<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Fascism and communism are the two forms of totalitarianism that manifested,
\nfully-fledged, in the 20th century. This was the century when
\nliberal democracy had been going through the most serious of crises. Totalitarianism
\nsucceeded in persuading a great many people that it was a better solution to the flaws of democracy. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Romania, totalitarianism vigorously took hold of people’s minds. Fascism
\nmanipulated ideas and especially feelings, churlishly simplifying them and
\nturning them into killing tools. The Legionnaire Movement and its party, The
\nIron Guard, were the most radical fascist means of expression for the far-right
\ntotalitarian thought. But before we got them the way they were known, their
\nfoundation was laid by the Blood Brotherhoods, the organization that initiated those
\nwho shared the fascist ideas. Coming into being in 1923, as organizations of
\nthe nationalist youth, at the initiative of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the future
\nleader of the Iron Guard, the Blood Brotherhoods draw and trained new staunch
\nmembers. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Radio Romania’s Oral History Center in the past decades has recorded
\ninterviews with former members of the Blood Brotherhoods. In 1997, Alexandru
\nBancescu of C\u00e2mpulung Moldovenesc recalled how a session unfolded, of
\nthe Blood Brotherhoods, in his native town. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The shared legionnaire orientation
\nmade us all brothers. There were moments of prayer, there was, in the parlance of
\nthe Blood Brotherhoods, a moment of friendship, by means of which we provided
\nour education. We were honest in speaking about our shortcomings, every one of
\nus took their own correction measures, we tried to correct each other and we punished
\nourselves at a time when that was needed to correct our imperfections and turn
\na human being into a personality. We did physical exercises to strengthen our
\nbodies, we set up camp nights with the Blood Brotherhoods, towards Rarau at the
\nDevil’s Mill or somewhere else, where very many people had come, from all over
\nMoldavia. We used to meet there, we used to sing, telling stories about our
\npeople, our country, our history. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1999, Mircea Dumitrescu of Bucharest span the yarn of how he joined
\nthe Blood Brotherhoods when he was 13.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I approached them through reading and discussions with
\nmy classmates. What had I read? For the Legionnaires, a book written by Corneliu
\nCodreanu, I had read The Blood Brotherhood, written by Gheorghe Istrate,
\nthe organizer of the Blood Brotherhoods, A Generation’s Creed, by Ion
\nMota, From the Legionnaire World, other legionnaire books. Where would I find
\nthem? There was a group in Buftea who did that. One of them was shot in 39′ by
\nCarol II’s police. I knew him, I knew his father. The others were doctors in
\neconomy, the Stan brothers. I would talk to them through my father and my
\nfather’s friends.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What was
\nexpected from the young members? The behavior of a new type of man, a man of
\nthe future, as Dumitrescu said:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What were we supposed to become? First of all, we were told we were not Christian
\nenough. Every day, the 40th share of our time, that is 36 minutes, had to be
\ndevoted to our relationship with Christ. That meant reading from the New Testament,
\nmentally checking everything we had done during the day, to see if we’d
\ncommitted any sin. After that, we would be told that there could be no
\nrelationship with God without a relationship with the person next to us. Also,
\nthe 40th share of our spending had to be set aside, to help those in need. That
\nmeans that if, for instance, I ate an ice-cream costing 40 lei, 1 leu had to be
\nsaved for those who may have needed that money. We were also checked. We had a
\nlittle notebook, titled my notebook, where we were supposed to record
\neverything, about spending our time and our money.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nstrongly Christian education attracted not only those interested in acquiring a
\nnew ethic identity, but it also translated into a selection that would give
\nbirth to an elite. In 1994, priest Ilie Tinta described the selection of the
\nmembers of the Blood Brotherhoods. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Usually, we would select students that had good grades and an exemplary
\nbehavior. We never took students who couldn’t pass their exams. The
\npersecutions of 1938-1939 left us a bit short of members, as the Security were
\nchasing us, but we managed to get through. In 1940, when the Movement was
\nrendered legal for a while, during the ministry of Antonescu, I was the head of
\nthe Blood Brotherhoods at the Nifon Seminary in Bucharest . <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But time
\ndoes not carve ideas in stone, it changes everything. After the end of the
\nfascist period, in 1945, the other face of totalitarianism, communism, emerged
\nin central and eastern Europe. And some of the members of the Blood Brotherhoods,
\nthose who managed to stay out of prison, would give birth to part of the
\nanti-Communist resistance movement. (EN, MI)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Blood Brotherhoods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":123226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[42941,32441,42017,32440,42606],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-131523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-brotherhood","tag-communism","tag-elite","tag-fascism","tag-resistance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n