found the movement that would become known as the Iron Guard. Cuza's "Christian racist" anti-Semitism served was the ideological bedrock of the Iron Guard, but Codreanu added his own distinctive ideas into the "Christian racism" such as a strong element of Orthodox mysticism and making the Iron Guard into a death cult that rejected all the values of modern society. For the Iron Guard to kill and/or to be killed in the service of the cause were the only positive values-for Codreanu nothing else mattered. In this, Codreanu differed greatly from Cuza, who much preferred to solve the "Jewish Question" via legal measures, instead of violence. The conflict between the two turned vitriolic. All major conflicts of the 1930s between Codreanu and the establishment found Cuza on the latter's side, eager to win back his movement's place as the leading Antisemitic voice. In 1935, he joined forces with Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party, forming the new National Christian Party. In 1936, Cuza was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy. After the elections of 1937, the intervention of King Carol II (a Fascist sympathizer who was however wary of the Iron Guard) brought the National Christians to government, with Goga as Prime Minister and Cuza as minister of state. Alongside the overt persecution of Jews, the government adopted Corporatism. In a paradoxical turn, Cuza agreed to have the Party turn towards paramilitary activism: his government created its answer to the armed Iron Guard, the Lăncieri ("Lance-bearers"). The Goga-Cuza government was not able to lift Romania from crisis: as a minority rule that was meant to satisfy the King, it only managed to alienate the public. In February 1938, after several attempts at forming a national government, Carol dismissed it and replaced it with a personal dictatorship. In 1939, Cuza held his last political post as member of the Crown Council. Gallery References Bibliography Nicholas M. Nagy-Talavera, The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Romania (1970, , ) Ioan Scurtu, "Mit și realitate. Alexandru Averescu" ("Alexandru Averescu. Myth and Reality"), in Magazin Istoric The Report of the International Committee for the Study of Holocaust in Romania (on the Romanian Presidency site) – a review of the several Anti-Semitic doctrines, including Cuza's, that contributed to genocide of the Holocaust. The founding document of Averescu's People's League 1857 births 1947 deaths Politicians from Iași People of