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Staging Death: Christofascist Necropolitics during the National Legionary State in Romania, 1940–1941

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2020

Mihai Stelian Rusu Open the ORCID record for Mihai Stelian Rusu [Opens in a new window]
Mihai Stelian Rusu*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania; Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mihai.rusu@ulbsibiu.ro, mihai.rusu@eui.eu
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Abstract

The cult of death and the celebration of martyrdom lay at the core of interwar fascist movements across the European continent. However, it was in the Romanian Legionary Movement (also known as the Iron Guard) that these were articulated into a full-fledged ideology of thanatic ultranationalism. In this article, I examine the spectacular fascist necropolitics staged as state-sponsored funeral performances during the short-lived National Legionary State (September 14, 1940–February 14, 1941). A detailed description of the massive campaign of exhumations and reburials of the so-called “legionary martyrs” carried out during this short time span, culminating with the grandiose ceremony organized for the reburial of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu on November 30, 1940, provides insight into the legionary thanatic worldview and ritual praxis. It also sheds light on the movement’s politics of commemoration, death, and afterlife and shows how these were embedded into a religious framework underpinned by theological concepts such as heroic martyrdom, vicarious atonement, and collective redemption.

Keywords

fascismdeathritualviolenceIron Guard
Type
Article
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Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 3: Special Issue on Internationalism in Times of Nationalism: Yugoslavia, Nonalignment, and the Cold War , May 2021 , pp. 576 - 589
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© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

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