.

8 Despite the Legion's claim that their camps were not influenced by foreign models, work camps, and experiments in communal living were a widespread phenomenon amongst other fascist movements, such as the Nazi youth movement and the Croix de feu. In addition, in both Europe and North America, state-sponsored work camps were often a response to mass unemployment following the Great Depression. On the Legion's claim to uniqueness, see Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919–1941, p. 219. For an American view on state-sponsored work camps in 1930s Europe, see Kenneth Holland, Youth in European labor camps: a report to the American Youth Commission (Washington, DC, 1939). For a comparative perspective on labour service and work camps in Nazi Germany and the United States, see Kiran Klaus Patel, Soldiers of labor: labor service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America, 1933–1945 (Cambridge, 2005). For the Croix de feu and its various communal associations, hotels, resorts, and summer camps, see Irvine, William D., ‘Fascism in France and the strange case of the Croix de feu’, Journal of Modern History, 63 (June 1991), pp. 271–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Codreanu, For my legionaries, p. 139.

10 Horia Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare (Timişoara, 1994), p. 19.

11 For a discussion on the Bolshevik threat to Bessarabia, see Rebecca Haynes, ‘Historical introduction’, in Rebecca Haynes, ed., Moldova, Bessarabia, Transnistria (Occasional Papers in Romanian Studies 3, London, 2003), pp. 1–142, at p. 104.

12 Codreanu, For my legionaries, p. 141.

13 Arhivele Naţionale, Sediul Central, Bucureşti (National Archives, headquarters, Bucharest) (hereafter Arh. Naţ.), Fond Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 4/1933, pp. 118–21, 15 July 1933, Construction of a dam by the Iron Guard.

14 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 116.

15 Ibid., pp. 117–42, at p. 142.

16 Zamfirescu, Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail de la mit la realitate, pp. 217–20; Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 3/1936, pp. 300–21, Police Directorate of the Security Services, Information Service, ‘All for the Country’ party. The word ‘fountain’ is the literal translation of the Romanian fântână. It is used in this article with some misgiving since it suggests a decorative feature. Legionary fountains were, in fact, natural springs which were piped and presented in stonework, usually with a tap. They were thus vital to the village economy and infrastructure.

17 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 118; Tabăra de muncă, with a foreword by Mihail Polihroniade (n.p., 1936, pp. 17–21, 61–2. This volume, containing numerous photographs of the most significant of the legionary work camps, was clearly produced to celebrate the ‘year of the work camp’.

18 Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, 1927–1938 (Munich, 1981, originally publ. Bucharest, 1940), ‘Circular: the duty of the student’, 31 May 1935, pp. 39–42.

19 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 118.

20 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 4/1933, pp. 118–21, at p. 118, 15 July 1933, Construction of a dam by the Iron Guard.

21 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, ‘Circular: the duty of the student’, 31 May 1935, pp. 39–42, at p. 41.

22 For an exploration of the nature of the legionary ‘New Man’, see Săndulescu, Valentin, ‘Fascism and its quest for the “New Man”: the case of the Romanian legionary movement’, Studia Hebraica, 4 (2004), pp. 349–61Google Scholar. Roger Griffin has described the concept of the ‘New Man’ as a ‘sub-myth’ within fascism's ‘palingenetic political myth’ of transformation. See Roger Griffin, The nature of fascism (London, 1996), p. 35. For the ‘New Man’ especially in relation to Fascist Italy, see George L. Mosse, The image of man: the creation of modern masculinity (New York, 1996), pp. 154–80. Emilio Gentile has described this attempt to create the ‘New Man’ as fascism's ‘anthropological revolution’. See, Gentile, Emilio, ‘Fascism, totalitarianism and political religion: definitions and critical reflections on criticism of an interpretation’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 5 (winter 2004), pp. 326–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 356.

23 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 143.

24 Codreanu, For my legionaries, p. 131.

25 Corneliu Codreanu, Cărticica Şefului de cuib (Munich, 1987), p. 65 (originally published in Bucharest in 1933).

26 Codreanu, For my legionaries, p. 133.

27 Codreanu, Cărticica Şefului de cuib, p. 111.

28 Codreanu, For my legionaries, p. 222.

29 Codreanu considered the state education system to be ‘under Jewish influence’. See Săndulescu, ‘Fascism and its quest for the “New Man”’, p. 359.

30 Macrin, G., ‘O nouă şcoală romînească: taberele de muncă’, Însemnări sociologice, 1 (July 1935), pp. 16–23Google Scholar, at p. 16; Macrin, G., ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, Însemnări sociologice, 2 (Oct. 1936), pp. 12–23Google Scholar, at p. 15; Macrin, G., ‘Taberele de muncă. Aspectul politic’, Însemnări sociologice, 2 (Aug. 1935), pp. 16–23Google Scholar, at pp. 17–18.

31 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 118.

32 Codreanu, Cărticicaş efului de cuib, p. 6.

33 Tabăra de muncă, p. 1. Sănduleslcu notes that Codreanu's emphasis on physical work was in part meant to address the Romanians' alleged laziness. See, Săndulescu, ‘Fascism and its quest for the “New Man”’, p. 359.

34 Macrin, ‘O nouă şcoală romînească’, at pp. 17–18, and Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: aspectul politic’, p. 18.

35 Tabăra de Muncă, p. 1.

36 Ţopa, Leon, ‘Taberele de muncă obligatorie’, Însemnări sociologice, 2 (Nov. 1936), pp. 24–9Google Scholar, at p. 27.

37 Interview with Dr Şerban Milcoveanu on 19 Apr. 2006. I am grateful to Dr Milcoveanu for the interviews he gave me on 19 and 20 Apr. 2006 regarding Legionary work camps. As president of the National Union of Romanian Christian Students, Dr Milcoveanu worked with Codreanu from 1936 to 1938 and attended the Carmen Sylva camp in 1936.

38 Tabăra de muncă, p. 30; Maria Bucur, ‘Romania’, in Kevin Passmore, ed., Women, gender and fascism in Europe, 1919–1945 (Manchester, 2003), pp. 57–78, at p. 77.

39 It is clear from photographs in the volume Tabăra de muncă that older people were involved in the camps. The elderly General Cantacuzino, president of the Legion's political wing ‘All for the Country’ even sometimes helped out. See Tabăra de muncă, p. 31. For the children at Carmen Sylva, see Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 21.

40 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 3/1929, pp. 189–223, at p. 204, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Craiova, Information bulletin regarding the internal situation for 1–31 Aug. 1935.

41 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 14; Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: aspectul politic’, p. 18; Macrin, ‘O nouă şcoală romînească’, p. 20; Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, ‘Câmpina legionary camp’, Tuesday 6 July 1937, pp. 161–3, at p. 162; Porunca Vremii, 30 July 1935, ‘Constructive nationalism: nationalist youth's work camp at Carmen Sylva’.

42 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 2/1936, p. 249, General Directorate of Police, Note, nr 2324, 3 Aug. 1936.

43 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: aspectul politic’, pp. 18–19; Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 143.

44 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, ‘To the legionaries in Arnota work camp’, 20 July 1935, p. 47.

45 Ibid., ‘Legionary education’, 10 July 1936, pp. 76–7.

46 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, pp. 143–4. Dr Şerban Milcoveanu attended the Carmen Sylva camp in the summer of 1936 and witnessed Codreanu leading the question and answer sessions in the evenings which provided part of the legionaries' ‘intellectual education’ which followed their ‘education through work’ during the day. Individual legionaries were often asked to present reports. In keeping with Codreanu's stress on morality and good behaviour, he commanded a particularly ambitious lawyer to report on the need for modesty in daily life: interview with Dr Milcoveanu on 19 Apr. 2006.

47 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: aspectul politic’, p. 22. The broad didactic principles behind the legionary work camps, especially the cult of work and the healthy body and the concomitant reaction against soft living and decadence, were common to all fascist movements. For a comparison with education in the Nazi labour service, see Patel, Soldiers of labor: labor service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America, pp. 190–261.

48 For an example of a diploma, see, Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 6/1935, p. 481, Diplomă de Tabăra, awarded to Ioan Stegărescu who spent twenty-five days working at the legionary co-operative, and signed by Codreanu as head of legionary education and by General Cantacuzino as head of ‘All for the Country’ on 14 Nov. 1935. Printed on the diploma is the following: ‘Comrade, retain a clear memory of these days of work, of hard life and fraternity. Let it be for you a duty of honour to remain at your legionary post to the end of your life, in the service of the Romanian people who will triumph through the work and sacrifice of you and your colleagues. Silence and work!’

49 According to Leon Ţopa, as a result of the Jewish infiltration of the economy in the nineteenth century, the Romanian political elite represented not the interests of the Romanian nation but only ‘economic interests and the interests of people who lead the economy’ i.e. the Jews. See Ţopa, ‘Taberele de muncă obligatorie’, p. 26.

50 Codreanu, Cărticica Şefului de cuib, pp. 62, 65. For the legionary belief in ‘Jewish economic parasitism’, see Săndulescu, ‘Fascism and its quest for the “New Man”’, p. 355.

51 Macrin, ‘O nouă şcoală romînească’, p. 21; Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: aspectul politic’, pp. 19–20, 22; Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, pp. 12, 14, 17. The Romanian philosopher Constantin Rădulescu-Motru defined politicianism as a type of political activity whereby public institutions and services became a ‘means for fulfilling personal interests’. Quoted in Constantin Iordachi, Charisma, politics and violence: the Legion of the ‘Archangel Michael’ in inter-war Romania (Trondheim, 2004), p. 42. For a discussion of the genuine shortcomings of the Romanian political system, and the shallowness of Romanian democracy, see ibid., pp. 40–5.

52 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 15.

53 Ion Banea, Căpitanul (Timişoara, 1995) (originally published in Sibiu in 1936), pp. 94–5.

54 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 19/1932, p. 401, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Cluj, Gendarmerie Legion Alba, Informative Note, nr 58 of 4 July 1935; ibid., p. 402, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Cluj, Gendarmerie Legion Alba, Informative note nr 59 of 4 July 1935.

55 George Cipăianu and Ioan Ciupea, ‘Soviet attempts at destabilizing Romania during the “dynastic crisis”, 1928–1930’, in George Cipăianu and Virgiliu Ţârău, eds., Romanian and British historians on the contemporary history of Romania (Cluj-Napoca, 2000), pp. 17–31. On Soviet exploitation of irredentism amongst, for example, the Bulgarian minority in Romania, see Dan Cătănuş, Cadrilaterul: ideologie cominternistă şi irredentism Bulgar, 1918–1940 (Bucharest, 2001).

56 For Titulescu's foreign policy and reactions to it within Romania, see Rebecca Haynes, Romanian policy towards Germany, 1936–1940 (Basingstoke and London, 2000), pp. 2–14.

57 Arh. Naţ., Direcţie Generală a Poliţiei, dosar nr 46/1936, pp. 171–2, 20 June 1936, nr 1700, Note on a meeting held at the legionary centre in Iaşi.

58 Arh. Naţ., Direcţie Generală a Poliţiei, dosar nr 239/1935, pp. 1–2, at p. 2, Letter from General Gh. Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, head of the ‘All for the Country’ party, to Their Holinesses the Bishops of Romania and to all Romanians of good Christian faith, Bucharest, 2 Dec. 1935.

59 See, for example, Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the others, pp. 247, 250–1, 265–8; Heinen, Die Legion ‘Erzengel Michael’ in Rumänien, pp. 317–21, and Iordachi, Charisma, politics, and violence, pp. 104–17.

60 Zamfirescu, Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail de la mit la realitate, pp. 83, 217–20; Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 3/1936, pp. 300–21, Oct. 1936, Police Directorate of the Security Services, Information Service, ‘All for the Country’ party; ibid., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 29/1935, pp. 258–63, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Oradea, Information bulletin nr 5 of 29 May 1936.

61 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr. 6/1935, p. 51, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Iaşi, Informative note, nr 10 of 24 Sept. 1935. See also the photographs of a wedding taking place at the work camp in Izbuc-Bihor in Transylvania in Tabăra de muncă, pp. 50–1.

62 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 3/1936, p. 5, 2 Sept. 1936, conf. 1194; Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, pp. 22–3.

63 Tabăra de muncă, p. 22

64 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 29/1935, pp. 303–8, at p. 306, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Oradea, Information bulletin nr 9 of 29 Sept. 1936.

65 Ioan Scurtu, ed., Ideologie şi formaţiuni de dreapta în România 1919–1938 (4 vols., Bucharest, 1996–2003), iv (7 July 1934–30 Mar. 1938), p. 220, document nr 120, 27 Oct. 1936, Cluj: article published in Porunca Vremii regarding the blessing of a crucifix on Soroca mountain.

66 Porunca Vremii, 4 Aug. 1935, I. Diaconescu, ‘Constructive youth: monasteries, churches, hermitages and roads – ‘All for the Country' work camps’.

67 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 3/1929, pp. 189–223, at pp. 201–4, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Craiova, Information bulletin regarding the internal situation for 1–31 Aug. 1935; ibid., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 3/1929, pp. 81–120, at pp. 99–114, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Craiova, Information bulletin regarding the internal situation for 1–31 July, 1935; Tabăra de muncă, pp. 31–44.

68 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, pp. 152–3.

69 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 77–8, ‘Dissolution of Susai camp’, Bucharest, 9 Sept. 1936, General Cantacuzino-Grănicerul.

70 On the ambiguous relationship between the Orthodox hierarchy and the Legion, see Iordachi, Charisma, politics and violence, pp. 114–17.

71 Arh. Naţ., Direcţie Generală a Poliţiei, dosar nr 239/1935, pp. 1–2, Letter from General Gh. Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, head of the ‘All for the Country’ party, to Their Holinesses the Bishops of Romania and to all Romanians of good Christian faith, Bucharest, 2 Dec. 1935. Iordachi points out, however, that the hierarchy refused publicly to repudiate the Legion. See Iordachi, Charisma, politics and violence, p. 116.

72 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 3/1936, Oct. 1936, pp. 300–21, at p. 315, Police Directorate of the Security Services, Information Service, ‘All for the Country’ party.

73 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 6/1935, p. 51, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Iaşi, Informative note, nr 10 of 24 Sept. 1935.

74 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 29/1935, pp. 8–14, at p. 13, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmeriei Oradea, Information bulletin regarding the internal situation, nr 9 of 30 Sept. 1935.

75 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 2/1936, pp. 244–5, General Directorate of Police, Note nr 2326, 3 Aug. 1936, Băile Herculane work camp.

76 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 29/1935, pp. 8–14, at p. 13, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Oradea, Information bulletin regarding the internal situation, nr 9 of 30 Sept. 1935; ibid., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 29/1935, p. 22, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Oradea, Note on the activities of the legionary work camps within this inspectorate.

77 Arh. Naţ., Inspectoratul General al Jandarmeriei, dosar nr 19/1932, p. 516, Regional Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie Cluj, Gendarmerie Legion Alba, Informative note nr 39 of 23 Mar. 1936.

78 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 8/1936, pp. 109–10, General Directorate of the Police to the minister of the interior, letter of 5 May 1936.

79 One election poster, for example, showed a line of bronzed legionaries in swimming trunks, lined up in military formation with their work tools. Beneath them was written ‘Look at them! Burned by the sun, tough, rugged, the heralds of a new life …’. Another showed Codreanu at work amongst his legionaries with a pick-axe breaking up the soil with the slogan ‘All that is putrid and evil will crumble beneath the tempest of your destiny’: Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 13/1937, pp. 117, 119.

80 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 23.

81 Scurtu, ed., Ideologie şi formaţiuni de dreapta în România: 1919–1938, iv, pp. 123–4, document nr 51, 17 Aug. 1935, Constanţa: report from the municipal police station at Constanţa regarding the legionary work camp at Carmen Sylva; Tabăra de muncă, pp. 31–44; Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 73–4, Carmen Sylva 24 Apr. 1936, ‘To the legionary family’.

82 Interview with Dr Şerban Milcoveanu, 19 Apr. 2006.

83 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, pp. 19–21.

84 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 2/1936, p. 274, General Directorate of Police, Note, nr 2374, 10 Aug. 1936, Focşani legionaries to send sixty to seventy sick children to Carmen Sylva.

85 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 23. The existence of the so-called ‘Carmen Sylva law’ for settling disputes and ejecting miscreants suggests that relations between members were not always as harmonious as Macrin imagined. See Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 151–2, 1 July 1937, ‘The Carmen Sylva law’.

86 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 23. For a comparison with the daily schedule in a Nazi work camp, see Patel, Soldiers of labor: labor service in Nazi Germany and New Deal America, pp. 210–11.

87 Macrin, ‘Taberele de muncă: tabăra dela Carmen Sylva’, p. 22. Food for members of other work camps was usually donated by local supporters. Materials and the sites for the camps were often provided by more influential supporters. The Rarău camp, for instance, where the movement was building a ‘rest home’, was set up on land belonging to the estates of Prince Nicolae, King Carol II's brother, with whom the movement had close relations. The furniture and bedding were provided by local legionaries and legionary railway workers. See Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 6/1937, p. 730, Câmpulung-Bucovina police nr 11 444 of 7 Oct. 1937 to the Regional Inspectorate of Police Cernăuţi. Construction material for the building of Casa Verde, as well as other work camps, was donated by the industrialist and nationalist politician, Ion Gigurtu. See, ibid., Direcţie Generală a Poliţiei, dosar nr 264/1937, p. 327, General Directorate of the Police, nr 1569, 1 Dec. 1937, Note regarding the ‘Mica’ society and the legionary movement.

88 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 119; Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 84–5, 20 Sept. 1936, ‘For the buyer from the cooperative’.

89 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 202.

90 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 48–51, Bucharest, 29 Sept. 1935, ‘First circular regarding legionary commerce’; Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, pp. 119–22, at p. 121.

91 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 120.

92 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 48–51, at p. 51, Bucharest, 29 Sept. 1935, ‘First circular regarding legionary commerce’.

93 Interview with Dr Şerban Milcoveanu on 20 Apr. 2006 in Bucharest. Dr Milcoveanu confirmed that the legionary women were heavily involved in legionary commerce, as a result of their role in the work camps in preparing food and general housekeeping. See also, Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 52–5, Monday 7 Oct. 1935, ‘The legionary canteen’. Women were organized within their own units of legionary organization, known as a ‘fortress’ (cetăţuie), but it should by now be clear that women played a significant role in various aspects of legionary activity within and beyond the work camps. For a discussion of the important role of women within movements of the far right in France, especially the Croix de feu, see Passmore, Kevin, ‘“Planting the tricolor in the citadels of communism”: women's social action in the Croix de feu and Parti social français’, Journal of Modern History, 71 (Dec. 1999), pp. 814–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 56–61, Bucharest, 17 Oct. 1935, ‘The legionary family’.

95 Heinen, Die Legion ‘Erzengel Michael’ in Rumänien, p. 283.

96 Holland, Youth in European labor camps: a report to the American Youth Commission, p. 279.

97 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, pp. 194, 196.

98 Ibid., p. 197.

99 Ibid., p. 195.

100 Ibid.

101 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 152–4, at pp. 152–3, 3 July 1937, ‘Words for the public at the legionary restaurant’.

102 Ibid., at p. 154; Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 196.

103 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifest, p. 143, Bucharest, 15 June 1937, Circular nr 77; ibid., p. 155, 3 July 1937, ‘To heads of nests’; Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 9/1937, p. 77, Section I-a, nr 3, 28 June 1937.

104 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 196.

105 Ibid., p. 200.

106 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 189–91, at pp. 190–1, ‘Inauguration of the legionary general store at Obor’.

107 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 198.

108 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, p. 209, 10 Nov. 1937, ‘The Captain's words: “Workers from throughout Romania, to battle!”’ The menu for the Griviţa restaurant had various comments on the margins such as ‘To be great a nation must be honest, have faith and be ready for sacrifice at any moment.’ Tips were not accepted at the restaurant. See Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 21/1938, pp. 10–13, at p. 12, Legionary restaurant, Calea Griviţa 198, Menu.

109 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, p. 198.

110 Ibid., p. 202; Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 170–1, at p. 170, Bucharest, 13 Sept. 1937, ‘For the establishment of “The Battalion of Legionary Commerce”’; ibid., pp. 171–2, Bucharest, 13 Sept. 1937, ‘The organization of the Battalion of Legionary Commerce’.

111 Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the others, p. 293.

112 Constantin Argetoianu, Însemnări zilnice (7 vols., 2 Feb. 1935–22 Nov. 1939) (Bucharest, 1998–2003), iii, pp. 295–7, 21–2 Dec. 1937; ibid., iv, p. 70, 28 Jan. 1938.

113 Sima, Istoria mişcării legionare, pp. 200–2.

114 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 28/1937, p. 64, Section i-a, nr 28, 4 Oct. 1937.

115 Arh. Naţ., Direcţie Generală a Poliţiei, dosar nr 264/1937, p. 348, Section i-a, nr 38, 20 May 1937.

116 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, pp. 240–1, Bucharest, 20 Jan. 1938, Circular nr 126.

117 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 19/1938, pp. 54–5, Detectives' Corps, Section i-a, nr 4, 11 Feb. 1938.

118 Arh. Naţ., Ministerul de Interne, Diverse, dosar nr 1/1938, pp. 25–7, C. D., 24 Feb. 1938.

119 Codreanu, Circulări şi manifeste, p. 281, 15 Mar. 1938, ‘Closure of the legionary restaurant Gutenberg’.

120 Robert O. Paxton, The anatomy of fascism (London, 2004), p. 85.

121 Benito Mussolini, Fascism: doctrines and institutions (Rome, 1935), pp. 13–14.

122 From Václav Havel, ‘The power of the powerless’, in Paul Wilson ed., Václav Havel Open letters: selected writings, 1965–1990 (New York, 1978/90), pp. 125–214, at p. 213. Quoted in Lagerspetz, ‘From “parallel Polis” to “the time of the tribes”’, p. 4.