Disciples of Italian Authoritarianism

In the interwar era, numerous Romanian Great War veterans sought to undermine their country’s parliamentary institutions. Importantly, the March on Rome acted as a crucial model for these anti-democratic activists. This chapter investigates the ways the Blackshirts’ takeover of the Italian state came to influence Romanian former soldiers. First of all, it surveys how transnational returnees’ networks and forums majorly helped extremist Romanian ex-combatants study the March on Rome, providing them with propaganda items from Mussolini’s regime. Additionally, it points out that the March, acting as an ideological and organisational resource, informed the political discourses and militant activities of several movements and parties – including the fascist Legion of the Archangel Michael and the moderate People’s Party – thereby contributing to the delegitimisation of democracy and the advent of King Carol II’s dictatorship. Ultimately, this investigation underscores that even ex-militaries living in polities that had emerged victorious and stable from the first global conflict tended to align with subversive organisations, in considerable numbers. Additionally, it shows that fascist ideas and tactics circulating at the transnational level tended to influence both far-right and more mainstream political actors.