With the Iron Guard

Born in Galaţi

Galati

Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....

, he joined, while still in high school, the Legion of the Archangel Michael

Iron Guard

The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...

 (later also known as the Iron Guard), an ultra-nationalist

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, Fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, and anti-Semitic

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 political movement led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period...

.

A prominent activist in his native Covurlui County, jailed more than once for his activism, he was awarded the White Cross (Crucea Albă), the movement’s highest distinction, and eventually became Codreanu’s lieutenant. In 1932, he was one of five members of the Legion to be elected to Parliament

Parliament of Romania

The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...

 on the lists of the Corneliu Codreanu Grouping; he was also the youngest member of the Parliament at the time. Stelescu, together with Codreanu, General Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, Nichifor Crainic

Nichifor Crainic

Nichifor Crainic was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist and antisemitic activities...

, and others, was tried for criminal conspiracy

Conspiracy (crime)

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

 following the assassination of Prime Minister Ion G. Duca

Ion G. Duca

Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...

 — all were acquitted

Acquittal

In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...

 by a jury comprising Legion sympathisers.

In September 1934, for mysterious reasons, Stelescu was investigated by a party jury under the leadership of Cantacuzino-Grănicerul; expelled, he is thought to have broken away from the Legion before the actual verdict. As a consequence, in 1935, he created his own political movement, originally called the White Eagles (Vulturii Albi), but later known as the Crusade of Romanianism (Cruciada Românismului), and began publishing a weekly magazine of the same name, in which he fiercely attacked Codreanu and the Legion.

Dissidence and controversy

There are conflicting accounts of what caused Stelescu’s dissidence. According to the Legion’s version (published much later by Codreanu's successor, Horia Sima

Horia Sima

Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...

) Stelescu was motivated by envy of Codreanu, and had even plotted to assassinate him; moreover, through his wife’s relatives, he had made contact with political operators close to King

King of Romania

King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....

 Carol II, who, as the foremost opponent of the Legion, encouraged and supported his action. Other sources have alleged that Stelescu had even been an agent of Siguranţa Statului, a hypothesis relying on a statement of the writer Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati was a Romanian writer of French and Romanian expression, nicknamed The Maxim Gorky of the Balkans. Istrati was first noted for the depiction of one homosexual character in his work.-Early life:...

, who was a sympathiser of Cruciada Românismului; he reportedly told the writer Alexandru Talex that Stelescu was "the man of those who keep me under surveillance" (a likely reference to Romanian authorities, suspicious of Istrati's earlier communist activism).

However, the Legionnaires bitterly hated Stelescu as an apostate, and that the details of the plot to assassinate Codreanu are hardly credible; at that time, the King would probably have supported anything that promised to reduce the Legion's growth and influence.

The dissidence may have been precipitated by the fact that Codreanu had assigned Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, rather than Stelescu, to lead the Legion's legal front, the All for the Fatherland Party (Partidul Totul pentru Ţară), the political expression of the Legion at the time. It is, however, more likely that Stelescu’s motivations were primarily political: Stelescu, together with the more radical sections of the Guard, was arguably disenchanted with Codreanu's attempt focus on attempts to obtain legal power.

At the same time, there is evidence that Stelescu questioned Codreanu's unconditional support for Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 (to which he preferred Italian fascism

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

). According to Grigore Traian Pop, who cites another piece of writing by Stelescu, this was not the case, Stelescu having become an adversary of both Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 and Italian fascism.

Stelescu also attacked the Guard's leader for maintaining secret contacts with the authorities and receiving bribes and subsidies, claiming that, in 1935, during the repression of the Guard, the leader had taken refuge in the residence of a female relative of Elena Lupescu, the King's mistress — "While everybody was staying in Jilava

Jilava

Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...

, and in other prisons, you were being sheltered by a lady. She was a person adverse to your action. How did you get along so well?". He also challenged Codreanu's public image by suggesting that the Guard's leader was in reality a bon viveur, as well as uncultured and a plagiarist

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...

. On one occasion, he defied Codreanu's violent methods, writing an open letter

Open letter

An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....

 stating: "[If I am to be killed,] I ask for one indulgence, let the 'Chief' in person come [and do it], and, if possible, not in the back".

Crusade of Romanianism

Like the Legion, the Crusade of Romanianism was a Fascist organisation rooted in mystic Orthodoxy

Romanian Orthodox Church

The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...

 and anti-Semitism, but presenting a more leftist and social colouring (its political programme included such items as decent wages, a mandatory 8-hour work day

Eight-hour day

The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions...

, and pensions for invalid workers). It can be interpreted as a more radical and working class wing of the Legion, and in this respect Stelescu’s dissidence may be compared to those of Otto Strasser

Otto Strasser

Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser was a German politician and 'left-wing' member of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Strasser was part of the ‘left-wing’ faction of the party, along with his brother Gregor Strasser, and broke from the party due to disputes with the ‘Hitlerite’ faction...

 or Manuel Hedilla

Manuel Hedilla

Manuel Hedilla Larrey was a Spanish political figure who was a leading member of the Falange and an early rival for power towards Francisco Franco. By profession he was a mechanic....

. According to Talex, Stelescu had equal admiration for Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 and Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...

. Istrati probably contributed to toning down anti-Semitism in the Crusades discourse.

Stelescu received support from a small number of well-known personalities (the Romanian Army officer Nicolae Rădescu

Nicolae Radescu

Nicolae Rădescu was a Romanian army officer and political figure. He was the last pre-communist rule Prime Minister of Romania, serving from December 7, 1944 to March 1, 1945....

, alongside Talex and Istrati), but few Legionnaires joined him. The dissidence’s overall impact on the movement was minor, although the Legion did later adopt some of the social aspects of Stelescu's programme. Faced with lack of appeal, the group adhered to the Constitutional Front, a nationalist electoral alliance

Electoral alliance

An electoral alliance may take the form of a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc. It is an association of political parties or individuals which exists solely to stand in elections...

 formed around the National Liberal Party-Brătianu

National Liberal Party-Bratianu

The National Liberal Party-Brătianu was a right-wing political party in Romania, formed as a splinter group from the main liberal faction, the National Liberals. For its symbol, PNL-Brătianu chose three vertical bars, placed at equal distance from each other...

 and Alexandru Averescu

Alexandru Averescu

Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...

's People's Party (it also included for some time the short-lived Citizen Bloc, presided by Grigore Forţu).

Killing

In 1936, Stelescu was admitted to the Spitalul Brâncovenesc, a Bucharest hospital, for an appendectomy. While recovering, he was found by the Decemviri

Decemviri

Decemviri is a Latin term meaning "Ten Men" which designates any such commission in the Roman Republic...

 (the "Ten Men"), a Legionnaire death squad

Death squad

A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...

 led by Ion Caratănase and probably created in 1935 in Târgu Mureş (during a youth congress tolerated by the Gheorghe Tătărescu

Gheorghe Tatarescu

Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...

 executive).

According to the Legion's version, the assassins riddled his body with some 200 bullets, after which they left the hospital unmolested and surrendered voluntarily to the police. The alternative version claims that the assassins fired some 120 bullets (other sources point a number as low as 38), after which they attacked the cadaver with hatchets or axes, and danced around it until the police arrived. The rumors, disseminated right after the murder, that members of the death squad had engaged in acts of cannibalism

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

, are unfounded.

While officially both Codreanu and the Decemviri claimed that action had taken place without Codreanu's knowledge or consent, the probability remains highly unlikely; furthermore, Codreanu personally awarded each one of them the White Cross while they were kept in prison.