The year 2024 was declared the Year of General Rudolf Maister by the Government on the initiative of the Ministry of Defence. General and poet Rudolf Maister Vojanov, defender of Slovenia's northern border, Slovenian patriot, military commander, strategist and poet, was born on 29 March 1874 in Kamnik and died on 26 July 1934 in Unec near Rakek. The year 2024 thus marks the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 90th anniversary of his death.
Establishing the first regular Slovenian army
At the end of the First World War, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, General Maister and his fighters brought a large part of the Slovene ethnic and linguistic area of Styria and Carinthia under Slovene or Yugoslav administration. He was also a poet, painter and a great lover of books.
Maister not only rejected the German municipal council's attempt to annex Maribor and its surroundings to German Austria, but also took control of the city and the whole of Lower Styria by his own hand. At the same time, he declared mobilisation, thus establishing the first regular Slovenian army, and without Maister, Slovenia's northern border would not be where it is.
General Maistro's military and political achievements directly justify an independent Slovenian state, as without his courageous decisions, the Slovenes could have been left without Styria after the First World War.
Rudolf Maestro Day, 23 November, has been a Slovenian public holiday since 2005.
As Prime Minister Robert Golob wrote in his message, there are moments in history when what was previously unthinkable suddenly becomes inevitable. This was the case with the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War, when new states began to emerge from the ruins of the former Habsburg Empire. Their borders, however, were not defined. They had yet to be chosen, he pointed out.
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Maister not only rejected the German municipal council's attempt to annex Maribor and its surroundings to German Austria, but also took control of the city and the whole of Lower Styria by his own hand. Photo: Tinkara Zupan/STA
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The municipality of Kamnik, where General Rudolf Maister was born, is organising almost 40 events during the Year of Maister. Photo: Domen Groegl/STA
"Fortunately, in those crucial days, there was a conscious Slovenian officer from Kamnik in the command of the military barracks in Meli," Golob pointed out. Maister not only rejected the German municipal council's attempt to annex Maribor and its surroundings to German Austria, but also took control of the city and the whole of Lower Styria by his own hand. At the same time, he declared mobilisation, thus establishing the first regular Slovenian army.
He pointed out that there are many soldiers and many poets in the world, but few soldiers who are also poets, as Maister was. "But he was so much more. Just as he could twist a pen under the name of Vojanov, he could also swing a sword. He was therefore not only a man of words, but above all a man of action. Without him, our northern border would not be where it is - if at all," says Golob.
Date: 14. February 2024
Time to read: 2 min
