Intellectual Elites and Political Transformations in Interwar Romania

• In Event: “Reckless Minds”: on the Political Involvement of Romanian Intellectuals and their Trajectories from One Extreme Ideology to Another

Abstract

The current paper deals with the political and intellectual biographies of several Romanian intellectuals who, in the 1930s, supported the Iron Guard, the most important fascist movement in interwar Romania, and provided support and legitimacy during its brief stay in power between September 1940 and January 1941. By using primary sources such as books, magazines and newspapers from the 1930s and early 1940s, as well as archival material, the paper will document the journey of these intellectuals from early political supporters of the Iron Guard to salient actors during its stay in power. A special section will focus on the (re)conversion processes underwent by these intellectuals during Ion Antonescu's dictatorship (1941-1944) and also during the communist regime in the wider context of a chronic shortage of expertise at various levels of the state.

Author

• Valentin Adrian Sandulescu, U of Bucharest (Romania)/“Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History (Romania)