Kingdom of Romania under Fascism

Last updated March 06, 2024

The Kingdom of Romania was under Fascist rule for a total of six to eight months, comprising two separate regimes headed by two different parties. First there was the National Christian Party between December 1937 and February 1938, then the Iron Guard between September 1940 and January 1941. The sole legal party from 1938 to 1940, the National Renaissance Front, was also called fascist, as was the dictator Ion Antonescu (1940–1944).

National Christian Party

The logo of the National Christian Party

The National Christian Party was created in 1935, from the merger between Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and Alexandru C. Cuza's National Christian Defense League. This new party had a strong Fascist tinge, particularly in trying to emulate Italian corporatism. Following the 1937 Romanian general election, Goga was appointed Prime Minister on 28 December 1937. His term ended on 10 February 1938. During his cabinet's brief rule, antisemitic laws were introduced and Romania's foreign policy was shifted towards Germany, Italy, and Japan.^[1]

Goga's cabinet was divided between pro-Western and pro-Axis ministers. Such division reflected King Carol II's decision to steer a neutral course between the Great Powers. Thus, the King was still ultimately in control of foreign policy. At that time, Goga was likely the most well-known Romanian in Germany. Noteworthy pro-Germans in Goga's cabinet included Ion Gigurtu (Minister of Trade and Industry) and Eugen Savu [ ro ] (Minister of Finance), while pro-Westerners were represented by Armand Călinescu (Minister of the Interior) and General Ion Antonescu (Minister of National Defense). The Minister of Foreign Affairs was Istrate Micescu, a member of the National Christian Party and thus a pro-German. However, he pledged to follow Carol's commands. He made contradictory statements: on the one hand he pledged to create lasting links between Romania and the Axis (31 December 1937), but later pronounced himself in favor of the League of Nations and Czechoslovakia. Goga himself, stated his wishes for a new commercial treaty with Germany, but also for keeping the traditional links with France as well as strengthening ties with Britain. Ultimately, upon taking office as Prime Minister, he sent telegrams of friendship to Czechoslovakia, France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, and Germany. Despite being a Germanophile, Goga still made it clear to Hitler, in his New Year telegram, that close ties with Germany would depend on the Reich's recognition of Romanian territorial integrity. Unwilling to alienate Hungary, Hitler simply sent Goga his "gratitude" for the declaration. Despite all these, Goga's cabinet was the first to include a vocal pro-German element for the first time since the First World War, and Hitler described the coming to power of his government as the "first happy event of the New Year".^[2]^: 43–5

As Goga was unable to form a parliamentary majority, his party having secured only 9% of the vote, he dissolved the Parliament before it could convene.^[3] Since Goga's government issued laws and decrees without the backing of Parliament, his regime was effectively a dictatorship.

On 8 February, Goga came to an understanding with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the leader of the Iron Guard. Because the main reason King Carol appointed Goga as Prime Minister to begin with was to serve as a measure against the Iron Guard, Goga was promptly dismissed within forty-eight hours.^[4]

Antisemitic legislation

Goga's government inaugurated a radical antisemitic internal policy. It introduced legislation aimed at curtailing what was seen by many Romanians as the disproportionate position of the country's Jewish minority in the economy and higher education. As a result, Jews boycotted work and withdrew their money from the banks, thus bringing the economy to a standstill. In the end, Western displeasure at Goga's antisemitic policies contributed to his fall from power on 10 February 1938, when he was dismissed by the King.^[2]^: 45–6 By choosing the antisemitic National Christian Party to form a government, the King hoped to draw off support from the more popular Iron Guard, which had gained 15.6% of the votes during the December 1937 election (by comparison, the National Christian Party gained less than 10% of the votes). Under Goga, antisemitism became state policy. On 30 December, several "Jewish" newspapers were banned. Other measures included the interdiction of Jews to sell alcohol and tobacco, a ban on hiring foreigners (including Jews) in cafes and restaurants, and the suspension of the right to practice their job of 1,540 registered Jewish lawyers in Bucharest. These measures culminated in a decree promulgated on 21 January 1938, which stripped 225,222 Jews of their Romanian citizenship. Although the Goga government soon fell, this decree was not cancelled, and this large batch of Jews all had their rights as Romanian citizens revoked by 15 September 1939. Despite the fall of Goga, antisemitism had become too strong of a policy for any subsequent government to afford ignoring it.^[5] Goga's appointment as Prime Minister on 28 December 1937 was seen as a formal approval of Fascist violence. Romania slipped into chaos within weeks: Jew-beating became a daily occurrence, tens of thousands of Lăncieri (the paramilitary wing of the National Christian Party) carried out street violence and gang warfare against the Iron Guard, shops were closed, and the exchange rate collapsed. Romania appeared to be on the brink of civil war.^[6]

Legacy

Goga's government was the second antisemitic government in Europe, after that of Nazi Germany, stripping one third of Romanian Jews of their citizenship.^[7] Because of its antisemitic measures, the Goga-Cuza government has been referred to as "more Nazi than the Germans".^[8]

The Romanian King used the failures of the Goga government to proclaim his own royal dictatorship and to blame the country's condition on the system of parliamentary democracy. He actually took full power in order to personally deal with the rising Iron Guard. Before February was out, a new Constitution came into force under which the Parliament had been relegated to an advisory role, with the real power being held by the King and his Crown Council. Goga's successor as Prime Minister was Patriarch Miron Cristea.^[9]

Octavian Goga is today remembered as one of Romania's national poets, his entire political career being almost completely forgotten by the Romanian public. For instance, the "Octavian Goga County Library" in Cluj-Napoca is named after him.^[10]

National Renaissance Front

Iron Guard

Ion Antonescu

Related Research Articles

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The Iron Guard was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael or the Legionary Movement. It was strongly anti-democratic, anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and anti-Semitic. It differed from other European right-wing movements of the period due to its spiritual basis, as the Iron Guard was deeply imbued with Romanian Orthodox Christian mysticism.

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The National Legionary State was a totalitarian fascist regime which governed Romania for five months, from 14 September 1940 until its official dissolution on 14 February 1941. The regime was led by General Ion Antonescu in partnership with the Iron Guard, the Romanian ultra-nationalist, and anti-communist organization. Though the Iron Guard had been in the Romanian Government since 28 June 1940, on 14 September it achieved dominance, leading to the proclamation of the National Legionary State.

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The National Renaissance Front was a Romanian political party created by King Carol II in 1938 as the single monopoly party of government following his decision to ban all other political parties and suspend the 1923 Constitution, and the passing of the 1938 Constitution of Romania. It was the party of Prime Ministers Armand Călinescu, Gheorghe Argeșanu, Constantin Argetoianu, Gheorghe Tătărescu, and Ion Gigurtu, whose regimes were associated with corporatism and antisemitism. Largely reflecting Carol's own political choices, the FRN was the last of several attempts to counter the popularity of the fascist and antisemitic Iron Guard. In mid-1940, Carol reorganized the FRN into the more radical Party of the Nation, designed as a "totalitarian unity party". The party's anthem was "Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire". It effectively ceased to function the following year when the Parliament of Romania was dissolved.

Sfarmă-Piatră was an antisemitic daily, monthly and later weekly newspaper, published in Romania during the late 1930s and early 1940s. One in a series of publications founded by Nichifor Crainic, with support from Universul editor-in-chief Stelian Popescu, it attempted to regroup the various fascist and pro-fascist movements around Crainic's "ethnocratic" principle. The editorial staff comprised a group of far right intellectuals; alongside the editor-in-chief Alexandru Gregorian, they included Ovidiu Papadima, Vintilă Horia, Dan Botta, Dragoș Protopopescu, Toma Vlădescu, and Pan M. Vizirescu. It notably hosted contributions by writers Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești, Radu Gyr and Ștefan Baciu.

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Ion Gigurtu was a far-right Romanian politician, Land Forces officer, engineer and industrialist who served a brief term as Prime Minister from 4 July to 4 September 1940, under the personal regime of King Carol II. A specialist in mining and veteran of both the Second Balkan War and World War I, he made a fortune in interwar Greater Romania. Gigurtu began his career in politics with the People's Party (PP) and the National Agrarian Party, moving closer to the far right during the 1930s, and serving as Minister of Industry and Commerce in the cabinet of Octavian Goga. Shortly after the start of World War II, Gigurtu was affiliated with King Carol's National Renaissance Front, serving as Public Works and Communications Minister and Foreign Minister under Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu, before the territorial losses incurred by Romania in front of the Soviet Union propelled him as Tătărescu's replacement.

Istrate N. Micescu was a Romanian lawyer, Law and Political Science professor at the University of Bucharest's Law Department, and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania.

The National Agrarian Party was a right-wing agrarian party active in Romania during the early 1930s. Established and led by poet Octavian Goga, it was originally a schism from the more moderate People's Party, espousing national conservatism, monarchism, agrarianism, antisemitism, and Germanophilia; Goga was also positively impressed by fascism, but there is disagreement in the scholarly community as to whether the PNA was itself fascist. Its antisemitic rhetoric was also contrasted by the PNA's acceptance of some Jewish members, including Tudor Vianu and Henric Streitman. The group was generally suspicious of Romania's other ethnic minorities, but in practice accepted members and external collaborators of many ethnic backgrounds, such as the Gagauz Dumitru Topciu and the Romani Gheorghe A. Lăzăreanu-Lăzurică.

The cabinet of Octavian Goga was the government of Romania from December 29, 1937 to 10 February 10, 1938.

References

↑ Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman, Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, 2016, p. 299
1 2 Rebecca Haynes (2016). Romanian Policy Towards Germany, 1936–40. Springer. ISBN 978-0-230-59818-8.
↑ Henry Eaton, The Origins and Onset of the Romanian Holocaust, Wayne State University Press, 2013, p. 46
↑ Hans Rogger, Eugen Weber, The European Right: A Historical Profile, University of California Press, 1966, p. 551
↑ Dennis Deletant, British Clandestine Activities in Romania during the Second World War, Springer, 2016, pp. 32-33
↑ Ivan T. Berend, Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe Before World War II, University of California Press, 2001, p. 337
↑ Itamar Levin, His Majesty's Enemies: Great Britain's War Against Holocaust Victims and Survivors, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p. 46
↑ Rudolph Tessler, Letter to My Children: From Romania to America Via Auschwitz, University of Missouri Press, 1999, p. 31
↑ Gerhard Besier, Katarzyna Stokłosa, European Dictatorships: A Comparative History of the Twentieth Century, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, p. 226
↑ Eike-Christian Heine, Under Construction: Building the Material and the Imagined World, LIT Verlag, Münster, 2016, p. 108

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[1] Wojciech Roszkowski, Jan Kofman, Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, 2016, p. 299

[Haynes-2] 1 2 Rebecca Haynes (2016). Romanian Policy Towards Germany, 1936–40. Springer. ISBN 978-0-230-59818-8.

[3] Henry Eaton, The Origins and Onset of the Romanian Holocaust, Wayne State University Press, 2013, p. 46

[4] Hans Rogger, Eugen Weber, The European Right: A Historical Profile, University of California Press, 1966, p. 551

[5] Dennis Deletant, British Clandestine Activities in Romania during the Second World War, Springer, 2016, pp. 32-33

[6] Ivan T. Berend, Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe Before World War II, University of California Press, 2001, p. 337

[7] Itamar Levin, His Majesty's Enemies: Great Britain's War Against Holocaust Victims and Survivors, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p. 46

[8] Rudolph Tessler, Letter to My Children: From Romania to America Via Auschwitz, University of Missouri Press, 1999, p. 31

[9] Gerhard Besier, Katarzyna Stokłosa, European Dictatorships: A Comparative History of the Twentieth Century, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, p. 226

[10] Eike-Christian Heine, Under Construction: Building the Material and the Imagined World, LIT Verlag, Münster, 2016, p. 108

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