Alexandru C. Cuza | |
|---|---|
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| Founding President of theNational-Christian Defense League | |
| In office 4 March 1923 – 16 July 1935 | |
| Succeeded by | Octavian Goga (party merged into theNational Christian Party) |
| Member of the Crown Council | |
| In office 16 June 1939 – 6 September 1940 | |
| Monarch | Carol II |
| Minister of State | |
| In office 29 December 1937 – 10 February 1938 | |
| Prime Minister | Octavian Goga |
| Preceded by | Ion Manolescu-Strunga |
| Supreme President of theNational Christian Party | |
| In office 14 July 1935 – 10 February 1938 Serving with Octavian Goga &Nichifor Crainic | |
| Preceded by | Himself (as president of theNational-Christian Defense League) Octavian Goga (as president of theNational Agrarian Party) |
| Succeeded by | None (party banned under the1938 Constitution) |
| Co-Founding President of theDemocratic Nationalist Party | |
| In office 6 May 1910 – 26 April 1920 Serving with Nicolae Iorga | |
| Succeeded by | Nicolae Iorga |
| Founding President of the National Christian Union | |
| In office January 1922 – 4 March 1923 Serving with Nicolae Paulescu | |
| Succeeded by | Himself (as president of theNational-Christian Defense League) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1857-11-08)8 November 1857 |
| Died | 3 November 1947(1947-11-03) (aged 89) |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Party | Conservative Party(before 1895) Democratic Nationalist Party(1910–1920) National Christian Union(1922–1923) People's Party(1920–1923) National-Christian Defense League(1923–1935) National Christian Party (1935–1938) National Renaissance Front (1938–1940) |
| Spouse | Maria Gane |
| Children | Gheorge, Alexandru, Maria & Magdalena |
| Occupation | Politician, Theorist, Economist, Professor, Journalist |
| Known for | Antisemitism |
| Part ofa series on |
| Fascism in Romania |
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Alexandru Constantin Cuza (8 November 1857 – 3 November 1947), also known asA. C. Cuza, was aRomanianfar-right politician, economist, professor,poet,prose writer andepigramist.[1]
Cuza was born inIași into a family of mixedArmenian-Greek origins.[2][3] He was the grandson of Moldavian landowner Gheorghe Cuza (1780–1835),DomnitorAlexandru Ioan Cuza's uncle.[4] He attended secondary school in his native city and inDresden,Saxony,Germany, then studied law at theUniversity of Paris, theFriedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin, and theUniversité Libre de Bruxelles. He tookdoctorates in political and administrative sciences (1882), as well as law (1886).[5]
Upon his return to Romania, Cuza became active in thesocialist circle formed aroundConstantin Mille.[citation needed] He attended meetings of theJunimealiterary society, contributing to its magazineConvorbiri Literare. In 1890, he engaged in the political aspect ofJunimea, serving briefly as deputy mayor of Iași; in 1892, he was elected to theChamber of Deputies (serving until 1895). Cuza moved on to theConservatives, and was yet again deputy – until a split generated by his virulentantisemitism.
Romania in Cuza's time was one of the mostFrancophile nations in the entire world and the Romanianintelligentsia tended to be powerfully influenced by intellectual currents from France. One particular French intellectual fascinated Cuza, namelyArthur de Gobineau whose theories of an ancient Aryan "master race" that created European civilization and of subsequent racial degeneration caused by miscegenation formed the basis of all of Cuza's thinking about race.[6] Cuza's thesis about the Jews as the "plague" upon Romania were based upon Gobineau's theories, but Cuza elaborated by presenting Jews as a biologically different "race" that was poisoning Romania by their sheer existence.[6] Cuza created a distinctly new antisemitism that merged traditional Eastern Orthodox antisemitism with modern pseudo-scientific antisemitism to create a new type of antisemitism that the Israeli historianJean Ancel called "Christian racist" antisemitism.[7] Unlike thevölkisch antisemites in Germany — many, but not all of whom were indifferent, if not actively hostile to Christianity — Cuza made a point of stressing the basis of his ideology in the teachings of the Orthodox Church. At the same time, Cuza's insistence that the Jews were a biologically separate "race" meant that he rejected conversion to Orthodoxy as the solution to the "Jewish Question" as he argued that converted Jews were still racially Jews, and led him to advocate the total expulsion of all Jews from Romania as the only solution to the "Jewish Question".[8] In an 1899 essay, Cuza wrote that the Jews were "instinctively" working for Romania's destruction, by which Cuza meant that evil was embedded within the genes of the Jews, and that because of these alleged genetic reasons the Jews would not stop trying to destroy Romania.[8] A recurring theme of Cuza's writings was that the Jews had been collectively working to ruin Christian nations, especially Romania because of what Cuza believed to be a Jewish "genetic code".[8]
He decided to start his own movement, one centered on the rejection ofJews from public life. His first attempt saw him joining forces with historianA. D. Xenopol, creatingLiga contra alcoolismului ("The League AgainstAlcoholism") and its magazine,Biblioteca Ligii contra alcoolismului. The scope of this movement went well beyond fighting addiction: Cuza and Xenopol saw the root of this social evil with Jewishentrepreneurs of the rural sphere. The League claimed that Jews were encouraging Romanian peasants to drink, in order to ensure acaptive market, and even to benefit from their very ruin (by having them sign off assets in order to feed their habit). The prejudice had acquired a tradition by the turn of the century – however, such attitudes ignored the fact that few other employments were left open for Jews, who were awarded full citizenship only after 1923.
In 1901, Cuza became a professor at theUniversity of Iași. Since his previous initiative had died out, he associated withNicolae Iorga: after a period of publishing articles in the latter'sNeamul Românesc, he joined Iorga in the creation of theDemocratic Nationalist Party (1910). In 1912, he became the editor of the Party official voice, theUnirea newspaper. Cuza showed himself in favor of replacing the restrictive framework of the Romanian state by adoptinguniversal male suffrage, and proposed aland reform – in which he saw an end toleasehold estates, of which Jews would have taken an undeserved profit. The latter goal brought Cuza into an alliance with GeneralAlexandru Averescu'sPeople's League, apopulist movement of immense, albeit brief popularity (he himself wrote down the League's founding document).
He broke off with Iorga and founded the more radical National Christian Union in 1922 (the new Party found inspiration inFascism and theBlackshirts, but was notparamilitary itself). It used theswastika as its symbol – one already connected to Anti-Semitic movements inGermany, and made himself known by supporting aJewish quota inhigher education (a demand which created a standoff with the government during anationalist students'strike in 1923).[citation needed]
From 1921, the swastika became the distinctive symbol of Cuza's movement, appearing in its publications, booklets and electoral programs. Cuza claimed priority and a purely Romanian character for this symbol, without in any way referring to the circulation of the swastika in Germany.[9]: 27
Theswastika is linked to thecult of the sun. It appears in the countries inhabited by thePelasgic race, which we find from the very beginning in our lands. In general, the swastika is the distinctive sign of theAryan race, signs were found on our soil... Being here since ancient times, the swastika therefore is, in the first place, ours, Romanian by its descent from theThracian Aryans... The swastika is our national emblem. Thecross is the emblem of our faith, just as it is with all Christian peoples. It is only together that the Swastika and the Cross display our entire being, our body and soul. We are Aryans and Christians.[10]: 33–34
Cuza's movement took shape in the same year, when it transformed into the "violently antisemitic"[11]National-Christian Defense League with the help of youngCorneliu Zelea Codreanu (already a good friend of Cuza's). The purpose of the National Christian Defense League was "to fight with all legal means in order to support economic, political and social interests against the Jews".[8] Cuza was fiercely opposed to the Minorities Treaty which finally forced Romania to grant citizenship to the Jews in 1923. It was after 1923 that Cuza abandoned his support for universal manhood suffrage as he stated that allowing Jews the right to vote was unacceptable.[8] Cuza stated that the solution to the "Jewish Question" was to "remove them from the country, after a transitional stage during which their influence on Romanian life would be eliminated".[8] The steps Cuza advocated were in the "transitional stage" prior to expulsion were disemancipation, forbidding Jews to work in the public sector, separate schools for Jewish children and forbidding all Jews to live in the countryside.[8] Unlike Codreanu, Cuza rejected violence and wanted to use only legal means. Cuza's refusal to turn the movement into amilitia alienated Codreanu: in late 1927, after several attempts at imposing his line, Codreanu left in order to found the movement that would become known as theIron Guard. Cuza's "Christian racist" antisemitism 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.[12] 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.[12] 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 withOctavian Goga'sNational Agrarian Party, forming the newNational Christian Party.[citation needed] In 1936, Cuza was elected a titular member of theRomanian Academy.[13] After theelections of 1937, the intervention ofKingCarol II (a Fascist sympathizer who was however wary of the Iron Guard) brought the National Christians to government, with Goga asPrime Minister and Cuza asminister of state. Alongside the overt persecution of Jews, the government adoptedCorporatism. In a paradoxical turn, Cuza agreed to have the Party turn towards paramilitary activism: his government created its answer to the armed Iron Guard, theLăncieri ("Lance-bearers").[citation needed]
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 anational 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.[citation needed]
A. C. Cuza and his son, Gheorghe A. Cuza, endorsed theWorld War IIGerman war effort.[14]
...de un grec (Iorga), de un armeano-grec (A. C. Cuza)
A.C. Cuza era xenofob, dar franţuzit, antisemit furibund, dar politicos, în particular, cu evreii, şi de un naţionalism delirant care îi atrăgea multe simpatii, deşi el era, la origini, mai mult grec-armean decât român.
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