Milan Rastislav Štefánik was born on July 21st, 1880 in Košariská and tragically died in a plane crash on May 4th, 1919 in Ivanka pri Dunaji.

Slovak astronomer and scientist, politician and diplomat, air pilot, general of the French army - such was the pilgrimage of an active but modest young man.

We perceive Štefánik as a personality whose significance does not lie only in the decisive shares in the establishment of the first free common state of the Czechs and Slovaks. He is also the first of his nation to have influenced European politics through admirable diplomacy.

With thoughts, opinions and actions, we can perceive him as the first "European" today. He assumed that there would be a situation he called "Europeanization," which was supposed to represent the harmony of the peoples of Europe. We need to understand its timelessness and still subscribe to Štefánik's European idea today.

Štefánik's self-sacrifice on behalf of the nation, the moral purity of his intentions and means in overcoming obstacles must be emphasized in particular. He was a strong personality, extraordinarily suggestive, deeply believing, longing for truth and knowledge.

He summed up his ethical moral credo and love for his nation into three words: "Believe - Love - Work" and he really lived that way. In this is the topicality of the legacy and the greatness of General Milan Rastislav Stefanik.

Source:
Civic Association - Fellowship of Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Brezová pod Bradlom