[AlvinKarpis]

Ryszard Siwiec was the first person to commit suicide by self-immolation in protest against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Siwiec set himself ablaze in Warsaw during a national harvest festival on 8 September 1968 at the Dziesięciolecia Stadium, and died in hospital four days later. His act was witnessed by nearly 100,000 spectators, including the national leadership and foreign diplomats who had been invited to the festival intended as a vast propaganda spectacle. He retained consciousness after the flames had been extinguished and film footage of the incident shows him making statements before he is taken away.

A father of five from Przemyśl, Siwiec planned his self-immolation in advance, leaving written and tape-recorded statements explaining his revulsion at both the Warsaw Pact invasion and communist Poland's participation in it. His death foreshadowed the famous self-immolation of Jan Palach in Prague four months later. It has not been revealed whether Palach knew about Siwiec's act of protest, as the Polish communist authorities vigorously suppressed any information about it, stating only that Siwiec was "suffering from mental illness". Although his act was captured by a motion picture camera, newsreels of the festival omitted any mention of the incident. Although a number of Czechoslovaks attended the festival, Siwiec's death became widely known in Czechoslovakia only after the news of it was broadcast on Radio Free Europe two months after Palach's death.

When ever I see a new event posted on DR I think back to the vintage pics/videos in my collection

I love history, and there are so many historic vintage deaths that are only known about by people like myself who have a passion for the things of yesteryear

I love sharing history, I hope most members enjoy the lesson

[Rusty666]

FIRE!!!!!

[wafga]

great post!

[kellyhound]

Hard to imagine setting yourself on fire (as a protest)

[Sharon]

It's tragic that his protest probably solved nothing and left his family devastated

[LadyCPlum]

Welcome to the Prague Spring.

[khathryn]

Siwiec: Well I'll show you!!!

Gov't: You'll show us that you're an idiot that we're glad to be rid of?

[DaDrizzle416]

Originally Posted by Sharon. ↗

It's tragic that his protest probably solved nothing and left his family devastated

Bingo!

[AlvinKarpis]

Originally Posted by Sharon. ↗

It's tragic that his protest probably solved nothing and left his family devastated

I agree

[gimlet]

That is one tough motherfucking pollack!

Fully on fire, fights of his rescuers than stands and gives an oratory with massive burns all over his body. Makes the two tibetans look like amateurs.

If all the pollacks were this tough, they could have fought off the germans and russians, or died trying in the process (which they did anyway).