"Maister made decisive changes to the history 90 years ago," Kavcic said in the opening speech, stressing that Maister's personality reflected his profoundity and swift military decision-making.
In the name of higher political interests, politicians up until Slovenia's independence were trying to diminish the significance of the action of Maister and his fighters, Kavcic stressed at the ceremony attended also by President Danilo Tuerk and Prime Minister Borut Pahor.
"But when 23 November became a holiday [in September 2005], we gave the much-deserved recognition to the decisive events at the end of World War I. Maister and his fighters changed with their valour and their selfless love for the Slovenian land people the course of history which had until then been guided by large powers with no concern for the fate of small nations," Kavcic stressed.
It is indisputable that Maister on 23 November 1918 assumed military command of Maribor (NE), opening the opportunity for securing Slovenia's norther border, gaining a part of Korosko and reuniting the region of Prekmurje with Slovenia. All this inspired a new national home and bolstered Slovenian self-confidence, Kavcic stressed.
Laying a wreath at Maister's statue in Ljubljana earlier today was Defence Minister Ljubica Jelusic, who said that Maister was one of the giants of Slovenian history, his deeds being valued even more today, in an independent Slovenia.
The victories of the general and his fighters failed to be echoed in later political decisions of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (later to become Yugoslavia), which was not able to realise the ideals of that times, Jelusic said, adding that that was how Slovenians acted on several occasions in the past.
"Today, we live in a sovereign and independent state. What we have now we achieved with determination, courage and the unstoppable desire to become masters of our own land, and is what Maister strived for many years ago," she said.
"The values and enthusiasm of Maister and his fighters serve as a guide also for soldiers of the Slovenian Armed Forces today," she added.
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.
