Word: palach
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...suicide was 21-year-old Ian Palach, a quiet, bookish philosophy major at Charles University. Entering Wenceslas Square in the bustle of mid-afternoon traffic, Palach carefully removed his overcoat, poured a small can of gasoline over himself and struck a match. Instantly, to the horror of several dozen passersby, he turned into a human torch. Despite a bus dispatcher's frantic effort to smother the flames with his overcoat, Palach's body was ravaged. He died three days later...
Appalled Reaction. The purpose of Palach's self-immolation was contained in a note found in his overcoat pocket. To rescue Czechoslovakia from the "edge of hopelessness," he had written, a group of volunteers had decided to burn themselves, one by one, as a protest. Palach made two demands of the government: an end to censorship and the prohibition of the Soviets' occupation newspaper, Zprávy. Considering the finality of his act, they were remarkably modest requests. The note was signed, "Torch...
...regime. Shortly after the Stalinist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, the Communists announced that Wartime Leader Jan Masaryk, son of Tomás, had jumped out of a window-a claim that seemed credible to many Czechoslovaks despite evidence that he was pushed. Many of Palach's mourners compared him to Jan Hus, the 15th century martyr who chose death at the stake rather than recant his religious views...