It differed from other European far-right movements of the period due to its spiritual basis, as the Iron Guard was deeply imbued with Romanian Orthodox Christian mysticism. It existed into the early part of the Second World War , during which time it came to power. Members were called Legionnaires or, outside of the movement, " Greenshirts " because of the predominantly green uniforms they wore.
In January , following the Legionnaires' rebellion , Antonescu used the army to suppress the movement, destroying the organization; its commander, Horia Sima , along with other leaders, escaped to Germany. Despite various changes of the intermittently banned organization's name, members of the movement were widely referred to as "legionnaires" sometimes "legionaries"; Romanian : legionarii and the organization as the "Legion" or the "Legionary Movement".
In March , Codreanu formed the "Iron Guard" Romanian : Garda de Fier as a paramilitary political branch of the Legion; this name eventually came to refer to the Legion itself. In , Corneliu Zelea Codreanu left the number two position under A. The Legion differed from other fascist movements in that it had its mass base among the peasantry and students, rather than amongst military veterans.
However, the legionnaires shared the general fascist "respect for the war veterans". Romania had a very large intelligentsia relative to the general population with 2. Beyond that, Romania had traditionally been dominated by a Francophile elite, who preferred to speak French over Romanian in private and who claimed that their policies were leading Romania to the West with the National Liberal Party , in particular, maintaining that their economic policies were going to industrialize Romania.
Romania had been a strongly Francophile country starting in when the United Principalities came into being, giving Romania effective independence from the Ottoman Empire an event largely made possible by French diplomacy which pressured the Ottomans on behalf of the Romanians , and from that time onward, most of the Romanian intelligentsia professed themselves believers in French ideas about the universal appeal of democracy, freedom and human rights, while at the same time holding antisemitic views about Romania's Jewish minority.
