Rudolf Maister was a
Slovenian[?] colonel in
Austro-Hungarian army. In
1918, in the finishing days of
World War I, he organized local volunteers and took control of the city of
Maribor and the surrounding region of Lower
Styria, thus securing it for the newly formed
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.
He was also an accomplished poet. His campaigners for the so called northern border are known as Maister's fighters (Slovenian Maistrovi borci).