''For My Legionaries'' () is an autobiographical book by

Iron Guard The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...

leader

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (; 13 September 1899 – 30 November 1938), born Corneliu Zelinski and commonly known as Corneliu Codreanu, was a far-right Romanian politician, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or ''The Legion of ...

first published in 1936. The book has been described by historian Irina Livezeanu as being to Codreanu what ''

Mein Kampf (; ) is a 1925 Autobiography, autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Political views of Adolf Hitler, Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Nazi Germany, Ge ...

'' was to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. It was first published in

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles th ...

, as it was not allowed to pass

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

in Bucharest.Ilarion Țiu, ''The legionary movement after Corneliu Codreanu: from the dictatorship of King Carol II to the communist regime (February 1938-August 1944)'', East European Monographs, 2010, p.43 The book is a

first-person narrative A first-person narrative (also known as a first-person perspective, voice, point of view, etc.) is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from that storyteller's own personal point of view, using first-person grammar su ...

describing Codreanu's leadership role in a series of political movements, "The Guard of the National Conscience", "League of National Christian Defence", "the Legion of the Archangel Michael", and finally, the

. His goal within these movements was to defend the newly established

Greater Romania Greater Romania () is the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved after the Great Union or the related pan-nationalist ideal of a nation-state which would incorporate all Romanian speakers.Irina LivezeanuCultural Politics in Greate ...

against a set of enemies, particularly, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

.Jackson, p.149 The narratives are interspersed with quotations from Romanian intellectuals, as well as clippings from contemporary newspapers. Codreanu makes clear in his book that his ideology is not compatible with the

liberal democratic Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal democracy are: ...

institutions. He loathed the elections and the parliamentary system and he considered his movement to be part of a greater family of ultra-nationalist ideologies, which included

Italian Fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

and German

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

.Jackson, p.165

Notes

References

External links

*'' Pentru legionari'' at Romanian Wikisource {{Authority control 1936 non-fiction books Political autobiographies Propaganda books and pamphlets Iron Guard Fascist books Antisemitic books