Rudolf Maister is one of the people in Slovenian history whose life and work are inseparably linked to the national and political emancipation of the Slovenian nation, Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Friday in Maribor.
Jansa, speaking at the central ceremony marking Rudolf Maister Day - the first time the national holiday has been celebrated to remember the World War I Slovenian colonel - said that Maister's legacy is a secured northeastern border.
Maister in effect preserved the future of Slovenia, as without his operation, Slovenia would have lost the regions of Stajersko (NE) and Korosko (N/NE), Jansa claimed. Jansa added that without those two regions, Prekmurje (NE) would have probably also been lost for Slovenia, as it would have not been connected to the rest of Slovenia.
According to Jansa, Maister showed that despite difficult circumstances, Slovenians can draw on the nation's inner power and will. "With a rapid and determined operation, he saved Maribor and kept Stajersko in Slovenia's hands," he added.
With this Maister lit a beacon that showed the way for Slovenian fighters in the area during WWII and inspired the brave resistance by Slovenian police and national guard forces during the war for independence in 1991, Jansa said.
Rudolf Maister (1874-1934) was a Slovenian colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army. In November 1918, when the Maribor city council declared Maribor a part of Austria, he immediately formed Slovenian military units that succeeded in returning territories along what is now mainly the border between Slovenia and Austria to Slovenian control.
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