Dan Rudolfa Maistra
Today Slovenia honors Rudolf Maister, best known as the defender of Maribor. As the first world war wound down, Maister was in command of the headquarters of the region around that city, in what is now the eastern part of Slovenia. As the eventual victors prepared to redraw the map of Europe, Maister gathered around four thousand soldiers and disarmed the German forces occupying Maribor. He then moved to take territory north of the city to establish the northern border with Austria, later ratified by the treaty of Saint Germain. Maister’s actions were instrumental in defining the borders of what would become the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1918, Yugoslavia in 1929, and finally, in 1991, the Republic of Slovenia. Without Maister’s action Štajersko and Koroško would almost certainly have been granted to Austria; without those two regions Prekmurje, Slovenia’s easternmost province, also probably would have been lost, as it would have found itself cut off from the rest of Slovenia. (Source)
Maister is honored as a patriot, and the portrait above is a common fixture in offices throughout the Ministry of Defence. In addition to his fame as a soldier, Maister was also known as a poet, which is somewhat typical.
Happy Rudolf Maister Day!
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Maister Day, and I live where the flavor is: in Maister Country. Still, anyone as lusciously mustachioed as he is deserves a holiday, or two.
One thing that Slovenes rarely talk (or even know) about is Maister’s massacre of a peace delegation in Maribor, the so-called Marburger Bloody Sunday. Not exactly his finest hour. But it certainly worked.
Comment by Michael M. — Thursday 23 November 06 @ 14.59 MST+2.00
Thanks for adding that bit of perspective, Michael. Interesting the things we do and do not choose to remember.
Lusciously mustachioed is one of my favorite collocations ever. I can’t WAIT til the Google hits start rolling in…
Comment by sgazzetti — Thursday 23 November 06 @ 16.03 MST+2.00