Mihai Stelescu
Mihai Stelescu (1907 – July 16, 1936) was a Romanian political activist.
Biography
With the Iron Guard
Born in Galați,[1] he joined, while still in high school,[1] the Legion of the Archangel Michael (later also known as the Iron Guard), an ultra-nationalist, Fascist, and antisemitic political movement led by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
A prominent activist in his native
In September 1934, for mysterious reasons, Stelescu was investigated by a party jury under the leadership of Cantacuzino-Grănicerul;
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,
However, the Legionnaires bitterly hated Stelescu as an
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 Țară), the political expression of the Legion at the time.[8] 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.[9]
At the same time, there is evidence that Stelescu questioned Codreanu's unconditional support for Nazi Germany (to which he preferred Italian fascism).[10] 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 and Italian fascism.[11]
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
Crusade of Romanianism
The Crusade of Romanianism was a nationalist and eclectic organisation, presenting a more
Stelescu received support from a small number of well-known personalities (the
Death
In 1936, Stelescu was admitted to the Spitalul Brâncovenesc, a Bucharest hospital, for an appendectomy. While recovering, he was found by the Decemviri (the "Ten Men"), an Iron Guard death squad led by Ion Caratănase and probably created in 1935 in Târgu Mureș (during a youth congress tolerated by the Gheorghe Tătărescu executive).[18]
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),[19] after which they attacked the cadaver with hatchets or axes, and danced around it until the police arrived.[20] The rumors, disseminated right after the murder, that members of the death squad had engaged in acts of cannibalism, are unfounded.[19]
All ten members of the Decemviri were immediately arrested. They were each found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison with hard labour. While officially both Codreanu and the Decemviri claimed that action had taken place without Codreanu's knowledge or consent, the probability remains highly unlikely;[21] furthermore, Codreanu personally awarded each one of them the White Cross while they were kept in prison.[21]
On November 30, 1938, all 10 members of the Decemviri, along with the Nicadori death squad and Codreanu, were killed during a purge of the Iron Guard ordered by King Carol II. The men were strangled to death while being transported to Jilava Prison. Their bodies were dissolved in acid, and placed under seven tons of concrete.
Notes
- ^ a b c Pop, p.44
- ^ Pop, p.45; Veiga, p.159
- ^ Ornea, p.300
- ^ a b Pop, p.45
- ^ Alexandrescu et al., p.23; Pop, p.45
- ^ Ornea, p.306; Pop, pp.46-47; Veiga, p.233, 241
- ^ Istrati, in Pop, p.45
- ^ Cosma, p.208
- ^ Veiga, pp.228-230
- ^ Veiga, p.229, 230
- ^ a b Pop, p.46
- ^ Stelescu, 1935, in Ornea, pp.298-299
- ^ Stelescu, 1935, in Ornea, p.307
- ^ Ioanid, pp.88–89
- ^ Talex, in Pop, p.44
- ^ Veiga, p.229
- ^ Gruber, Cap.V
- ^ Ornea, p.305, 307
- ^ a b Pop, p.47
- ^ Cosma, p.210; Ioanid, p.89; Veiga, p.229
- ^ a b Cosma, p.211; Pop, p.47
References
- Ion Alexandrescu, Ion Bulei, Ion Mamina, and Ioan Scurtu (1995) Partidele politice din România, 1862–1994: Enciclopedie, Bucharest, Editura Mediaprint, ISBN 973-96934-0-7(in Romanian)
- Neagu Cosma (1998) Culisele Palatului Regal, Ediție revăzută și adăugită, Bucharest, Editura Globus. ISBN 973-49-0099-4(in Romanian)
- (in Romanian) Victoria Gabriela Gruber, Summary of Partidul Național Liberal (Gheorghe Brătianu) (PDF file)
- Radu Ioanid (1990) The Sword of the Archangel: Fascist Ideology in Romania, East European Monographs, No. 292, Boulder, New York, East European Monographs, ISBN 0-88033-189-5
- Șerban N. Ionescu (1994) Who Was Who in Twentieth-Century Romania, Boulder, New York: East European Monographs, No. 395, ISBN 0-88033-292-1
- ISBN 973-9155-43-X(in Romanian)
- Grigore Traian Pop, "Cînd disidența se pedepsește cu moartea. Un asasinat ritual: Mihail Stelescu", in Dosarele Istoriei, 6/IV (1999)
- ISBN 84-7488-497-7)