FOR MY LEGIONARIES By CORNELIU ZELEA CODREANU FOR MY LEGIONARIES By CORNELIU ZELEA CODREANU Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Sign of the Legion TABLE OF CONTENTS To the legionaries STEPPING INTO LIFE In the Dobrina Forest At the University of Iasi Revolution being prepared The Guard of the National Conscience Constantin Pancu I The occupation of the Agency of State Monopolies by the Guard of the National Conscience The tricolor flag over the Nicolina Works National-Christian Socialism, the National Syndicates The Creed of National-Christian Socialism A truthful picture of the situation in 1919 The leaders of the Romanian workers The attitude of the Jewish press The first Student Congress after the War The opening of the Iasi University in the fall of 1920 The 1920-1921 university year Expelled from Iasi University forever The Council of the School of Law The 1921-1922 university year President of the Law Students' Association Visiting the Cernauti University The review "Apararea Nationala" The founding of the Association of Christian Students Obligation of honor At the end of my university studies The summer of 1922 In Germany THE STUDENT MOVEMENT December 10, 1922 The "Numerus Clausus" THE JEWISH PROBLEM The number of Jews The problem of the Romanian land The problem of the cities The problem of the Romanian school The problem of the Romanian leading class The problem of national culture The return to Romania At Iasi At Bucharest At Cluj The Assembly of Iasi, March 4, 1923. The founding of the League of National Defense March 4, 1923 81 Other anti-Semitic and nationalist organizations "The Romanian National Fascia" and "The Romanian Action" Modification of the Art. 7 of the Constitution My first arrest The great men of Romania of 1879 Vasile Conta Vasile Alecsandri Mihail Kogalniccanu Mihail Eminescu Ion Heliade Radulescu Bogdan Petriceicu Hajdeu Costache Negri A.D. Xenopol The student general strike continues June 1923 The plans of Judaism against the Romanian Nation Against the Romanian people Against the Romanian land Against the student movement Jewish arguments and attitudes The Congress of the Student movement's Leaders The L.A.N.C. Congress at Campul-Lung The October 1923 student plot In the Vacaresti prison Outside The mite of the Moti for the students in Vacaresti Thoughts of a new life The isolation of politicians Avenging the betrayal and the trial At Iasi A YEAR OF GREAT TRIALS The Christian Cultural Home The first work camp A new blow Overwhelmed by blows at the garden Upstairs, in the prefect's office On the Rarau Mountain On the Rarau Mountain My betrothal The Mota-Vlad trial Around wbat happened at the garden The word of Professor A.C. Cuza Protest meetings against Manciu An administrative investigation is ordered The fatal day Two articles regarding the Manciu case Hunger strike Alone at Galata The trial is transferred to Focsani At Turnul-Severin The trial Returning to Iasi JUNE 1925 - JUNE 1926 My wedding The baptismal ceremony at Ciorasti After one year, work resumes Dangers that threaten a political movement The critique of the leader A case of conscience In France at school In France at school General elections back home In the Alps At Pinet-d'Uriage among French peasants At Bucharest - The League of Christian National Defense broken in two What happened My reaction in the face of this state of affairs THE LEGION OF MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL The Legion of Michael the Archangel Matter versus spirit Reason Against treachery The beginnings of legionary life Our program Aspects of Romanian public life Our apprehensions facing this world The stages of the Legion's development "Pamantul Stramosesc" The contents of the first issue The fundamental principles of legionary ethics The disinterestedness in battle The disinterestedness in battle The struggle for maintaining our review Other names encountered in the first issues of our review Our action as seen from the outside Beyond forms The national movements and dictatorship The first beginnings of organization The vow of the first legionaries A new battle Problems of a material kind The summer of 1928 Fighting misery Professor Gavanescul receives the sack of earth The first assembly of nest leaders and the formation of the Legionary Senate TOWARDS THE POPULAR MASSES Among the Moti Among the Moti The decision to go to the masses December 15, 1929 In Transylvania, at Ludosul-de-Mures In Bessarabia In Bessarabia again Troubles in Maramures The march into Bessarabia is forbidden The attempt on the life of Minister Anghelescu Dissolution of the Legion of Michael the Archangel and the Iron Guard Arrest warrant The trial The legionary movement in the first elections The campaign of Neamt DEMOCRACY AGAINST THE NATION In Parliament Several observations regarding democracy Election, selection, heredity Individual, national collectivity, nation The nation The final aims of the nation Monarchy and the law of monarchy The battle of Tutova The second dissolution of the Guard New general elections In Parliament for the second time The condition of the legionary organization in 1932-1933 THE OFFENSIVE OF CALUMNIES "Anarchic and terroristic movement" "The Iron Guard in the Service of Freigners" "The Iron Guard in the Pay of Hitlerites Printing counterfeit banknotes in Rasinari The death team At Teius The dam of Visani The Liberal Party assumes responsibility for exterminating the Iron Guard Comrades This volume contains the story of my youth, from 19 to 34 years of age, with its feelings, faith, thoughts, deeds, and its errors. CORNELIU CODREANU TO THE LEGIONARIES December 6, 1935, Cannen Sylva LEGIONARIES, I write for our legionary family. For all legionaries: those in villages, In factories and in the university. I do not pay attention to any regulation imposed on book authors. I have no time. I write hastily on the battlefield, in the midst of attacks. At this hour we are surrounded on all sides. The enemies strike us treacherously and treason bites us. For two years we have been bound by the chains of an infamous censorship. For two years our name and that of legionary are tolerated by the press only to be insulted. A rain of treacheries is heaped upon us while our enemies applaud and hope that we shall perish. But these knights of cowardice, as well as their masters, will be convinced, in fact, soon, that all the attacks in which they pooled their hopes of destroying the legionary movement, all their agitation and desperate efforts, will remain fruitless. Legionaries do not die. Erect, immovable, invincible and immortal, they look forever victorious over the impotent convulsions of hatred. _ * _ The opinion created in the non-legionary world by the lines that follow is of no consequence to me and their effect upon that world does not interest me. What I want is that you, soldiers of other Romanian horizons, while reading these recollections, recognize in them your own past and remember your battles; that you re-live the suffering you endured and the blows you took for our people; that you fill your hearts with fire and stand firm in the difficult and righteous struggle in which you are engaged and out of which we all have the command to emerge either victorious or dead. I think of you as I write. Of you who will have to die, receiving the baptism of death with the serenity of our ancestral Thracians. And of you, those who will have to step over the dead and their tombs, carrying in your hands the victorious banners of the Romanians. STEPPING INTO LIFE IN THE DOBRINA FOREST Here we are, congregated one afternoon in the spring of 1919 in the Dobrina Forest which stands sentinel on the heights around Husi. Who? A group of about 20 high school students, sophomores, juniors and seniors. I called these young comrades together to discuss a grave problem, though our life was but budding. What are we going to do if the Bolsheviks invade us? My opinion, with which the others were in accord, was this: if the Bolshevik army crosses the Dniester, then the Pruth, reaching our region, we shall not submit, but will take refuge in the woods armed; we will organize there a center of Romanian action and resistance, and by skillful action shake up the enemy; we will maintain a spirit of non-submission, and keep alive a spark of hope amidst the Romanian masses in villages and towns. We all took an oath in the middle of the ancient forest. This forest was a corner of that famous woods of Tigheciu on whose paths, throughout Moldavia's history, many an enemy found death. We decided to acquire weapons and ammunition, to maintain total secrecy, to engage in reconnoitering and battle exercises there in the forest and to establish a front which would mask our intentions. We easily found this front and we soon brought it into being: a cultural-national association of the students at the high school of Husi which we named "Mihail Kogalniceanu." It was approved by the high school principal. Then we began get-togethers and lectures in town. We treated the customary subjects in public, while in the woods we simulated battle exercises. In those titnes one could find weapons everywhere, so that within about two weeks we collected all we needed. _*_ There was then such a chaotic state of affairs in the country that we, though but children hardly over 18 years of age, understood all too well. Everybody was thinking about the Bolshevik revolution which was well underway only a few steps over the border. The peasantry was opposed to this destroying wave out of instinct, but completely disorganized, could not put up a serious resistance.