Abstract

The project aims to approach the Legionary movement and its ultra-nationalist ideology as a “political religion.” Seen from this interpretative angle, fascism in general and Legionarism in particular can be understood as socio-political movements aiming at redeeming the nation from the decadence of liberal modernity.

Grounded upon the new consensus emerged in fascist studies, the project sets out to interpret the Legion of the Archangel Michael as a movement driven by an ideology of “thanatic ultra-nationalism.” Central to this ideological formula was the cult of death together with a series of mortuary practices that shaped a “thanatic culture.”

Moreover, this culture of death, martyrdom and self-sacrifice for a superior cause facilitated the articulation of a “political theology of national redemption” by the movements’ ideologues. Based on these considerations, the project aims to

(1) elaborate a theoretical framework for understanding the Legionary movement as a political religion;

(2) to conceptualize Legionarism as a “Christofascist movement”;

(3) to identify the rhetorical mechanisms and discursive strategies by which the Legionary movement developed a political theology of national redemption;

(4) to understand the politicization of death employed by instrumentalizing funerary rituals, burials and practices of commemorations;

(5) to elucidate the mechanisms by which the Legion constructed a pantheon of martyrs celebrated as national heroes;

(6) to understand the reorganization of the neo-legionary movement in the post-communist context, as well as its connection with the interwar Legion of the Archangel Michael.

To these ends, the project will employ a mixt methodology, including (1) discourse analysis for studying Legionary and sympathizing publications, (2) archival research, and (3) ethnographic observation of the Legionary funeral spaces (cemeteries, burial sites, crosses, etc.).

Objectives

(1) First, the project will articulate a theoretical framework for understanding Romanian Legionary movement as a peculiar case of a political religion, which not only sacralized politics but also, due to its massive although intricate entanglements with the Orthodox clergy, politicized the sacred.

(2) Second, and further expanding this line of theorizing, the project will develop a conceptualization of Romanian Legionarism as a Christofascist movement, endowed with an ideology of thanatic ultra-nationalism in which the mystical celebration of death and martyrdom was situated at its very core.

(3) Third, drawing on a discourse analysis, the project will unpack the rhetorical techniques, discursive strategies, and tropic devices by which the ideologues of the movement have fused politics and religion into a political theology of national redemption. Unveiling the tropological use of language defining the Legionary discursive practices (e.g. the politicization of the Christian notion of martyrdom) will shed light on the rhetorical mechanisms through which the Legion developed a theodicy of violence that led to the sacralization of death as well as of self- and other-sacrifice.

(4) Fourth, the project aims to understand the necropolitics (i.e., politics of death) employed by the movement comprising discursive strategies, ritual ceremonies, and memory practices by which the Legion developed a trademark thanatic culture in whose centerpiece was the cult of death and the celebration of political martyrdom. The project will thoroughly analyze Legionary burial practices such as Moța and Marin’s funeral procession of February 1937 as well as other funerals as ritual means of constructing political martyrs.

(5) Fifth, the project will seek to shed light on the patterns of hero-making by examining the mechanisms underpinning the political construction of the Legion’s pantheon of martyrs. Closely related to this, particular attention will be paid to understanding the Legion’s anthropolitical project, i.e., the strive to create New Men and Women. Since the gender dimension of the Legionary movement has been relatively ignored by scholars working in this field of study, the project will scrutinize both the politics of manhood (what I refer to by the notion of the Legion’s “andropolitical project” of creating the Legionary New Man) and the politics of womanhood (i.e., the movement’s “gynopolitical project” of molding the Legionary New Woman).

(6) Sixth, the project will aim to understand the post-communist afterlife of the Legionary movement which re-emerged in Romanian society with the demise of the socialist regime, after an exilic period of half a century.

RESULTS

Conference participations

Centre for Death & Society (CDAS) Conference 2019, 14th International Conference on Death, Dying and Disposal, 4–7 septembrie 2019, University of Bath, UK, cu lucrarea “Sacralising Death: Funeral Processions in the Romanian Fascist Movement’s Ideology of Thanatic Nationalism” (poster)

Centre for Death & Society (CDAS) Conference 2019, 14th International Conference on Death, Dying and Disposal, 4–7 septembrie 2019, University of Bath, UK, cu lucrarea “The Politics of Mourning in Post-communist Romania: Unraveling the Thanatopolitics of Grievable Deaths” (prezentare orală).

The International Colloquium on Social Sciences and Communication ACUM 2019, Brașov, 17–19 octombrie 2019, cu lucrarea “Ritual Violence and Political Radicalism: Exploring Patterns of Youth Hooliganism in Romania’s Interwar Far-Right Movement” (prezentarea orală).

International Colloquium “Contemporary Memorialisation of the Holocaust in Central and Eastern European Countries,” Bucharest, octombrie 11–12, 2019, the “Elie Wiesel” National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, cu lucrarea “Geographies of Commemoration: Remembering the Holocaust in Romania’s Educational System” (prezentare orală).

The 11th International Conference of Dying and Death in 18th-21st Century Europe, International Conference (ABDD11), Alba Iulia, septembrie 26–27, 2019, cu lucrarea “The Sacralisation of Politics within the Iron Guard’s Ideology of Thanatic Ultra-Nationalism” (prezentare orală).

Conferința Națională „Tendințe ale cunoașterii și dezvoltării sociale în secolul XXI,” Alba Iulia, 25–26 octombrie 2019, cu lucrarea “Redenumirea toponimiei urbane în România postsocialistă: o analiza cantitativă asupra nomenclatorului stradal la nivel național” (prezentare orală).

Books

Rusu, M. S. (2020). Delicii prozaice: bârfa ca practică socială a vieții cotidiene [Trivial Delights: Gossiping as Social Practice in Everyday Life]. Iași: Editura Institutul European, 217 pp.

Book chapters

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2020). Geographies of Remembrance: Observing the National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust in Romania’s Educational System. In S. Catrina (Ed.). Holocaust Memoryscapes: Contemporary Memorialisation of the Holocaust in Central and Eastern European Countries (pp. 278–306). București: Editura Universitară.

Articles

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2020). Staging Death: Christofascist Necropolitics during the National Legionary State in Romania, 1940–1941. Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, DOI: 10.1017/nps.2020.22, IF 2018 = 0.803 (zona roșie).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2020). Political Patterning of Urban Namescapes and Post-socialist Toponymic Change: A Quantitative Analysis of Three Romanian Cities. Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, 103, 102773, pp. 1–12, DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102773, IF 2018 = 3.853 (zona roșie).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2020). Nations in Black: Charting the National Thanatopolitics of Mourning across European Countries. European Societies, 22(1), pp. 122–148, DOI: 10.1080/14616696.2019.1616795 (Social Sciences Citation Index, IF 2018 = 0.902) (zona albă).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian. (2020). The Politics of Mourning in Post-communist Romania: Unraveling the Thanatopolitics of Grievable Deaths. Mortality, 25(3), pp. 313–333, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2019.1682983 (Scopus).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2019). ‘Civilising’ the Transitional Generation: The Politics of Civic Education in Post-Communist Romania. Social Change Review, (2019) 17, pp. 116–141, DOI: 10.2478/scr-2019-0005 (B.D.I) (sub tipar).

Szakacs (Behling), Simona & Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2019). Nurturing Romanian Socialists: Children’s Reading Primers Before, During, and After the Second World War. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 11(1), 97-117 (Scopus).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2019). Mapping the Political Toponymy of Educational Namescapes: A Quantitative Analysis of Romanian School Names. Political Geography, 72, pp. 87-98 (zona roșie).

Rusu, Mihai Stelian (2019). Shifting Urban Namescapes: Street Name Politics and Toponymic Change in a Romanian(ised) City. Journal of Historical Geography, 65, pp. 48-58, IF2018 = 0.882 (zona roșie).

Reports

Stage I: Conceptualizing fascism as "political religion"

Stage II: Analyzing the Legionary Movement as "political religion"

Stage III (final report): Theorizing the Legionary Movement as "political religion"