ION MOȚA AND VASILE MARIN: THE CULT OF DEATH IN THE IDEOLOGY AND PROPAGANDA OF THE IRON GUARD
ION MOȚA AND VASILE MARIN: THE CULT OF DEATH IN THE IDEOLOGY AND PROPAGANDA OF THE IRON GUARD

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to present the fact that the religiosity and the cult of death promoted by the Iron Guard were not just a simple instrument to gain political power, but were instead the main belief and guiding principle of the entire Legionary Movement. These radical religious principles, mutually interdependent with the cult of death, offer a peculiarity of the Iron Guard in contrast with other European fascist movements. This is the main idea that I want to espouse in this paper. The cult of Ion Moța and Vasile Marin, who were killed during the Spanish Civil War, is the best example of the propaganda which was structured around these ideological practices. Their martyrdom covers the “ascetic struggle” of the Legion, their fight against Bolshevism and the new social and political order, as well as their struggle to create a “new man”. Their funerals were exploited by legionary propaganda as an example of giving one’s life in the name of the ideology of the Iron Guard. Even if the mysticism surrounding the cult of death is one of the main characteristics of fascist movements, to the Iron Guard, it became one of self-identification through a mystical orthodoxy, a religious creed which was invoked every time the Legion found itself in a critical situation.

• Details
• Contents