Slovakia 1939 – Milan Stefánik
Milan Rastislav Stefánik (1880-1919)
is probably best known as one of the founders of
Czechoslovakia, but in his early career he was an astronomer.
He worked at Meudon Observatory near Paris from 1905 to 1907,
during which time he led an expedition to make solar
observations from the top of Mont Blanc. In 1910 he observed
Halley’s Comet from Tahiti and the following year went to
Australia to observe a solar eclipse. In 1912 he took French
nationality and during World War I helped organize the
Czechoslovak forces which fought with Britain and France. His
diplomatic efforts after the war are credited with establishing
an independent Czechoslovakia.
In 1919 Stefánik was killed in a
plane crash outside the Slovak capital Bratislava. His
mausoleum, built on the site, is shown on this set of stamps
produced in 1939 to commemorate the 20th anniversaryof his
death. He wears the uniform of a French army general, while the
stars and comet convey his lifelong interest in astronomy and,
presumably, are meant to remind us of his observations of
Halley’s Comet.
Before the stamps could be issued, Slovakia
came under German domination. Unsurprisingly, the Germans were
unwilling to glorify a man who had led opposition to them in
World War I, so the stamps remained unreleased. They have no
Stanley Gibbons catalogue number, although there is a gap in
Gibbons’ Slovakia numbering system between 35a and 40
which would accommodate them. Were the numbers once assigned
and then withdrawn? Incidentally, all four stamps are
reproduced here to the same scale – the 2 Ks stamp really
was larger than the rest of the set.
Czechoslovakia issued stamps depicting
Stefánik in 1935, but they had no astronomical content
and so are not included here.
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