Milan Rastislav Štefánik

thumb|upright|Štefánik's statue on [[Prague's Petřín]]

thumb|upright|Identical statue atop war memorial in Paulhan, France

thumb|upright|Statue in [[Bratislava]]

Milan Rastislav Štefánik (; 21 July 1880 – 4 May 1919) was a Slovak politician, diplomat, aviator and astronomer. During World War I, he served at the same time as a general in the French Army and as Minister of War for Czechoslovakia. As one of the leading members of the Czechoslovak National Council (the resistance government), he contributed decisively to the cause of Czechoslovak sovereignty, since the status of Czech- and Slovak-populated territories was one of those in question until shortly before the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918. His personal motto was "To Believe, To Love, To Work" (Slovak: Veriť, milovať, pracovať).

Background

Štefánik was born in Kosaras, Nyitra County, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (now Košariská, Slovakia), on 21 July 1880. He had 11 brothers and sisters, two of whom died at a young age. His father, Pavol Štefánik, was a local Lutheran pastor, and his mother was Albertína Jurenková. He attended schools in Bratislava, Sopron and Szarvas. The Prague years had a great impact on Štefánik because he met many important personalities there. The philosophy lectures were given by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the future first president of Czechoslovakia, who inspired Štefánik with the idea of co-operation between the Czechs and the Slovaks. Furthermore, Štefánik very actively participated in the work of the Slovak student association, Detvan, (and within Detvan, the so-called Hlasists group); he became acquainted with Vavro Šrobár. His studies were financed largely by Czech associations, including Českoslovanská jednota (Czechoslavic Unity) and Radhošť since he could not afford them himself. In Prague, he wrote political and artistic texts in which he tried to inform the Czechs of the disastrous situation of the Slovaks at that time. He graduated in 1904 with a doctorate in philosophy and with knowledge of astronomy: his thesis is about a star that was discovered in the Cassiopeia constellation in 1572.

thumb|Bust of Milan Rastislav Štefánik at Hvezdár in Passa Quatro, MG, Brazil

Štefánik worked in astrophysics and solar physics, and became well known for his spectral analysis of the Sun's corona. He was involved in perfecting spectrography and has been considered a predecessor of Bernard Lyot. He also attempted to construct a machine for colour photography and cinematography, and he had his design patented in 1911.

Diplomacy

In addition to his scientific missions overseas, he also performed diplomatic tasks. He established contacts and friendships with leading scientific, artistic, political, diplomatic and business personalities. He participated in the establishment of business enterprises in France and other countries. His friends included physicist Henri Poincaré, Aymar de la Baume, Joseph Vallot (the richest man in France), architect Gustave Eiffel, Roland Bonaparte, Prime Minister Camille Chautemps, a French entrepreneur called Devousoud from Chamonix, American astronomer and admiral Simon Newcomb and American diplomat David Jayne Hill. In 1912, he received French citizenship, recognition and access to the French élite. On 20 October 1917, he was made a Grand Officier of the Legion of Honour. At the same time, he had some personal problems and a serious stomach illness, which did not get better even after two surgeries. Moreover, World War I had started in Europe.

World War I

thumb|Masaryk and Štefánik's monument in [[Košice, Slovakia.]]

Štefánik believed that defeat of Austria-Hungary and of Imperial Germany would offer an opportunity for the Slovaks and the Czechs to gain independence from Austria-Hungary after the war. Therefore, he joined the French army and trained to become an aviator. He flew MFS-54s for the 10th Army on the Artois and was later transferred to MFS 99 Squadron on the Serbian Front. In May 1915, he flew a total of 30 missions over enemy territory. The Serbian campaign was unsuccessful, but French aviator Louis Paulhan is credited with the world's first "medevac" by flying the seriously-ill Štefánik to safety.

Štefánik returned to Paris at the end of 1915, where he became acquainted with Edvard Beneš and renewed his association with his former professor, Masaryk. In 1916, the three men founded the Czechoslovak National Council, which led to the government of Czecho-Slovak resistance abroad and to the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. After 1917, he became vice president of the council. His diplomatic skills made Štefánik able to help arrange a meeting of Masaryk and Beneš to meet and obtain the support of some of the most important personalities of the Triple Entente. For example, he organized Masaryk's meeting with the French prime minister, Aristide Briand.

In 1916, Štefánik and the Czecho-Slovak resistance started to organise the Czechoslovak Legions to fight against Austria-Hungary and Germany. For this purpose, Štefánik, both as the Czechoslovak Minister of War and as a French general, went to Russia in February 1917 and then to the United States, in the meantime he met Thomas Garrigue Masaryk in London in April. He also organized legions in France and Italy. It was largely his personal diplomatic skills and contacts that made the Entente recognise the Czechoslovak National Council as a de facto government and the Czechoslovak Legions as allied forces in the summer and the autumn of 1918.

In May 1918 Štefánik went to Siberia to try to rally the Czechoslovak legions to a renewal of the Eastern Front, as Bolshevik Russia had withdrawn from the war by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and Austria-Hungary in March 1918. The Czechoslovak Legions rebelled against a subsequent Bolshevik order to disarm and so gained the support of the Allies. Štefánik then decided that his initial plan was no longer feasible.

Independence

thumb|right|[[Triumvirate#Czechoslovakia|Triumvirate of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Milan Rastislav Štefánik, and Edvard Beneš.]]

In January 1919 after the war ended, Štefánik went from Russia to France and Italy, where he organized the March retreat of Czechoslovak troops from Siberia to Paris. In addition, his diplomatic skills were needed to solve disagreements between the French and the Italian missions in Czechoslovakia. In April, he went from Paris to Rome to negotiate with the Italian Ministry of War, where he met with his fiancée, , for the last time. Then, he went to the main Italian military base in Padua, where he agreed with General Armando Diaz to dissolve the Italian military mission in Czechoslovakia.

Sources do not substantiate rumours of disagreements arising between Štefánik and Beneš or Masaryk, mainly on the position of Slovakia in Czechoslovakia. On the contrary, telegrams sent by Štefánik from Vladivostok to the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris on 7 December 1918 indicate that Štefánik had a good relationship with them. To Masaryk, he wrote "with my filial feelings and a great patriotic happiness, I salute you, venerable professor, as the first president of the Czechoslovak Republic".

To the President of the Council, Karel Kramář, he wrote,<blockquote>"Thank you, my dear president, for having chosen me as member of our National Ministry. You and your other co-workers can be sure of my loyalty and my fraternal feelings".</blockquote>To Beneš, he was even more friendly by using informal pronouns (he used formal pronouns to address Masaryk and Kramář):<blockquote>"Mr. Beneš, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague: "I hug you affectionately, my loyal and precious companion during the hours of anxiety". (The beginning can be translated instead as "I kiss you on the cheek".) </blockquote>The telegrams appear to show that Štefánik gave his full support to the union of the Czechs and Slovaks that was led by Masaryk.

Masaryk continued to accord Štefánik his full confidence to the last days of his life, as demonstrated by the challenging issue that Štefánik had to solve while he was Minister of War of the Czechoslovak Republic: disputes with the military missions of France and Italy on Czechoslovak territory, according to his telegram to Masaryk on 21 April 1919, only a few days before Štefánik died.

Death

thumb|[[Tomb of Milan Rastislav Štefánik|Štefánik's tomb]]

When Štefánik wanted to return home to see his family, he decided to fly from Campoformido, near Udine, Italy, and to use an Italian military plane, a Caproni Ca.3. On 4 May 1919, at around 11:00, his plane tried to land near Bratislava, a military conflict area between the First Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Hungarian Soviet Republic, but crashed near Ivanka pri Dunaji. Štefánik died, along with the rest of the crew (two Italian pilots, Colonel Giotto Mancinelli-Scotti and Sergeant Umberto Merlino, as well as a mechanic-radiotelegrapher, Gabriel Aggiusto).

At the time of the crash, Vavro Šrobár and his entire government had left Bratislava for Skalica, to plant trees as a memorial to the founding of the new Czechoslovak Republic. The Hungarian communists, in the middle of Bratislava's Franz Joseph Bridge,</blockquote>The paper also stated that the accident report from the Italian inquiry board was biased toward ruling out both human error by the Italian crew and manufacturing defects.

In 2019, Štefánik was selected as the "Greatest Slovak" in the Slovak version of the British programme 100 Greatest Britons.

In 2020, Slovak Matica created a film about Štefánik "Visionary of Slovak Freedom" with the subtitle "Štefánik and the Slovaks in the first foreign Czech-Slovak resistance".

In 1914, Štefánik was awarded the Chevalier rank of the French Legion of Honour, in 1917, he was awarded the Officier rank and finally in 1919 the Commandeur rank. Furthermore, in France, in 1915 he was awarded the Croix de guerre and Medal for the War Wounded. In Italy, he was awarded the War Merit Cross and the Officer rank of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. In Russia, he was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir, 4th class. Posthumously, he was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross 1918. In 2023, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Lion 1st class, by the Czech president Petr Pavel.

References

Richard McKim: "Milan Štefánik and the rotation period of Venus", Journal of the British Astronomical Association vol. 117, p. 7-8, 2007.
Kautský, Emil Karol: Kauza Štefánik - Legendy, fakty an otázniky okolo vzniku Česko - Slovenskej republiky. Matica Slovenská. Martin, 2004
Štvrtého mája – atentát na slovenského kráľa
M.R.. 1880 – 1919 at www.stefanik.net Milan Rastislav Štefánik museum
Milan-Rastislav-Stefanik-(1880–1919) at tfsimon.com
The Czech and Slovak Legion in Siberia, 1917–1922. McFarland Publishing, 2012
(in czech) – speech of E. Beneš on behalf of the 10th anniversary of death of Stefanik BENEŠ, Edvard. Štefánik a jeho odkaz : přednáška k desátému výročí jeho smrti. Praha : ČIN, 1929. 66 p. – available online at University Library in Bratislava Digital Library