Iron Guard
철위단
A far-right fascist paramilitary organisation and political party active in the Kingdom of Romania between the wars and during the Second World War. Founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael, it combined anti-democratic, anti-communist and antisemitic politics with Romanian Orthodox mysticism.
In depth
In 1930 Codreanu formed the Iron Guard as the Legion’s paramilitary branch, and in 1935 the organisation was renamed the “Everything for the Country” party. Called the Greenshirts after their shirts, its members assassinated politicians including Prime Minister Ion Duca in 1933. It came third with 15.6 per cent in the 1937 election, but under King Carol II’s royal dictatorship Codreanu was arrested in 1938 and killed “while trying to escape”. When Ion Antonescu took power in September 1940, the Guard under Horia Sima entered the government, creating the National Legionary State, but after the Legionnaires’ rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom of January 1941 Antonescu crushed it with the army and Sima and other leaders fled to Germany.