Milan Rastislav Štefánik

Who is Milan Rastislav Štefánik?

Milan Rastislav Štefánik was a Slovak astronomer, diplomat, and general who became one of the founding figures of the independent state of Czechoslovakia. Born in Košariská in the Kingdom of Hungary, the son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied philosophy and astronomy in Prague before moving to Paris, where he joined the astronomical observatory at Meudon and took part in scientific expeditions to Africa, South America, and the Pacific, becoming known for his research on solar eclipses and the spectral analysis of the sun's corona. After the outbreak of the First World War he became a naturalized French citizen and joined the French army, rising to the rank of brigadier general. Working alongside Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, he helped organize the Czechoslovak Legions, fighting units recruited from prisoners of war and emigrants that campaigned abroad for an independent Czechoslovak state, and he undertook demanding diplomatic missions to Russia, the United States, and Italy to secure Allied support for that cause. When Czechoslovakia was proclaimed in October 1918, Štefánik became its first Minister of War. He died in May 1919 when the airplane bringing him home crashed near Bratislava, and he is remembered today as one of the three co-founders of Czechoslovakia and a Slovak national hero, commemorated on currency, monuments, and Bratislava's international airport.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Milan Štefánik" · Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, biographical archive · 1914-1918-Online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War, "Štefánik, Milan Rastislav"