The National Legionary State (Romanian: Statul Național Legionar) was a totalitarian fascist regime which governed Romania for five months, from 14 September 1940 until its official dissolution on 14 February 1941.

The regime was led by General Ion Antonescu in partnership with the Iron Guard, the Romanian fascist, ultra-nationalist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic organization.

Though the Iron Guard had been in the Romanian Government since 28 June 1940, on 14 September it achieved dominance, leading to the proclamation of the National Legionary State.

The already harsh anti-Semitic legislation was expanded, included the expropriation of Jewish-owned rural property on 4 October, followed by forests on 17 November, and finally by river transport on 4 December.

However, this political arrangement displeased the King Carol II, who dismissed Goga on 11 February and replaced him with Patriarch Miron Cristea.

[2][3][4] Between 28 June and 4 July 1940 Horia Sima, the nominal leader of the Iron Guard after the death of Codreanu, served as Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Education.

The Iron Guard was brought into the Ion Gigurtu's cabinet, which took power on 4 July 1940, after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.

It had the same territory as modern day Romania, with the exception of Northern Transylvania, which had been ceded to Hungary in the aftermath of the Second Vienna Award.

The first act of the new king was to grant General Ion Antonescu unlimited power as Conducător (leader) of Romania, relegating himself to a ceremonial role.

[11] To maintain his grip at the helm of the country, while at the same time conceding the leading role to the Iron Guard, Antonescu had King Michael proclaim Romania a National Legionary State on 14 September.

[15] After the National Legionary State was proclaimed in 14 September, the Legion became the ruling party but had to share executive power with the Army.

Exhumation, public burial and rehabilitation of Legionary "martyrs" was retrospectively regarded by Sima as the most important task justifying the Legion's accession to power.

A young Emil Cioran in his twenties strongly endorsed Codreanu's cult: "With the exception of Jesus, no other dead being has been so present among the living.

[16] The reburial of Codreanu's body took place on 30 November, in attendance was Antonescu, Sima, von Schirach, Bohle and 100,000 Iron Guardists.

Despite the mounting tension, the two parties achieved a truce for the moment, which allowed a Legionary to keep the post of Bucharest Police Chief but provided for the public condemnation of the Jilava murders.

[1] On 10 November 1940, the National Legionary State faced a massive earthquake (the strongest one recorded in the 20th century in Romania), which destroyed 65,000 homes.

This unilateral German action, carried out without consulting Benito Mussolini (Hitler's Axis ally and leader of Fascist Italy), prompted the latter to launch an invasion of Greece.

The ensuing Greco-Italian War resulted in a military blunder, as the Greeks counter-attacked and occupied parts of Italian-ruled Albania for half a year.

[22] The first German troops arrived in Romania on 10 October, partly as a response to Antonescu's request for military assistance, in addition to their main goal of defending the Romanian oil fields.

According to the convention, the Romanian state received the real estate previously possessed by the repatriated Germans in exchange for paying compensation to the Reich.

On 22 January, at the height of the Rebellion, the Iron Guard carried out the ritual murder of 200[verification needed] Jews at the Bucharest slaughterhouse, while the Guardists were singing Christian hymns, "an act of ferocity perhaps unique in the history of the Holocaust".

The suppression of the Rebellion also provided some data on the military equipment used by the Iron Guard, amounting to 5,000 firearms (revolvers, rifles and machine guns) and numerous grenades in Bucharest alone.

Over 9,000 people implicated in the Legionary Rebellion were subsequently arrested, of which almost 2,000 (1,842, to be exact) were sentenced to various terms, ranging from a few months to life in prison.