Domoljubje in Slovenska vojska

Abstract

PATRIOTISM AND THE SLOVENIAN ARMY

On the basis of the study of archive sources and literature the author analyses the decisive measures taken by General Maister and his fighters, ensuring that at the end of World War I and immediately after it units were established which may have been similar to the pre-war units in terms of the formation, but were nevertheless completely different, especially in terms of the national structures and chains of command. These units had a significant effect on the formation of the northern border of the newly-created state. The author associates these events from almost a century ago with the formation of the armed forces and military activities during the Slovenian Independence War, when the Slovenian Territorial Defence was transformed from a second-class reserve army, similarly as »Maister's Army« in 1918, into a modern defence force and opposed the attackers confidently and completely equally in cooperation with the Slovenian militia, civil protection and with the support of the population, thus protecting the establishment of the Slovenian state and defending its independence. Both of these armies represent the patriotic imperative for the operations of the Slovenian Army today.